The linking of teachers' wages to the test results of their pupils in Australian schools has set alarm bells ringing for University of Otago Professional Education Services manager Darrell Latham.
Victoria's Education Minister Bronwyn Pike has announced results of Australia's national literacy and numeracy test (NAPLAN) would be part of the criteria to determine whether teachers were eligible for bonus payments of up to $7000.
The new teachers' reward scheme will be trialled in 25 public schools in 2010 and will use the national test results to help judge whether teachers deserve a bonus.
Dr Latham, a senior lecturer at the College of Education, said linking teachers' salaries to test results was "daft policy" and "doomed to fail".
It also signalled the direction New Zealand's education system could be headed, he said.
"This should set the alarm bells ringing for New Zealand teachers."
However, New Zealand Education Minister Anne Tolley said there was no intention to link teacher salaries with their pupils' results in New Zealand.
Dr Latham said New Zealand teachers should be concerned because it was "the thin edge of the wedge" and signalled potential future direction where standards were misused and related to teachers' salaries and bonus payments.
"At the end of the day, it is more about political expediency rather than what is good for the children.
When respected international researchers advise us that the national standards policy is flawed and the advice is dismissed, then we have a problem," he said.
"Given the overwhelming research evidence, Lester Flockton, senior research fellow at the University of Otago, is correct in his call [ODT, November 20] for the [New Zealand] Government to rethink its national standards proposal due for introduction next year."
Dr Latham said parents and the community were now much more informed about the national education standards debate, and he believed Mrs Tolley had seriously misjudged the mood of the country.
"It is misguided policy and will likely come back to bite her."
But Mrs Tolley said there was never an intention to use national standards in this manner.
"We made a deliberate decision not to introduce such a high stakes testing regime.
National standards are aimed at lifting achievement levels for students and identifying those children who need extra help."
