Views on national standards probed in survey

Most principals and teachers either oppose or are very cautious about the idea of nationally-prescribed standards of achievement for students, according to a survey by the NZ Council for Educational Research (NZCER).

Primary principals were most strongly against the idea, with only 10 per cent in favour, and more than half against.

Many primary teachers were also opposed, though by a smaller majority (13 per cent in favour, and 32 per cent against).

The pattern was similar in secondary schools, but the proportion of principals who gave an unqualified no to the idea was smaller, and a quarter of secondary teachers were in favour of national standards.

About a third of board of trustees members questioned in the survey supported national standards. Other trustees were cautious and said their support would depend on how the standards were measured and how the information was used.

The NZCER report, Curriculum changes, priorities and issues, includes the views of principals, teachers and trustees on a wide range of issues. It combines data and analysis from two separate surveys, one conducted in primary schools in 2007, and the other in secondary schools in 2006.

The survey also asked parents what they thought about the information they received about their child’s progress. Two-thirds of parents of primary-aged children rated the information as very good, but 42 per cent wanted even more information.

The most common request (made by nearly three-quarters of these parents, or 37 per cent of all parents) was to know “how my child is achieving compared with others at the same year level.”

Other issues covered in the survey include information and communications technology (ICT) use, curriculum priorities for schools, and the factors constraining schools from innovation.

Findings included:

• Use of ICT in primary and secondary schools had increased considerably since 2003. Nevertheless, teachers expressed different views about the value of ICT in learning.

• Primary teachers agreed that their students’ use of ICT was helping their ICT skill development, and that it made learning more engaging/motivating. A majority felt ICT use was an essential and routine aspect of learning, yet nearly half said that ICT use in their classroom was occasional, and only for a specific project or purpose. A third of primary teachers said that student use of ICT did not happen, due to inadequate equipment.

• Compared with primary teachers, secondary teachers were generally less enthusiastic about student use of ICT. A lower proportion (68 per cent, compared with 81 per cent of primary teachers) said that it made learning more engaging or motivating, and 64 per cent said that their use of ICT was only occasional, compared with 44 per cent of primary teachers.

• On the whole, teachers were positive about new initiatives in their school, but only one in five felt that they had enough release time to plan and implement change.

• Primary and secondary principals identified a range of innovations they would have liked to introduce but felt unable to do so. The main constraints related to time, money, and staffing levels. Lack of staff expertise, commitment, and energy were also mentioned. For teachers, lack of time was the biggest barrier to curriculum change, followed by class size or diversity, and lack of teaching resources.