Maxim - National's Education Policy Good

4 April 2007

National's Education Policy Good But Could Do More

The National Party's latest education policy to introduce compulsory assessment for all primary school age children is on the right track, but it would be better if it made the asTTle programme, already used in approximately 80 percent of schools around New Zealand, compulsory.

"Good assessment should help teachers to know what their children can and cannot do, so that they can address the learning areas where children need to improve. Out of the many assessments now available to teachers, asTTle is the best one for judging how children should be progressing against the expectations for achievement at each level of the national curriculum," says Maxim Institute researcher, Steven Thomas.

"asTTle allows teachers to compare their pupils against national norms and similar schools, established through the 100,000 children asTTle has tested since its beginnings in late 2000. Further, it offers resources that are targeted at the needs identified by the test".

"The sooner we are able to discern the problems children are facing the sooner teachers can intervene to turn around the kids who are falling behind their peers. This is imperative, since according to international benchmarking tests, New Zealand has a wide gap between the highest and lowest achieving pupils," Steven Thomas says.

"asTTle gives teachers an effective tool to diagnose and monitor the pupils most at risk of failure. As a teacher initiated test, not a high-stakes national test, asTTle offers this power with the flexibility for teachers to be able to tailor the programme to their classrooms," says Steven Thomas.

"The major problem is that not all schools are using asTTle to its full extent," says Thomas.

"By making asTTle compulsory there would at last be a uniform report on pupil achievement that teachers could use in the classroom, and better information for parents and school leaders to know exactly how their children are doing relative to national expectations for pupil progress," says Steve Thomas.

Steven Thomas authored a report for Maxim Institute released in September 2005: The Parent Factor: Information for parents.

ENDS

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