National standards: school sample monitoring and evaluation project 2010-2014

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

The National Standards School Sample Monitoring and Evaluation Project describes and evaluates the implementation of National Standards in New Zealand schools from 2010 to 2014. This is the final report from the project, which has been operating since the standards were first introduced. This report summarises findings from all five years of the project, and describes results collected in 2014. Overall teacher judgments (OTJs) Considered together, this body of evidence strongly suggests that OTJs lack dependability, which is problematic as OTJs are a central element of the National Standards system. It should be noted that there is no suggestion that all OTJs are inaccurate, but evidence indicates that a reasonable proportion may be. While the trends described above support the view that OTJs lack dependability, it is unsurprising that these consistency issues are present, given the recentness of the initiative and the ongoing development of tools to support teachers to make judgments in relation to the National Standards. Reporting to parents, families, and whānau Findings indicate that increasing proportions of schools reported National Standards information to parents, families, and whānau from 2010 to 2014. The proportion of end-of-year reports that referred directly to the National Standards increased over time (from 79% in 2010 to 97% in 2014), although overall the proportion of reports that sufficiently described student achievement in relation to the National Standards did not increase substantially in this period (60% in 2010 and 65% in 2013). Small proportions of reports (up to 18%) included information about students' progress in relation to the National Standards in reading, writing, or mathematics from 2010 to 2014. Results suggest the clarity of National Standards reports has been reasonably consistent, although concerningly low, over the first five years of implementation, with 40 to 50% of reports rated as clear from 2010 to 2014. Student achievement targets Results indicate that the majority of schools used baseline data to inform their National Standards targets (over 90% from 2010 to 2014), and focused targets on students who were 'below' or 'well below' the standards (over 80% from 2010 to 2014). There was, however, a notable decrease in the proportion of schools that considered all year levels when setting targets (from 83% in 2012 to 70% in 2014). Results suggest that teaching interventions were delivered in a variety of ways. For example, in 2014 over 62% of principals reported that within the classroom, regular classroom teaching programmes were differentiated to meet students' learning needs (62% in reading, 76% in writing, 68% in mathematics). Principals noted that support external to the classroom programme was provided in 2014 both by qualified teachers (74% in reading, 57% in writing, 61% in mathematics) and teacher aides (41% in reading, 29% in writing and 32% in mathematics). National Standards achievement data, 2010 to 2014 Given the magnitude of the improvements in achievement that are suggested by the OTJ data, the evidence that suggests OTJs lack dependability, and evidence about patterns of student achievement in New Zealand from international studies, the OTJ data cannot be taken as evidence that student achievement is improving over time.