Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 10 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17169. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka)to the Minister of Education: Is she satisfied that no student will be worse off as a result of the establishment of the new category of Expert Teacher; if so why?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education):Yes; because supporting a culture of collaboration within and across schools will help raise achievement for all kids because expert teachers sharing what they know and how they work will mean that best practice can become common practice and because this Government is investing $359 million to create better career pathways and lift student achievement. But there is a lot more work to do with the sector working group.Chris Hipkins: What evidence did she rely on when determining that no student’s educational progress would be impacted by the removal of their regular classroom teacher for up to half the time?Hon HEKIA PARATA: A range of evidence most of it set out in the Best Evidence Synthesis but also McKinsey and Company Helen Timperley Michael Fullan and Viviane Robinson all of whom have talked about the need for a collaborative culture to be established. Most recently last year the OECD came and studied the professional learning communities and acknowledged that New Zealand was leading the community in this regard.Chris Hipkins: Why should students and their parents have confidence that the creation of expert teachers will result in a higher quality of education for them given that if they are fortunate enough to have a teacher who is deemed to be an expert they will be rewarded by having that teacher taken away for up to half the time?Hon HEKIA PARATA: That is not so. We already have the situation in New Zealand where expert classroom teachers share their expertise across the system between classrooms and across schools. Also in the package if I could refer the member to the actual detail in the Cabinet paper it makes clear that it also funds inquiry time it funds relief time and it funds collaborative practice all of which are characteristics of top-performing education systems—most particularly Singapore and Hong Kong which that member wrung his hands over last year when we were discussing Programme for International Student Assessment results. These two systems were second and third for all three areas so it made sense to go and have a look at what they are doing and they are doing a number of these things.Chris Hipkins: Who will the expert teachers be accountable to—the principal of the school they are employed at or the executive principal overseeing the group of schools they will be working in 2 days per week?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Subject again to the caveat that I have made several times that we are still working through the details on this with the working group the employment relationship will remain. It will be undisturbed between that teacher and their employing board. Accountabilities as they are now are different for different purposes. So for an achievement challenge that that school in which that expert teacher is employed has participated in agreeing to then it will be accountability for the achievement of that particular challenge.Mr SPEAKER: Supplementary question Chris Hipkins. [Interruption] Order! There were quite a number of complaints about the level of noise in the House yesterday through question time. I expect my office will be getting similar complaints today. I ask members to please cooperate and have a reasonable level of interjection.Chris Hipkins: Why is the Government’s goal not ensuring that all New Zealand students are taught by expert teachers given that it is limiting the number of the new rolls to around a thousand across the country or around 2 percent of the teaching workforce? Why do the 98 percent of other kids not get to have an expert teacher as well?Hon HEKIA PARATA: This is exactly what this initiative is aimed at: growing excellence across the system not uniformity as that member is probably interested in. In fact one of the pieces of research that I refer to is McKinsey and Company of 2009 which said that when a student is taught by an excellent teacher for 3 consecutive years it can make 53 percent difference. Professor Hanuschek from Stanford has also said that expert teaching over 4 consecutive years can eliminate all aspects of socio-economic difference. So what we are trying to do here—Chris Hipkins: So take the expert teachers away.Hon HEKIA PARATA: I know it is complicated; I do understand that. What we are trying to do here is build excellence across the system.Tim Macindoe: What reports has the Minister had on benefits of a collaborative education system beyond what she has already told us?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I have had many reports on this topic but I would like to quote one that caught my eye from last year: “The real challenge that we should be addressing is how we allow every New Zealand school to be a great school and how we support every teacher in every classroom to be an absolutely outstanding teacher. All of the research from New Zealand and internationally shows us that quality teaching is the biggest in-school influencer of student achievement. We could talk for hours about the out-of-school influences and there are many and I acknowledge all of those. But within the school quality teaching is the critical factor.” Who said this? It sounded so much like me that I thought it was me but it was Chris Hipkins on 29 May in his speech in Committee on the Education Amendment Bill.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: A point of order and I certainly hope it is a genuine point of order.Chris Hipkins: It is Mr Speaker. It was an excellent speech. I seek leave to table it.Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a practical point of order at all.