Headline: Only constant is Hekia’s waffle
There is about as much integrity in the National Standards data as there is in the senseless waffle Hekia Parata uses to justify it, says Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins.
“It’s now abundantly clear that National Standard results are neither national nor standard. There is no proper process in place to ensure that a student judged as meeting a standard wouldn’t get a different outcome if assessed by a different teacher at a different school. The data released today is therefore is completely useless,” Chris Hipkins says.
“Teachers need robust assessment tools to ensure they are equipped to make consistent judgements. News that the Ministry of Education has been tampering with assessment results, changing them without consulting schools and teachers, clearly shows that parents can have no confidence in the information they’re getting.
“This is a political exercise in statistical manipulation, rather than a genuine programme to lift student achievement.
“Parents deserve quality information about how their kids are doing, not a box-ticking exercise that doesn’t make the most of the information teachers have about students’ progress.
“National has its priorities in education all wrong. Teachers should be focused on ensuring students are achieving across the breadth and depth of the curriculum – not just on areas that are measured by National Standards,” Chris Hipkins says.
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