National Standards 2016: Retrospective Insights, Continuing Uncertainties and New Questions

Authors

  • Martin Thrupp Faculty of Education, University of Waikato

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/nzaroe.v22i0.4142

Keywords:

National Standards, New Zealand, primary assessment, policy origins, policy processes

Abstract

New Zealand’s National Standards policy has been deeply controversial in the education sector, especially amongst primary teachers and principals. This article provides a view of the National Standards from their introduction up until 2016, nearly a decade after they were first mooted. The issues covered: (i) offer retrospective insights, (ii) acknowledge continuing uncertainties, or (iii) ask questions that had become newly relevant by 2016. They include processes within the Ministry of Education, the role of advisory groups, the public release of National Standards data, and the origins and impact of the National Standards. They also include whether teachers and principals have been gradually won over to the National Standards, use of the National Standards in ‘social investment’, the Progress and Consistency Tool and possible wider political purposes of headline policies like the National Standards. A theme that connects the issues is concern about policy processes. The article concludes by calling for a more genuine commitment by Government to evidence-informed policy.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Martin Thrupp, Faculty of Education, University of Waikato

Martin Thrupp is Head of Te Whiringa School of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Waikato. His research interests are in education policy with a particular focus on the lived effects of policy across socially diverse and unequal communities. His most recent work involves a comparative study of privatisation of education in New Zealand, Sweden and Finland.

Downloads

Published

2017-12-19