'Myths' used to push standards plan

Despite a jovial atmosphere, grave concerns were aired during a public forum last night aimed at "dispelling seductive myths" and "correcting misleading information" surrounding national educational standards.

About 280 parents, teachers and board of trustees members attended the forum, run by the New Zealand Educational Institute at Macandrew Intermediate.

• School advisers in class

Several representatives from the education sector spoke about their concerns and University of Otago Educational Assessment Research Unit emeritus director Lester Flockton was the leading speaker at the forum.

His presentation, titled "National Standards: The Inconvenient Truth", was an analysis of what he called 10 "seductive myths" which the Government had used to sell National Standards to the country.

He dispelled the sales pitch, using the latest research and statistics.

In recent months, Education Minister Anne Tolley has said there had been overwhelming support from parents for National Standards.

However, Mr Flockton said it was a "far stretch" to suggest everyone who voted for National at the last election also voted for National Standards.

"Of the 3000 parents who chose to respond to ministry consultations on National Standards, 38% made negative comments and only 14% made positive comments.

"It is unlikely that the small percentage of parents who like National Standards include many of the parents of the 10% of children who struggle with learning."

The Government has often said almost one in five young New Zealanders was leaving school without the reading, writing and mathematics skills needed to succeed, which meant about 150,000 young people were being condemned to a life of unskilled work or welfare dependency.

National Standards was necessary for all children because of "a long tail" of underachievement, as shown in international surveys.

National Standards would raise achievement, the Government says.

Mr Flockton argued that results from international student achievement tests showed New Zealand pupils were in the company of the best in the world.

"About 10% of children struggle to achieve and most of these children experience considerable disadvantage in their life circumstances.

"Most developed countries have similar percentages and in those countries, their National Standards have failed to make a difference.

"Why have National Standards for every child, every year, when the majority of our children are doing very well in literacy and numeracy."

Mrs Tolley often said National Standards would help teachers to know which children were struggling.

But Mr Flockton said New Zealand schools already used a variety of assessment tools which showed which children were struggling.

"National Standards were never needed for this," he said.

The Government was also keen to implement standards because it believed parents were not getting clear information about their children's achievement.

But surveys cast doubt on this, Mr Flockton said.