Mallard Trevor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Mallard Trevor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:668;Page:14853] 
10. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: What evidence does she have as to the level of understanding of the Government’s national standards system in schools? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 A range of evidence is available to me as to the level of understanding of national standards. This includes Education Review Office data and results from the Ministry of Education’s monitoring and evaluation programme as well as anecdotal evidence from schools I have visited and people I have met. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Are her standards designed to provide detailed information to inform the quality of teaching on a daily basis? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: The national standards are designed to provide signposts—expectations of what children should have learnt and by when—to ensure that children make good progress towards the goal of National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It was a very specific question about whether the national standards are designed to provide information that would help teaching on a daily basis. The fact that they are designed to do something else might be taken as a no but I deliberately asked a very direct question in an attempt to have it addressed. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I hear what the member is saying—it was a very direct question. I think the Minister should try to answer that. I accept that she almost did in indicating what the standards are designed for but the question actually asked whether they were designed for that specific issue. It was a very direct question; I think it would be helpful if the Minister were to answer that. 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: As I said the standards are designed as a set of expectations of what a child should have learnt in reading writing and maths and by when. Teachers can use those to guide their teaching as they do currently and they can also use those during the teaching year as they assess—using either assessment tools or their own teacher judgment—the progress that a student is making. 
Allan Peachey 
: What evidence has the Minister seen of the level of understanding in the community about national standards? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I have had numerous emails about national standards from members of the community that show that they understand the standards including one from a board chair who said: “Since we have implemented the national standards our school community has been very happy with the new level of reporting and we have had overwhelming positive feedback. Please keep up the good work.” and this one from a parent: “We are thrilled with the new national standards and there are thousands of parents like us who fully support you and think you and the National-led Government are on the right track.” 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Is it the Minister’s hope or expectation that the quality of teaching will improve on a daily basis based on the information teachers get from national standards? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: The national standards are a set of expectations by which teachers can measure the progress of their students in reading writing and maths. Quality teaching methods will be used to lift achievement and to accelerate progress where it is needed but the standards do not provide that quality teaching. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Can a year 5 student achieve a year 6 standard in reading comprehension? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: I do not have the data in front of me. If the member cares to put that question in writing I am happy to provide him with an answer. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Was a backward-mapping exercise carried out to ensure that progress according to the standards leads to level 2 NCEA in year 12? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: It is my understanding that the technical experts who designed the standards which were based on the existing literacy progressions that were introduced under Minister Maharey as Minister of Education and the numeracy project which was introduced when the member who asked the question was Minister of Education used those and back-mapped from NCEA level 2 but that is just my advice. I did not design them. We used technical experts to design them.