10. Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) Link to this
to the Minister of Education
Was she correctly reported this morning as indicating flaws in her proposed national standards are being addressed; if so, what is the process she is using to address those flaws?
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) Link to this
The member must be suffering from a bit of jet lag. No.
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
Mr Speaker, are you going to deal with that, or not? [ Interruption]
Mr SPEAKERI am on my feet. We can see what happens when members are disorderly. I say to the Minister that that response was totally out of order, and it led to disorder. That will not be tolerated.
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
Is there one published expert or academic who agrees with her view on national standards, rather than with the views of Thrupp, Crooks, Flockton, and Hattie, who have today written an open letter to her; if so, who is that academic or expert?
Several academics have expressed support at various stages in the process. Several have been involved in their development.
Colin KingOver 4,000 principals, teachers, literacy and numeracy advisers, and other professionals attended meetings. There were 1,176 written responses from the sector, of which 490 came from groups representing, in total, 4,557 people. The education sector was also involved in an independent expert panel, which helped to develop the standards, and in the national standards reference group, which provided feedback on the draft standards.
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
If she disagrees with Thrupp, Crooks, Flockton, and Hattie, New Zealand’s four leading assessment academics, who have written to her stating inter alia that full implementation of the intended national standards system over the next 3 years is unlikely to be successful, will not achieve intended goals, and is likely to lead to dangerous side effects, why are they wrong?
I said this morning that the academics’ concerns are being addressed. For instance, the Ministry of Education is working on how schools can report on children’s progress and achievement in relation to the New Zealand curriculum. Professor John Hattie himself is participating in this work. I say to that member that parents want this proposal, and they want national standards—
I always get concerned when Ministers start with “I say to that member”, because it invariably means they are no longer answering the question. The Minister answered the question, and that is sufficient.
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I hate to disagree with the ruling you have just made as to whether the Minister has sufficiently answered the question, but I do not think she actually got to the question about the specifics of why she disagrees with those four experts.
The Minister did point out that she did not disagree totally with the experts, and that in fact one of the experts was involved in working on the scheme to address issues that were of concern. I believe that that was a perfectly fair answer to the question.
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
Was her reading of this picture book to a group of secondary school teachers designed to be evidence of her ability to meet literacy standards, and was she describing her position with the line about rats having a better life, or was she telling teachers that the final line, “You have to be happy with a lot less.”, applies to them?