NZ Principal Magazine Term 2 2012

June 2012 Volume 27, Number 2

raising mĀori achievement charter Schools | GIFTED KIDS | SUCCESSFUL PRINCIPALS

Editor Liz Hawes Executive Support Manager PO Box 25380 Wellington 6146 Ph: 04 471 2338 Fax: 04 471 2339 Email: esm@nzpf.ac.nz Editorial Board Paul Drummond, NZPF President Geoff Lovegrove, Lytton Street School (Feilding) Liz Hawes, Editor Advertising Robert Skeen, Sales & Marketing Manager For all advertising enquiries contact Komal Mathur, Michael Lynch, Steve Cornelius Cervin Media Ltd PO Box 68450, Newton, Auckland 1145 Ph: 09 360 8700 or Fax: 09 360 8701 Production Anna Egan-Reid, Katie Scott Note The articles in New Zealand Principal do not necessarily reflect the policy of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation. Readers are welcome to use or reprint material if proper acknowledgement is made.

CONTENTS

June 2012

2 EDITORIAL 3 PRESIDENT’S PEN Reflecting on reforms 5 charter schools: an investigation Ivan Snook 8 raising mĀori achievement The whānau approach 10 self-regulated learning skills – a pilot study Dr Lyn Bird 14 successful nz school principals Dr Darrell Latham 18 Principal(ly) Yours State-of-the-art schooling in a Wellington suburb 22 Going beyond the school gates for our gifted kids Joanne Bate

26 solutions to inequality in school Achievement John A Clark

30 School Lines Lester Flockton 31 Rural Ramblings Baabaara Ramsbottom

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Editorial Liz Hawes

Editor

Much is happening in education at a political level. Every day the media reveals another reason for the Minister to continue the government’s crusade of radical reform. A recent headline in the Dominion Post drew attention to some examples of school finances not being properly managed. Whether these examples represent tiny or larger transgressions from perfect practice, the story fuels the Minister’s desire for a review of the governance structures of schools.

This is not an isolated example. Over the past few years we have witnessed countless media stories giving support to educational reform. They have led to the justification for standardised assessment in the form of National Standards, discussions about merit pay, the introduction of public–private partnerships, governance review and now to US model charter schools. In this issue (pp. 5–7) Emeritus Professor Ivan Snook reports on a study he and others are undertaking on charter schools and concludes that they are unlikely to make a positive difference for New Zealand children.

If we look at these reforms collectively, as Paul Drummond does in his president’s column, we can see how they fit together.

They all draw breath from the same source. The source is a particular world view and is common in conservative thinking circles. It is a thinking that views education first as a product.

From this point of view you start by defining the product you want. You identify the needs, make the plans to produce the product, implement the plans and then check whether what has been produced matches the original objectives. Such productbased approaches involve working on, not with, people. The focus is on changing individuals in ways set out by others.

It entails teaching skills and attributes which employers and politicians consider desirable. Such approaches are not driven by dialogue. Anti-conversational and anti-democratic tendencies mean that product approaches are not compatible with much that educators, parents and children currently value about educational experiences.

It is easy to translate the current education reforms into this product approach. First you define the product you want. In this case the Minister has announced she wants 85 per cent of students gaining NCEA Level 2 in five years’ time. She has made it clear that NCEA Level 2 is the most basic qualification that employers require. Next is to identify what needs to be done in order to achieve the target. In this case it is to reduce underachievement by introducing National Standards at primary and middle school. Next is to devise a plan and implement it. This involves producing the National Standards and implementing them in all primary-level schools, identifying opportunities to trial some charter schools, incentivising teachers through performance pay, producing school league tables to provide competition between 2

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schools to incentivise higher performance, encouraging a culture of competition within and between schools to lift performance.

The next step is to check whether what is produced matches the original objectives. That is a simple calculation of whether there are 85 per cent of students with NCEA Level 2 in 5 years’ time.

Under a product approach, where the education output has the specific purpose of placing more people in employment – that is assuming that there are jobs for all these NCEA Level 2 graduates – it is not unreasonable to think that you could calculate how this output might affect the GDP of the country.

We can be certain that in New Zealand, there is such an intention because the Secretary to the Treasury has already calculated a financial return for the country’s future educational investment.

Mr Makhlouf predicts that by lifting the student achievement rate 25 PISA points, the GDP of our country can be lifted by 3–15 per cent by 2070. Whilst Mr Makhlouf ’s prediction has received a high degree of criticism, including that he fails to take account of other factors that might influence GDP such as world wars, economic recessions or natural disasters, nevertheless, the product approach does attract such predictions. It invites a simple ‘cause and effect’ argument, only in education things are far from that simple. Dr John Clark gives Mr Makhlouf ’s predictions a thorough critique on p. 26 of this issue.

The product approach is a simple process and works very well if you are producing, for example, a car. First, you can produce the car under controlled conditions. Second, you want every car coming out looking the same. You want all the component parts the same and the way the bits fit together will not vary. You can easily measure progress and even incentivise your work force to work faster, longer hours or more efficiently by offering staff bonuses. Finally, you can easily check whether you have reached your stated target of increasing the number of cars coming out of your factory by a simple comparative calculation. It is accountability made easy.

Educating children is not, however, like producing cars.

Children do not arrive at school like car parts arriving in a factory. Not only are they all individuals, the variation amongst them spans the entire spectrum of ability. They arrive from vastly different family backgrounds. Their family resources are all different too and each of them arrives with a particular set of attitudes and cultural knowledge which may or may not sit comfortably with the values of the school. Their expectations and the expectations of their families are different, so to set an end target and expect that there is national consensus about that target is misguided thinking.

The product approach is simply the wrong model. Keep it for the cars, not for educating kids.

President’s Pen Reflecting on Reforms Paul Drummond

National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation

Since I have been elected NZPF President, I have frequently what makes New Zealand strong. We have frequently been found myself applauding our New Zealand Curriculum (NZC), held up as world leaders in educational innovation and change. as the crowning jewel of our modern education system. I have We developed a comprehensive programme for children with never thought that placing the NZC centre stage was a mistake reading difficulties (reading recovery), which quickly gained and I know many of you attribute our internationally high traction throughout the world. We invented self-managed charter achievement rankings to the richness of our curriculum and schools for our public schooling system, a first in the world. We our delivery of it. allow children to start school on their fifth birthday, irrespective As professionals, we know that readiness to learn comes well of when in the year that occurs, rather than have to fit into an before any learning takes place. The way we prepare children arbitrary cohort system like every other country in the world. for learning is to first make them feel comfortable in the school As New Zealanders, we value the right to dare to be different. environment then we motivate them by giving them a reason to We do not unify with clones. want to learn. We do this through a variety of channels, and the Many of our colleagues are thus uneasy about the set of reforms most important of all is our broad curriculum. Some kids arrive that have been introduced since 2008. This is not surprising, since at school feeling quite at home in their new school environment. most of the reforms require ‘uniformity’ or ‘standardisation’ and School is a good match with their pre-school expectations and central control, the most efficient extinguishers of innovation, they are already motivated to learn. Others don’t. That’s where daring and change. For example, with their narrow focus on alternative pathways come in. We use culture, the arts, sports, just three subjects, the National Standards regime threatens to science, gardening, social science, and many other topic areas to weaken the power of our star curriculum. Just recently, an ERO get children stimulated and motivated about learning. Overall, study found that science is already suffering as schools buckle we succeed very well with this approach. under the demands of implementing the National Standards, Our broad curriculum, coupled with the passion and and we can predict there will be further casualties. enthusiasm of our dedicated and well-qualified teachers, strong With issues like performance pay now looming, we must community relationships, our boards of trustees governance concern ourselves with very successful pedagogical approaches model and our ability as self-managing schools to respond like team teaching. This approach is highly conducive to the quickly, gives us an edge that most of our overseas colleagues Modern Learning Environment such as we celebrate in this envy. There is no doubt these factors in tandem are critical to our high international levels of success.

Many of our colleagues are thus uneasy We succeed despite our country investing much less in education than most of our OECD counterpart countries. about the set of reforms that have There is every reason for parents to have high trust and been introduced since 2008. This is not confidence in us and they do. We know this from the results of independently conducted surveys. surprising, since most of the reforms Parents know that whether their children are highly gifted or struggling to learn, teachers will be on to require ‘uniformity’ or ‘standardisation’ their case. We have an outstanding world-recognised and central control, the most efficient reputation in producing programmes in response to individual children’s needs. We lead in encouraging extinguishers of innovation, daring and innovation in our pedagogical approaches and both our content and context for learning reflects the values change. of our local communities. We are proud of the fact that every school is different. We celebrate the diversity of learning issue (pp. 18–21). As Lesley Murrihy, principal of Amesbury approaches in our schools. We guard them like the taonga that School in Wellington, says, any performance pay would have to they are, because they have not been developed in isolation but be shared across her entire staff. It would be impossible at her in collaboration with our communities. They are precious and school to calculate the contribution of any one teacher to any one unique to us. student’s progress. Amesbury School was deliberately designed Embracing difference and different ways of doing things is with large, shared, flexible learning spaces to accommodate what makes our New Zealand education system strong. It is the team-teaching style because that is what the community

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and teaching staff wanted. In my experience team teaching is not exclusive to Amesbury School. It is commonplace practice throughout New Zealand schools because it allows children to draw on the strengths of all teachers and to experience a variety of approaches which enhances their learning.

Further on the horizon is the threat of reforming our governance structure and self-managed schools model. What is disturbing about this reform is that it is the self-managed, local, community-controlled schooling system that has allowed schools in New Zealand to be so innovative and quick to respond to children’s needs over the past 25 years. It has allowed schools, their local boards and their communities to make autonomous and immediate decisions, without the cumbersome delays that hampered progress under the old centrally controlled system and their regional education boards.

If we examine this set of reforms as a whole, it becomes clear that each one of them will contribute to weakening those attributes which have made our current education system strong and world leading. Standardisation will smother our diversity. Weakening innovation will reduce children’s learning opportunities and their achievement potential. Diminishing school autonomy will decrease the response rate to children’s needs. Using inappropriate incentivisation systems such as performance pay will risk inappropriate responses from teachers.

Narrowing our curriculum will limit access to learning for the very children who need it the most.

In my view it is time to take a deep breath and reflect before we make irreversible changes we might regret. The risk is that we could be directing children towards a 19th century classroom rather than a 21st century one.

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Charter schools: an investigation Ivan Snook Emeritus Professor

After the 2011 General Election, the National-ACT Confidence and Supply Agreement stated that a new kind of school called a charter school would be set up. Based on models in USA, UK and Sweden, these schools would be funded by the state but be operated by sponsors who may be boards of trustees, community groups or for-profit businesses. Such schools will be set up ‘in areas where educational underachievement is most entrenched’.

Details are still not available, but based on what has been released and what characterises such schools elsewhere, it can be expected that such schools will be freed from ministry control and from regular ERO inspection. Instead, they will be founded by means of a contract (charter) between the school and a charter group operator (community based or for-profit).

The state provides money identical to that given to state schools and encourages the operators and their schools to seek additional funds. For their part, the charter school operators agree to deliver certain outcomes presumably in terms of NCEA results (secondary) or National Standards (primary). Each charter school is to be held accountable by its sponsor or a special group within the ministry. In principle, schools which fail to deliver will not be paid and, if the default continues, will be closed. The stated purpose of these new schools is to reduce the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students.

The charter schools are modelled on similar schools in UK, Sweden and USA. The Educational Policy Response Group at Massey University has examined the research on charter schools in each of these countries and come to some tentative conclusions.

At the outset, however, it is important to note that: 1. Underachievement is not a matter for schools alone. As the Coalition acknowledges there is need for ‘mutually supportive reforms’ in welfare, primary health, education, youth transition and employment.

2. Achievement data, so important in current government policy, is not in itself an adequate measure of educational success.

Such narrowness of focus has potentially distorting effects on educational practices and has the potential to distort optimum learning and teaching relationships.

3. Education does not exist solely for financial or employment success: it serves highly significant social purposes including promoting equality of opportunity and informed citizenship.

State schools, in particular, are accountable to the wider community for definite outcomes as specified in the Education Standards Act 2001. Private schools are not so obliged and in this regard the new charter schools look more like private schools than state schools.

It must also be acknowledged that an overriding principle of governance in New Zealand state schools is that each school

is accountable to its local community, which elects the Board of Trustees to represent the parents. In turn, the Board is accountable to the Ministry of Education by means of its charter. Effectively, therefore, all New Zealand state schools are already ‘charter schools’. This proposal for charter schools is a radical departure from the principles of local governance, social democracy and civic participation in state schools because the new schools are not to be accountable to a local community but to their sponsoring organisation, which may have no meaningful connection with the local community.

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The Group has examined research data from countries which have charter schools or other similar schools. It concludes that the research on charter schools, though vast, is inconclusive.

Thus, for example, the much-quoted CREDO study claims that across the USA 17 per cent of charter schools perform better than the public schools, 56 per cent perform about the same, and 37 per cent perform worse than the public schools.

As discussed later, this study (like all studies) has been strongly criticised.

The inconclusive nature of the research is due to five features: (i) ‘charter school’ is an ill-defined notion: it is not a philosophy of education or a method of teaching; (ii) studies of charter schools in individual American states cannot be generalised to the whole of the USA (much less to other countries with their own traditions and problems); (iii) most studies compare mean performance, which is of little help in determining whether charter schools improve the achievement of the lowest performing students; (iv) it is very difficult to determine whether any improved achievements have been worth the massive upheaval to the system; and (v) few researchers who study charter schools are fully neutral: most already have a clear position on whether such schools are desirable or not.

Nevertheless, the Group believes that some lessons can be learned from the example of other jurisdictions where a form of charter school has been operating for some time. Thus, we look at Sweden, the UK and at three representative case studies in the USA. In Sweden there are now more than 700 ‘free schools’ enrolling upwards of 100,000 students. Two major studies conclude that although there were some short-term improvements in student achievement, these were not sustained. Children of highly educated parents profited most, while the impact on families and immigrants who had received a low level of education is hardly visible. However, contrary to what some opponents of charter schools have suggested there is no evidence of damage to state schools as a result of competition.

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significant benefits from Swedish free schools, especially those which are for-profit. It therefore advises the British government to reverse its policy of outlawing for-profit schools.

Swedish free schools have become big business. The schools have become tradable commodities, caught up in a global battle for supremacy among transnational corporations and private investment funds.

In the UK ‘free schools’ known as academies have been operating since the late 1980s. From 2001 the government encouraged secondary schools to become specialist schools and since the election of the coalition government in 2010 ‘free schools’ have been set up. These go beyond the academies in their autonomy from regulation.

Many of the academies have been set up by businesses and they tend to specialise in entrepreneurial education. By and large, academies have not improved equality of access or achievement.

The new ‘free schools’ in the UK have not been operating long enough for thorough evaluation to take place.

Charter schools began in the USA in the 1990s in response to perceived weaknesses in many urban schools. There are now some 4,000 charter schools in 40 states and they enrol more than a million students.

Numerous studies have been funded or conducted by groups that either support or oppose charter schools. Typically, the findings of charter school supporters are vehemently criticised by their opponents, and vice versa. Where study findings are based on the analysis of official databases of student characteristics and achievement outcomes, the statistical methods are invariably criticised as incomplete, misleading or flawed. For example, the Stanford University CREDO study has been widely cited as showing the very limited success of charter schools in the USA. But two other studies have severely criticised the CREDO study for claimed weaknesses in its selection and application of statistical methods.

A lesson for politicians, media, social scientists and teachers in New Zealand is that without a sound base in statistics, none of us is competent even to engage in this debate let alone pronounce on the outcome.

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am to 5 pm, and sessions are held on Saturdays and in the holidays. A high standard of behaviour is expected.

Students who enter and stay in KIPP schools tend to perform better than similar students in other schools. This does not seem to be due to differential selection policies.

Student attrition, however, is high and skewed: those who leave are those who have performed less well. Forty per cent of African American students leave KIPP schools before year 8.

A third of KIPP year 8 students go on to gain a college degree (more than four times the rate for such students nationwide), but there is a 30 per cent attrition rate from year 6 to year 8, compared with 6 per cent in non-KIPP schools and the correct comparison should probably be year 6 enrolments.

Education does not exist solely for financial or employment success: it serves highly significant social purposes including promoting equality of opportunity and informed citizenship.

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KIPP schools receive much more money per student than comparable public schools: on average $18,491 per pupil versus $11,991 per pupil in a public school. Yet, the KIPP schools spend only an extra $457 per pupil more than the public school: what happens to the remainder is not known.

Even if the most generous interpretation is placed on the results of KIPP schools, the most they can do is reduce the achievement gap. They cannot eliminate it since, as a spokesperson concedes ‘the gap is fixed by differences in home literacy, years before students enter school’.

The emphasis on parental choice, which is central to charter schools, has been operating in New Zealand since Tomorrow’s Schools; indeed, since 1989 all state schools have been charter schools. It was assumed then, and is assumed now, that greater choice will lead to greater equity in the form of improved achievement by lower achieving pupils.

However, two of the results of the 1989 reforms were (i) schools which cater for lower socio-economic students have suffered roll losses and higher socio-economic schools have increased their rolls, and (ii) Māori and Pacific Island students are under-represented in the higher decile schools and over-represented in the lower decile schools. For obvious reasons, this has been termed ‘white flight’ but it is a feature

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of all choice systems: those with more resources benefit disproportionately. Leading researchers in the USA summarise their studies: ‘Increasing parental choice is likely to increase separation of students by race, social class and culture even when the system is specifically designed to remedy inequality.’

(Our emphasis) It is of concern that the proposed charter schools will depart from the established position on school governance: that local schools should be accountable to the local community. The new schools will instead be accountable only to their sponsors.

Much could be done to improve the governance mechanisms of all state schools rather than subject the system to another major upheaval, the results of which depend more on aspiration than evidence.

Similarly, we believe that there are arguments for a rather different approach to improved achievement: a focus on researchbased approaches to literacy and mathematics, well-targeted teaching strategies, and a CSR (class size reduction) strategy especially for pupils in the first years of primary and secondary schooling. The charter school proposal and other current policies are based on the belief that the way to improved outcomes is to foster choice and competition, and rigorously control teachers (by National Standards, performance pay, inspection and the like). In fact, the example of the highest performing education system (Finland) suggests that this approach is quite misguided: achievement is better pursued by fostering a teaching force which is highly educated and socially esteemed, avoiding high-stakes ‘accountability’ regimes and rejecting streaming and reliance on standardised tests.

Finland also embeds its educational policies in a framework of welfare: all students receive a free two-course meal daily, free health care, transportation, learning materials, and counselling in the schools.

It should be remembered that New Zealand students are, on average, consistently among the highest performers internationally. It is, then, very important that, in the enthusiasm for even better performance, we make sure that we do not destroy the remaining organisational flexibility, curricular breadth, and teacher freedom which, arguably, has led to superior results.

Similarly, given what we know about family background, it is important that the government does not focus narrowly on education but on policies to eradicate child poverty, which has been consistently demonstrated to be the strongest predictor of educational and life chances. The Child Poverty Action Group has pointed out the wider equity issues for children who attend low decile schools. On the basis of research studies that show children who are hungry cannot learn effectively, Wynd argues the case for a national school breakfast programme for children in low decile schools at an annual cost of NZ$25 million (decile 1 and 2 schools) or NZ$36 million (including decile 3 schools). This it should be remembered is in the context of a total annual schools budget of NZ$8,100 million.

The Massey Educational Policy Response Group concludes that while the evidence on charter schools and achievement is inconclusive, they are satisfied from the studies examined that there is little evidence to support the view that charter schools will (i) provide choice for large numbers of low income parents: charter schools will cream off the most motivated and leave the rest to cope as best they can with what is provided; (ii) promote greater equality: it is quite possible that a number of individuals will be rather better off but they will remain relatively poorly served in relation to their more advantaged mates: the ‘rich’

will continue to get ‘richer’; and (iii) eliminate the ‘long tail of underachievement’: individuals will benefit and the tail may be reduced slightly but equality of educational opportunity will elude the majority until such time as economic and social welfare is promoted ahead of educational reform.

The Group argues that if the government persists with its policy on charter schools it will need to ensure that: 1. Charter schools do not cream off the most motivated students from existing schools and so impoverish still further those schools which already labour under financial and social handicaps.

2. Charter schools are not captured by business interests, including overseas corporations which will lead to yet another opportunity for our assets to be sold overseas and our children to be indoctrinated with sectional values.

3. Charter schools do not actively recruit the best teachers and leave other schools to cope without their leaders.

4. Charter schools do not make an easy profit by hiring untrained and unsuitable teachers.

5. Charter schools do not siphon money away from existing grants and programmes which target those most in need (e.g. decile funding, AIMHI, Strengthening Education, etc.).

The Group believes that the educational agenda of the past few years is misguided. Finland is a reminder that there is a better model: one which favours high levels of teacher education and ongoing professional development, avoids centralised controls and refuses to focus narrowly on the assessment of student progress.

Unless the government proceeds with care, it is quite likely that the charter school experiment, far from improving our education system, will be another costly mistake which will lead to further inequality in educational achievement and leave our most vulnerable children at the mercy of the market.

Contact

For copies of the full report, or for further discussion, contact Emeritus Professor Ivan Snook: iasnook@clear.net.nz or Professor John O’Neill: j.g.oneill@massey.ac.nz About the author

Ivan Snook originally trained as a primary teacher and taught in secondary schools before gaining his PhD, specialising in philosophy of education.

He lectured at the University of Canterbury for 13 years, and in 1981 became Professor of Education at Massey University. He was Head of the Department of Education 1985–1990 and Dean of the Faculty from 1989 until his retirement at the end of 1993.

He is now Emeritus Professor of Education at Massey University.

He has authored, edited, or co-authored several books, and has published some 200 papers in academic and professional journals.

Ivan received the NZARE McKenzie Award (1994) for his outstanding contribution to educational research. In 1993 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the NZEI for services to education. Ivan received the NZARE McKenzie Award (1994) for his outstanding contribution to educational research, and in 1995 was elected inaugural Fellow of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia to mark its 25th Jubilee. He was also a member of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission (2001–2003).

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Raising Māori achievement Liz Hawes Editor

Education has long been viewed as the vehicle of progression for society. Māori recognised the importance of acquiring and passing on knowledge way before the missionaries or colonists disembarked on our shores and had already developed a strong culture of educating through storytelling, sharing mythologies, and teaching problem solving through practices consistent with the values inherent in these traditions.

It was common practice to navigate by the stars, choose the best seed stock, plant, nurture, harvest and store food, successfully treat medical conditions through knowledge of naturally occurring medicines and to discuss deep philosophical notions.

Social practices were just as important. Strong relationships and high expectations were the norm (whanaungatanga), values of integrity, trust, sincerity and fairness or equity were fostered (manaakitanga), the importance of a sense of place and the socio-cultural practices concerning that (tangata whenuatanga) were taught. Before there was any system of formal education, Māori had developed a unique ‘Māori world view’, which included a clear set of beliefs, philosophies, values, expectations and practices which were integral to what it meant to be Māori according to different tribal affiliations.

This idea of ‘Māori world view’ did not sit comfortably with Western or Pākehā beliefs and values for education, which were largely drawn from Victorian models. Whilst many Māori warmly embraced the opportunity to learn the new language of English and Western practices, believing that understanding these new approaches would advantage them, there was never an intention that their own language, practices and beliefs would be condemned as irrelevant. As Pākehā culture came to dominate and assimilation practices in education became the norm, Māori inevitably began to lose identity, but never completely. Strong Māori leaders would not stand by and let this happen and so emerged colleges dedicated to the education of Māori boys and girls, colleges like Te Aute Māori Boys’ established in 1854 and St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College, 1867, amongst others. Central to the context of learning in these schools was first establishing that

Whilst many Māori warmly embraced the opportunity to learn the new language of English and Western practices . . . there was never an intention that their own language, practices and beliefs would be condemned as irrelevant.

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Entrance to Moerewa School

unique set of values and practices which ensured each student had a strong sense of their own identity, their own whakapapa.

Meanwhile, the majority of Māori students remained and continue to remain in mainstream schools.

We recognise now that assimilation practices were detrimental to Māori education resulting in unacceptable numbers of Māori students dropping out or not succeeding in the mainstream system. The Ministry’s 2011 statistics on Māori students show that Māori students are 2.6 times more likely than Pākehā students to be stood down, almost 4 times more likely to be excluded, 3 times more likely to be frequent truants, 2 times more likely to be granted early leaving exemptions before age 15, 6 times more likely to be non-enrolled and 2.3 times less likely to attain a university entrance qualification.

Until recently, interventions intended to address this issue have been drawn from a ‘deficit model’, that is, interventions built on the assumption that the student is lacking in some ingredient(s) for learning. Contemporary Māori leaders would say that it is not Māori children who lack the capacity for learning, it is that, particularly in the mainstream, the system has failed to provide the appropriate cultural context within which Māori children can excel.

Dr Anne Milne, a Pākehā and current school principal, has examined the issues closely through her own studies. She says, ‘Our [school] definition of achievement might be the national measures such as NCEA credits, literacy, numeracy and tertiary study, but without the human measures, positive self-identity, critical awareness, purpose and hope, young people become disengaged and disillusioned with school.’ What she and other visionaries are calling for is an education that fosters and supports crucial cultural identity development and so enhances what it means to be Māori or to learn as Māori.

This sounds like a simple solution, but do our (mostly Pākehā) principals and teachers know what it is to be Māori and to learn as Māori? The answer is likely to be a resounding ‘No’!

Changes won’t come without some serious critical examination of our own attitudes and practices according to the visionaries.

This view is reflected by the Hon Dr Pita Sharples in his foreword to Tataiako, the Ministry document outlining cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners. He says, ‘genuine, productive relationships among teachers and their Māori students, whānau, iwi and wider communities are vital foundations for effective teaching and learning.’ He then poses some questions for reflection, ‘How much do the teachers know of their students’ history, tikanga, and worldview – and how is this reflected in the classroom curriculum and environment?

What aspirations do whānau and iwi have for their young people?

How visible and involved are whānau and iwi in the teaching and learning culture of the school?’

There are some excellent examples of such practices in mainstream schools but more are needed. Take the 230-strong Northland school of Moerewa (decile 1), for example. The way they teach is different.

‘We take a whānau approach to everything up here,’ says Principal Keri Milne-Ihimaera. ‘Relationships are strong at this school and that is ongoing.’ ‘If we establish those relationships first then the learning will follow.’

The learning certainly does follow, and the school’s latest 2009 ERO report does not hold back.

‘The board, senior managers and staff are committed to meeting the community’s high expectations for their children.’

‘The school’s education focus . . . is on developing each student’s self knowledge, cultural knowledge, and world

Whānau and community are well connected and listen to each other

Whānau, teachers and students share ideas for Moerewa School

Five senior students who want to come to school every day

view, so that the students can achieve and enjoy educational success.

‘Students are open, friendly and inquiring learners and are engaged in classroom activities. They have a strong sense of identity and report that they enjoy being at school. A wide range of leadership, cultural, arts, sporting and academic activities is available to all students.’

‘Since the 2006 ERO review, significant progress has been made in student achievement. Most students in mainstream and immersion classrooms are now achieving at or above nationally expected levels for their age in reading, writing and numeracy.’

It’s a glowing report and testimony to the attitudes of the principal, staff, students, their parents and the wider community.

It is also testimony to the very strong ‘can do’ attitude that permeates the school.

‘Our motto here is “we will do whatever it takes”,’ says Keri.

There are few white faces in this predominantly Māori community, which is heavily reliant for its economic base on a single freezing works. ‘When the works are out (as they were when I visited), it’s not like there are any other jobs to go to,’ said one parent. It takes less than half a minute to drive the length of the Moerewa CBD and between the general store and cafe there’s not much else.

‘With problems at the freezing works naturally our families are affected,’ says Keri. She nods to the extra loaves of bread sitting on the shelf. ‘Kids have to be fed,’ she says, ‘or they can’t learn.

So we make sure they are not starving through the school day.’

Yes, at Moerewa, they do whatever it takes. The school functions like a family. As one of the senior students said, ‘It’s a lot easier to be Māori here than at schools outside of here. I might well have dropped out at a different school.’

Bruce Jepson, a member of the Te Akatea Māori Principals’ Executive Committee, would agree that what is needed for more Māori to enjoy success is a change in attitude. Doing what has always been done, he says, will get the same results. Working together in collaboration with whānau and iwi is necessary in Bruce’s view. He adds one further prerequisite to success and that is having a good understanding of the professional development needs of leaders and of staff.

It is this professional development factor that seems to be missing. The commitment from teachers and principals, from ERO and from the Ministry to up the ante on helping Māori children enjoy success in their learning is evident. The will is strong, now we need the way.

N Z Principal | J u n e 2 0 12

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Self-regulated learning ski individual notebook compute personalised learning – a pi Dr Lyn Bird

Principal, Queenstown Primary School lynb@queenstown.school.nz

The significant development of students’ self-regulated learning skills can be associated to positive academic growth.

(Conclusion from pilot study) After completing a PhD thesis in 2010, which focused on the development of self-regulated learning (SRL) skills in young students, I was keen to continue my research around specific effective teaching strategies. My doctoral thesis provided the research base on which the pilot study was formulated. In order to build on the school-wide SRL programme, a pilot was undertaken in two year 5/6 classes (60 students) to provide a learning environment that enabled the learners to be responsible for their own learning, to know themselves as mixed ability learners, and to control their own learning environment.

The pilot had three key features 1. The teachers had to consistently and effectively utilise specific SRL teaching and learning strategies.

2. Each student would have a notebook computer for their own personal use.

3. Parents would be our research partners paying the cost of the notebook lease and taking an active interest in their child’s development.

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have an understanding about various learning strategies know how, when, and why to use the strategies in a specific context

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monitor their own thinking and problem-solving

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allocate their time and assess their progress effectively

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actively find a way to succeed and are motivated to learn

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continually reflect and make the necessary changes in order to complete tasks and succeed taking personal learning responsibility expect success.

My 2010 thesis showed that self-regulation training not only improves students’ learning, but also improves their perceptions of efficacy, a widely studied measure of students’ motivation to self-regulate; students who display initiative, intrinsic motivation and personal responsibility achieve particular academic success.

In order to develop this responsibility and learner autonomy, the learning environment should encourage active, authentic learning, collaboration, and problem-solving.

What did the SRL classroom ‘look’ like?

Specific SRL strategies and tools were a strong feature of the teaching approach within the classroom. They were as follows: sharing the learning intentions, frequently, across the curriculum

We were striving to provide a learning environment conducive to developing students who:

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naturally self-regulate, know about themselves as learners and have knowledge about learning tasks and environments

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developing success criteria with the students in ‘kid’s speak’

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giving quality formative feedback

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Year 7/8 students at Queenstown Primary School engaged in personalised learning

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A year 8 student choosing the ‘what’ and ‘when’ of her learning

lls and an r enable lot study setting goals

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monitoring progress against success criteria and exemplars

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sharing progress during performance/sharing time

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self-assessing

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peer-assessing

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developing next learning steps

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writing learning log reflective statements

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helping students develop personalised timetables

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utilising the inquiry process.

All of the above strategies were specifically taught and modeled over a period of time in order for the varying student abilities and needs to be catered for.

Tools such as on-task/off-task checklists, carrels, a quiet non-distracting work area, iPods and STARS (sayings that allow regulated learning) were introduced to allow students, and not their teachers, to control their learning environment.

A key teaching and learning tool – an individual notebook computer The use of individual notebook computers allowed students to have access to Web 2.0 tools throughout the school day, and at home, allowing an authentic integration of ICT tools to enhance learning. It also allowed strong connections between the home and school, and students could undertake ‘any time, any place’ learning. There were greater opportunities for global connections and ‘real world’ personally meaningful investigations. Students developed personal e-portfolios in meaningful contexts throughout their learning journey; therefore reporting to parents was ‘just-in-time’ and ongoing. This allowed student interests and needs to be more easily catered for.

Key organisational features ■■

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Students continued to take part in ‘normal’ senior school activities.

Data was gathered pre pilot and post pilot in literacy, numeracy, computer skills and self-regulated learning attitudinal areas.

The teacher/s facilitated learning through direct teaching sessions, one-to-one conferencing, group conferencing, daily goal setting and monitoring, modelling web 2.0 tools, monitoring work output daily, and providing online learning modules.

Parents applied in writing requesting their child/children take part in the SRL pilot.

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Parents paid the cost of the lease of a notebook computer – $392 ($32.70 × 12 months).

The two teachers and I met weekly to reflect on and review the pilot programme.

Specific teaching resources were identified and provided before the pilot started, for example, an upgrade of the school’s wireless capacity.

What effect did the SRL learning environment and key tools have on student outcomes? Comparative data from term 1 to the end of term 3 Assessment tools used included the STAR reading test, NZCER spelling test, PAT tests in reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening and mathematics. An attitudinal rubric

V N O I D EW N EO LI S N E.

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And that equals:

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• better learning environment and • better results!!

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Independent task completion ■■

Most students now knew how to begin a task, could complete tasks, could plan how long it would take, set a plan and work to the plan independently.

Most students made significant shifts in each of the above areas with 5 per cent achieving at the high end of the rubric now being able to: ■■

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get on with my work without being reminded and adjust what I’m doing to fit any changes that happen during the day self-assess my work and reflect on it to set my next learning steps seek feedback about my work and make improvements begin and complete tasks plan how long it will take, set a plan and work independently make changes to my plan if necessary use a range of SRL tools to help me work effectively.

Comments from the students included: ■■

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SRL tools help me to stay on task.

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SRL teaches you to work independently.

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I can finish activities faster.

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I can manage my time well.

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I can research on my own.

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SRL gives freedom and responsibility.

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It’s helped me to get organised during the day.

Students self-regulating their learning

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Overall there was a significant acceleration in progress.

There was a significant shift from average stanines to high-end stanines.

There was a smaller number of students achieving in the below average stanines category.

Over 50 per cent more stanine 9s were achieved.

Major shifts of the SRL attitudinal rubric were as follows: Being responsible to start the school day ■■

Most students were now consistently ready before 9 am with the things they need for the day and checked if not sure.

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Most students could now identify and complete multiple tasks within timeframes given.

Self-motivation ■■

Most students could now describe the purpose of a task, could willingly maintain the effort to complete the task and could set a goal related to their learning.

Working independently ■■

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Most students could now get on with their work independently most of the time and adjust what they were doing to fit any changes that happened during the day.

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I think its fun because we get to work on our laptops. We get to use SRL tools and work on our own. It’s easier to research with our own laptops because we don’t have to wait for someone else to get off them.

I’ve become better at putting my own things away in the morning on my own.

I think this year has gone better because I’ve been more organised at the start of the day.

I can be more independent in my learning and I can get more work done by using my laptop for baroque music or using a carrel.

This year was a really good year because we had computers and we could use them for lots of things like baroque music and save our homework on it to take home.

Comments from the teachers included:

Time management ■■

SRL is cool – I know more about the computer than anyone else in my family.

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assessment tool was developed based on key SRL Managing Self features.

The results showed:

Having a notebook is awesome! It helps me to be an independent worker.

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The most rewarding has been seeing the students who rarely organised themselves before school now organising themselves and sometimes others before school, completing work before school, being more reflective, seeking more feedback and though not constantly demonstrating ‘perfect work habits’, they can articulate what would be ideal work habits and conditions and can explain why.

I have also learnt A LOT about myself as a teacher, a learner, in my planning, organisation and management skills.

The noticed students were: ■■ ■■ ■■

Organising themselves before school.

More reflective about their work.

Seeking peer feedback more often.

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Taking responsibility for their learning environment using carrels, baroque music, work buddies/independent working, setting goals, creating ‘to-do’ lists of their own.

Able to set SMARTer goals.

Planning their work more carefully.

Discussing their work action plans in more detail and with more confidence.

Able to work on multiple things and were more flexible.

More aware of who they are as a learner – or more able to articulate at least.

Learning to plan their time better based around when they are out of the classroom.

Claudelands Events Centre, Brooklyn Road, Hamilton

21 – 22 July 2012

10am – 4pm Daily

The teachers felt they were now able to: ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

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Focus on small groups and individuals.

Meet a greater range of needs.

Cater to a range of learning styles.

Provide students with a voice and ownership of their learning.

Develop their own as well as student ICT capabilities and understandings.

Research when and where needed.

Increase student engagement and motivation.

Increase their understanding of SRL strategies and tools.

Develop the ability to reflect on practice.

Develop students ability to reflect on their learning set goals and recognise next steps.

Create resources myself that fit the purpose.

Comment from a parent: For us personally, the SRL class this year and the access to the laptop that came with it, have been a real boost for [our child] – he has been more engaged with his work this year than I have ever seen him. Our initial apprehensions about the computer have proved to be unfounded and I am really pleased with the space he is in as he heads off to Intermediate next year.

Where to now?

During term 4 of 2011 the teachers undertook a team teaching approach and most students were deemed ready to learn via a personalised timetable. It was evident that at least three terms of SRL teaching and learning was needed for both the teachers and students before SRL personalised timetables could be utilised with success.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the following people associated with this pilot study: The Ilam School community – BOT, staff, students and parents/ caregivers.

Mrs Karina Robinson and Mr Aaron Sangster, the pilot teachers who were courageous and persevered to undertake the study with me. They are exemplary teachers.

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Reference

For more information: Ph: (09) 448 5210

Bird, L G (2009). ‘Developing Self-Regulated Learning Skills in Young Students.’ PhD thesis, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.

www.educationresourcesexpo.co.nz N Z Principal | J u n e 2 0 12

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Successful New Zealand School Principals Dr Darrell Latham

We now know principal leadership makes a difference to school improvement and that innovative schools have effective leaders. Leadership is somewhat a paradox in that we want ordinary, humble leaders but we demand from them extraordinary results. The challenge then has been identifying which aspects of leadership make a difference. What lessons have been learned as a result of recent New Zealand research into successful school principalship?

school type, size and location. Inclusion was based on positive external reviews (ERO) and being acknowledged by one’s peers as being successful in their role.

New Zealand’s education system was subject to significant change as a result of the educational reforms (Tomorrow’s Schools) of the late 1980s. While most countries have undergone similar reforms, in comparison, New Zealand schools have seen greater devolution of decision-making and been subject to increased marketisation, contestability and accountability Therefore, of particular interest to the New Leadership is somewhat a paradox measures.

Zealand research team was the influence of self-managing schools on successful principal leadership. While there is in that we want ordinary, humble no one model of leadership, from the international and the leaders but we demand from them New Zealand research literature we were able to identify a range of educational values, personal and interpersonal extraordinary results. qualities, competencies, decision making processes and strategic actions which effective principals engage.

The International Successful School Principals Project (ISSPP) commenced in 2002 and involved countries including Australia, What practices do successful New Zealand principals Canada, China, Denmark, England, Norway, Sweden and the use and which factors gives rise to successful USA. The focus for the ISSPP was to investigate practices across New Zealand principal leadership? these countries. In the wider international context researchers set The New Zealand case study findings confirm the importance about identifying the characteristics and practices of successful of personal factors, leadership style and leadership skills and principals and sought answers as to how these are influenced. strategies that contribute to successful principal leadership.

The project commenced as a result of educational leadership researcher, Kenneth Leithwood asking a straightforward a Personal characteristics question, ‘What do we know about school principals in a range Principals bring to their position a range of personal characteristics of different national contexts?’ that include values and beliefs, social justice and working with the Even though there were contextual differences related to community. Personal traits included their passion for education schools, political systems, economies, education policies and the and ensuring that children were always their centre of interest. make-up of students, a common feature across all countries was Pride, work ethic, eternal optimism, excellent communication that the principal was seen as the crucial figure in the school’s skills and the ability to work collaboratively were also noted. success. The most exceptional feature noted was the enthusiasm Successful New Zealand principals: and passion principals exhibited and their devotion to education, ■■ Have a passion for education – desire and enthusiasm for students and the community. It seemed that principal leadership wanting to make a difference. practices that united countries were far greater than those that ■■ Have pride and self-belief – positive self-belief and divided them. engagement with school and community.

The New Zealand context New Zealand became involved in the ISSPP in 2008 and the writer as a member of the New Zealand research team set about seeking answers to two simple questions.

1. What practices do successful New Zealand principals use?

2. What factors gives rise to successful New Zealand principal leadership?

Initial research investigated successful school principals and built on findings from other countries. A range of schools and principals were involved in the research which was based on 14

N Z P r i n c i p a l | J u n e 2 0 12

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Undertake critical self-reflection – reflect on their leadership, performance and contribution.

Have a positive work ethic – sense of positive purpose, can do attitude and hope for the future.

Have previous life experiences – bring life experiences to the principalship.

Develop levels of resiliency – confident, assured, ability to bounce back and creative ways of coping.

Portray the human face of the principalship – exhibit warmth, loyalty to the school and community, approachability, ethics of care and lack of pretentiousness.

Leadership style and leadership skill Capacity building in New Zealand schools is an important aspect of the principal’s position and involves creating the conditions, opportunities and experiences for collaboration and learning in order to bring about effective change. Core factors identified for success included developing collaborative cultures that are collegial, supportive and people orientated.

Factors identified for principal success include: ■■

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Management – having the technical skills in school management processes and procedures.

Communication and consultation – listening, articulating ideas and facilitating development.

Knowing when to lead – striking a balance between leading and letting others lead.

Reflective capacity – reflecting on making schools and communities stronger and healthier.

Interpersonal connectedness – high levels of interaction, personal involvement, trust and loyalty.

Leadership strategies Successful school leaders improve teaching and learning and thus pupil outcomes indirectly and most powerfully through their influence on staff motivation, commitment, teaching practices and through developing teachers’ capacities for leadership.

Strategies employed by successful principals include: ■■

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A focus on student achievement – vision for learning and developing all-round achievers.

Community and staff consultation – inclusiveness, community and educational leadership.

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Strong leadership team and quality teaching staff – collaborative and complementary staff.

Continuous school improvement practices – willingness and desire for innovation.

Vision and purpose – a clear shared and realistic vision for the future of the school.

Student achievement and meeting needs – vision for learning and a student-centred school.

Growing other leaders – shared decision-making, collaborative and being a role model.

Finger on the pulse – involvement at the grass roots level, active listening and networking.

Cultural integration – fostering cultural diversity and inclusiveness in school life.

The above findings are firstly, indicative of both a principal’s capacity and capability to engage in self-reflection and secondly, their ability to be responsive to the changing educational environment while maintaining connectedness to both their school and community.

During the second phase of the research personal factors e.g. leadership style, leadership skills and strategies contributing to successful principal leadership were further investigated. Further in-depth case study research of exemplary NZ principals was undertaken and the findings were analysed to discover how they sustained success.

• • •

N Z Principal | J u n e 2 0 12

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Successful principals focus on core leadership activities It was found that successful principals consistently focussed on core leadership activities associated with the following.

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A focus on the fundamentals of teaching and learning.

Using a variety of familiar leadership strategies.

A strong bias towards people-centred leadership.

The ability to engage in critical self-reflection about their leadership role and future direction.

Maintaining and growing leadership success.

Dealing with challenges and tensions associated with professional and personal lives.

Being a multidimensional leader, e.g. mediator, advisor, professional leader and building contractor.

Bringing out the best in students, teachers and the community requires principals who are not fainthearted or shrinking violets.

To the contrary, successful leaders weave webs of inclusion and are innovative. What this research has shown is that while there is no one single model of the practice of effective leadership, there are a range of practices that successful principals engage. We are now able to identify a comprehensive collection of personal and interpersonal qualities, dispositions, educational values, proficiencies, strategic actions and decision-making processes which effective NZ principals use.

What is clear in the New Zealand context is that a significant deceptively simple factor at the heart of successful principal leadership, often downplayed or overlooked is collaboration. It is at the core of developing effective pedagogical leadership and

the research has shown that leaders who develop and support practices that encourage the sharing of teaching and learning strategies are at the cutting edge of leadership innovation.

A simplistic definition of collaboration infers working and consulting with others. However, it should not be seen only as teamwork, partnership or being cooperative. It needs to be viewed in the wider context where the collaborative leader is required to re conceptualise their role of as leader. What is inferred is significant engagement not only within their own schools but also with other schools and the community at large.

Greater engagement known as ‘systems leadership’ suggests considerably more engagement with other schools in order to bring about change. ‘Specifically, a system leader may be defined as a school leader who is willing and able to shoulder wider system roles and in doing so is almost as concerned with the success and attainment of students in other schools as they are with their own.’

The New Zealand research has shown that the qualities, leadership values and actions of the principal in successful schools has developed beyond professional standards to a focus on teaching and learning, personal and professional growth and to relationship building in the wider community.

In many ways the job description requirements of the average New Zealand school principal defies reasonable logic. The ability to walk on water comes to mind, as does the motto of being six foot tall and bullet proof. The expectations required of them know no boundaries.

NZ principals are required to be responsive to government demands at a moment’s notice. Furthermore, they regularly take the brunt of unfair criticism when it comes to student progress and from a political perspective they are often between a rock and a rock and a hard place.

Nonetheless, what requires to be acknowledged is that successful New Zealand principals are shaping the future direction of education. Through a mix of leadership strategies, values, qualities and actions, they are positively influencing teaching and learning and reshaping educational leadership as we know it.

References Day, C, P Sammons, D Hopkins, A Harris, K Leithwood, Q Gu, E Brown, E Ahtaridou and A Kington (2009). The Impact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomes. Nottingham: Department for Children, Schools and Families, National College for School Leadership, University of Nottingham.

Notman, R and D A Henry (2009). ‘The human face of principalship: A synthesis of case study findings.’ Journal of Educational leadership, Policy and Practice, 24(1): 37–52.

Notman, R (2011). ‘Building leadership success in the New Zealand educational context.’ In In R. Notman (ed), Successful School Leadership in New Zealand: Case studies of schools and an early childhood centre.

Wellington: NZCER Press, pp. 135–49.

About the author

Dr Darrell Latham is a senior lecturer at the University of Otago College of Education. He works in the Centre for Educational Leadership and Administration. His research interest includes teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of school leadership and the politics of education.

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N Z P r i n c i p a l | J u n e 2 0 12

Mobility Printing or ‘Bring Your Own Device’

Winners named in League in Libraries competition

Konica Minolta’s Cloud printing software PageScope One Community ambassador Jerome Ropati thrilled a Mobile is now available for all digital devices enabling group of Dominion Road School pupils when he arrived Konica Minolta multifunctionals to connect to smart- unannounced to tell them their school and one of its phones or tablet PCs with either Android or iOS operating students Mackenzie Adams were winners in the 2012 systems.

League in Libraries story-writing competition jointly Konica Minolta’s PageScope Mobile app basically has run by Konica Minolta and Vodafone Warriors One two functions: printing from mobile devices and receiving Community. scanned documents from Konica Minolta multifunctional Mackenzie’s story, based on peripherals (MFPs). Be it a smartphone or a tablet, every her favourite Vodafone Warrior WiFi-enabled device can be used, as long as it runs on Ben Henry, was judged the best iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, or — and that’s of a total of 328 entries from 22 new — Android, Google’s widespread equivalent to iOS. classes at schools across the PageScope Mobile can also be used to establish a Auckland area. Titled ‘Room secure printing environment using the bizhub authen- 22 Saves the Day’, it’s a story tication system that provides functions such as user about how her class fills in authentication and account tracking. for the Vodafone Warriors at PageSope Mobile thereby contributes to the reduction a game due to their team bus of printouts at the workplace and enhances security. breaking down on the way to Furthermore, the app can connect with services such the ground. as Evernote or Google Drive to download stored data For the first time last year, from the Cloud to mobile devices and print it on nearby Konica Minolta published the bizhubs. winning entry by Khodaysa Rajabi in illustrated book ‘One of the latest trends in IT is “Bring Your Own Device” form and Mackenzie learnt that she, too, is set to become often referred to as BYOD where students and staff bring a published author at the age of seven. their smart phones and mobile devices into the school Ropati also presented Mackenzie with a Vodafone environment,’ says Jeremy Lane, Product Manager at Warriors jersey and she and the rest of the class erupted Konica Minolta Business Solutions New Zealand. ‘By when they were given tickets to the Vodafone Warriors’ following this trend and releasing PageScope Mobile, we NRL match against Brisbane at Mount Smart Stadium. want to provide the ultimate wireless print experience.’

Apart from Dominion Road School, the other winBenefits of PageScope Mobile ning schools were Wainui • Print from anywhere to your Primary, St Ignatius, Wesley Konica Minolta is dedicated to school’s printers Primary, Marist Catholic, • Supports both Apple and Downs Primary, Te promoting reading and writing Chapel Android internet-enabled Matauranga Primary and as valuable life skills that devices Devonport Primary.

• No need to install print drivers League in Libraries capneed to begin development on your web-enabled device tain Ropati is passionate • Secure authentication for users early in a child’s life. about supporting the pro• Choose print jobs settings and gramme. see the cost before printing ‘The ability to read and write is critical,’ he says, ‘It opens so many doors and For more information contact expands knowledge. If our kids don’t learn to enjoy education@konicaminolta.co.nz reading, there are far-reaching effects.’

Konica Minolta is dedicated to promoting reading and writing as valuable life skills that need to begin development early in a child’s life. Through its strong relationships with many schools in the Auckland region, Konica Minolta is able to support education by giving year four and five kids a hand to develop these vital skills.

N Z Principal | J u n e 2 0 12 17 www.konicaminolta.co.nz

State-of-the-art schooling in a Wellington suburb Liz Hawes meets with Dr Lesley Murrihy, principal of Amesbury School in Wellington, one of the newest schools in the country. They discuss the vision for the school and how that impacted on the design and building process and they explore the learning spaces to observe how they have shaped and continue to shape the pedagogical style of this very modern approach to 21st century learning.

Most schools have a clearly defined office and administration block, which is generally the first port of call for visitors.

Amesbury School, located in the well-heeled, fast-growing suburb of Churton Park in Wellington, has one too, but once inside there is no door marked just ‘Principal’s Office’.

Fortunately, Lesley Murrihy is on the lookout and emerges from one of the school’s sizeable learning spaces to greet me, ‘We don’t have a dedicated office for the principal,’ says Lesley. ‘In fact the whole senior leadership team shares one room, which frees up considerably more space for kids’ learning. It also means that

we can model collaboration which we expect of our staff and students.’ She breaks into a smile of genuine joy. It is a smile I have met before and signals that we are entering a learning environment where the children and their learning needs come first, second and third on the priority list.

We settle down for a chat, not in any principal’s room of course, but in a space the size of a seminar room. ‘This is free at the moment,’ says Lesley brightly, ‘and we can spread out a bit!’ It is a room which the school wouldn’t have, if each staff member of the leadership team had their own separate offices. I quickly feel relaxed and in no time am referring to Dr Murrihy as Lesley.

It seems the natural and expected thing to do. ‘Actually,’ says Lesley, ‘all the teachers, including myself, are called by our first names. Some would find that unusual or even disrespectful, but we expect everyone to be respectful in their relationships with others, whether that is teachers, children or parents, and so it is just not an issue for us.’

Principal Lesley Murrihy with students

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Relationships have been the key to the whole Amesbury School project. ‘We have been so fortunate in having such a wonderful team to work with on the building school project,’ says Lesley.

‘Right from the beginning the architect and design team have wanted to build an environment to match our vision for 21st century learning, taking account of research and our pedagogical stance. We wanted the team teaching an open-spaces approach to learning because to equip our children with the skills for the 21st century, we needed Internet technology to be prominent and individualised learning opportunities to be maximised. We also wanted maximum natural light because the research indicates a correlation between environments with a high degree of natural light, and children’s achievement levels.’

The contractors too have all been thoroughly supportive of the school board’s vision and at the end of the project commissioned Jeff Thomson, famous for his corrugated art work, to produce a map of New Zealand, on screen-printed corrugated iron, bolted together with pieces of Meccano, to present to the school as a gift. ‘It was a terrific gesture,’ says Lesley, ‘and just demonstrates how much everyone involved had immersed themselves in our vision for the school and their determination to see that through.’

The ample windows give view to the spread of outdoor fields and newly laid sports courts. It is a generous flat outdoor space, too new to bathe in the shadow of mature trees or gardens. After all, the school has only been operating for a term. It has only just let down the balloons from its official 10 May opening.

The expansive grounds are a shared facility for the Amesbury School children and the local community, and the brightly designed school hall is available for public hire. ‘We are proud that our school and its facilities can be shared with the local community,’ says Lesley. ‘We like to think that our school is central to the community and that our community feels comfortable at our place,’ she said.

So, what is the vision for Amesbury?

‘To be a leader in 21st century education,’ says Lesley.

‘Our school is about learning for life and learning to live. It’s about joy in learning and joyful living. We have deliberately chosen a purpose-built learning environment which gives us the flexibility to teach in differently configured spaces, to personalise learning for the children and to allow team teaching to flourish,’ she says.

We take a tour of the school and observe different groups in action. My first impression is one of freedom, of light and of different textures. There is no clutter, no enclosed feeling, and there doesn’t seem to be much school furniture about.

What furniture there is I have seen in many schools before. It is unmistakably Furnware’s brand that dominates here.

‘We have chosen the furniture to fit with our flexibility approach,’ says Lesley. ‘Much of the furniture is modular and can be reconfigured differently for different purposes.’ I observe a number of regular Furnware style chairs and tables about the rooms, but also in big numbers are brightly coloured square and round-shaped soft seats. ‘It depends what the children are doing,’ says Lesley, as she nods to a teacher reading to a group of children reclining on the soft furniture. In the same room but in a different area is another teacher with a maths group.

‘Our flexibility approach allows us to place same ability children together for their learning,’ says Lesley. ‘In this maths group

Amesbury School entrance

there is a mix of ages but the same children will not necessarily be together for other subjects,’ she says.

The pedagogical approach is based around team teaching, and using the strengths of every teacher to maximise the benefit to all children. It is entirely possible for any of the teachers to be leading a lesson for any group of children any hour of the day.

My mind immediately shifts to the hot topic of the week, which is the suggestion of performance pay for teachers as an incentive for lifting performance.

‘It would be difficult if not impossible in this environment to try and measure which teacher had made the greatest contribution to a child’s achievements,’ said Lesley.

‘You simply could not apply a performance bonus system to individuals here. It would have to be shared across all of the teachers.’ Lesley is not a principal who believes that performance bonuses are applicable to the teaching environment anyway. ‘We all work collaboratively and many schools use a team teaching approach to a greater or lesser degree. Also, if you are going to use children’s achievements as the measure of teacher performance, there are many factors both inside and outside of the school that influence children’s learning, for better or worse, so to try and extrapolate just the teacher’s contribution is pretty impossible for anyone.’

‘Do you ever have issues with children being distracted by other groups in the same room doing different learning tasks?’

I ask.

‘The children fairly quickly become focused on what they are doing and of course the teachers are all accustomed to this environment now,’ says Lesley. ‘But if we did need to separate groups because of noise or distraction, then we can do that. These large spaces can all be made into smaller spaces by drawing across a soundproof partition, but we find that we don’t do that very often,’ she said. ‘The children are working in these large spaces all the time and they get used to other activities going on in the same space. If people come and go from the room, they hardly notice, whereas in a regular classroom, if someone walks in, the children are immediately distracted and off task.’

‘Independent learning and empowering children to take charge of their own learning is a philosophy we aspire to here’

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Practising the waiata to acknowledge the speakers

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My next question is to understand how the children know where they are supposed to go, since they don’t have a ‘home’ classroom.

‘Every child has a whānau group, which you might call their ‘home class’, says Lesley, ‘and first thing in the morning they meet with their ‘whānau teacher’. This is the teacher who takes responsibility for the roll each morning and for the pastoral care of the group. Parents will seek report and advice about their child’s progress from this teacher,’ she said. ‘Otherwise, the children each have their own timetables which includes review and reflection time for each learning activity.’

I wondered how five-year-olds would possibly manage to keep their own timetable and schedule of lessons, but my scepticism was unfounded. There on the wall were the timetables of the

youngest students, who use moveable magnets to signify what they are doing, where and when. Whilst a high level of supervision accompanies the children initially, before long they are manipulating their own timetables quite competently.

We wander out of the room and into what we might call a hallway, but this area too is occupied with learners and learning activities. A group learns a new waiata while they have a guitar lesson. The guitar chords and the words of the waiata are displayed on a flat screen on the wall. These large touch screens are a feature of every room. They are the information source of everything that goes on in the school, and as the system evolves, the children will also be interacting with this information to include their own.

Children each have their own timetables

Flat screens are plentiful throughout the school and well used

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‘Independent learning and empowering children to take charge of their own learning is a philosophy we aspire to here,’ says Lesley.

There are two other important themes evident at Amesbury School. The first is the strong emphasis on biculturalism and the second is the place of Internet technology.

‘We have a strong commitment to biculturalism at our school,’ says Lesley, ‘which is our way of showing our understanding of our obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.’ Lesley is proud to say that every one of the children can present their own mihi, and have learned a number of waiata. They understand basic protocols of how to welcome visitors to the school in a culturally appropriate way and have learned karakia and a haka. ‘It is very important that the children learn to respect and understand Māori culture, and appreciate the values and practices involved,’ says Lesley. ‘Becoming part of the globalised world is an essential aspect of 21st century education and it begins with embracing our bicultural heritage as New Zealanders, whether we have Māori students in our schools or not,’ she says. I observe that the roll of Māori children at Amesbury School is minimal. ‘We want all our children – who come from many cultures – growing up proud to be New Zealanders. Not just paying lipservice to tikanga Māori, but genuinely embracing New Zealand’s bicultural heritage and able to walk through their lives as bicultural New Zealanders with head held high.’

Internet technology is at the heart of the 21st century learning model for Amesbury School and this brings both strengths and challenges for the teaching staff.

‘We have a level of transparency here that is rather unusual,’ says Lesley. ‘The students have nearly all of their work “in the cloud”,’ she says, which is accessible from their own homes. They can discuss their work with their parents, with their friends if they wish, or other family members and use that feedback to make improvements. ‘It’s very empowering,’ she says, ‘but at the same time, we are putting ourselves as a staff under a high level of scrutiny. The teachers’ planning is accessible to parents, and even brainstorming sessions, but we aspire to be as transparent as possible and to share as much information with our parent community as we can so that they feel involved in what we do.’

The school’s website hosts a blog which keeps everyone up to date with what is happening in the school, reports on events includes photos of significant moments and encourages the community to comment. These are facilities which Lesley hopes in time, will become quite natural and normal to the everyday operation of the school. The aim is to have a school that is well connected at

every level. In its very short lifetime, it has made very big progress towards meeting that goal.

My final call was to the school hall to watch the children preparing for the big opening day. There I saw Principal ‘Lesley’ in amongst the children, as several teachers guided the children through the practice session. They were making sure that those children taking special speaking roles were confident and supported, that everyone knew when to sit, when to stand, how and when to sing their waiata and for the boys how to conduct themselves to perform the haka. It was impressive to watch the dynamics of team teaching in action with the entire school as the class, and the principal, the ultimate leader, centre with the children. If leading is about empowerment of teachers in order that they can empower the children to in turn become leaders, then Amesbury School will be producing some great leaders of the future.

Practising delivering a mihi to the manuhiri

Modular furniture that can be reconfigured for different purposes

Detail of the gifted artwork: Mecanno New Zealand/Aotearoa

by Jeff Thomson

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Going beyond the school gates for our gifted kids Joanne Bate

former Associate Principal, Gifted Kids

In the last issue of NZ Principal, we ran the story of a programme for gifted children in Invercargill called Enrich@ILT (see ‘Enriching the Southern Stars’, March 2012, 27(1), pp. 6–8).The programme is fully funded by the Invercargill Licensing Trust with a small contribution from parents.

This article outlines a national programme for talented and gifted children called Gifted Kids, a programme which can be widely accessed across New Zealand.

The Ministry of Education (2000) advocates for a continuum of provisions for gifted students, ranging from in-class to out-ofschool options. We are encouraged to be learner-focused and to differentiate our classroom programmes for these students, but some needs are best met beyond the school gates. ‘The New Zealand Curriculum advocates flexibility and inclusion, but it is questionable whether our classrooms adequately provide for the needs of gifted and talented students’ (Ministry of Education, 2000).

This is where provisions such as Gifted Kids (formerly The Gifted Kids Programme) come in. Gifted Kids is a charitable trust providing a specialised one-day-a-week programme for students and professional learning and development for teachers to help meet the needs of gifted learners. Gifted Kids’ vision is to inspire children to discover, develop and celebrate their intelligence and creativity. This article explores the benefits and challenges of specialist out-of-school programmes, based on the Gifted Kids Biennial Review (2011) and the perspectives of two school principals.

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Benefits Gifted Kids offers a specialist programme delivered by specialist teachers. The specialised curriculum is tailored for gifted students, focusing on talent development, affective development, and complex and conceptual thinking. ‘The Gifted Kids’ staff has specialised knowledge and are able to focus at that top end. They don’t have to look at the whole spectrum,’ says Dave Appleyard, principal of Rata Street School in Lower Hutt.

Students get opportunities beyond that which a school can offer.

Gifted Kids’ vision is to inspire children to discover, develop and celebrate their intelligence and creativity.

They engage in learning that stretches them to capacity, such as working on advanced curriculum content, visiting businesses or universities, tackling ethical issues, and solving real-world problems. Margaret Civil, principal of Reporoa School (40 km out of Rotorua), comments: ‘Gifted Kids can give them time and resources, in particular human resources. For a busy classroom teacher to do that for just one or two kids is a lot more difficult.

There are things that our teachers can do, but Gifted Kids offers another layer.’

Gifted Kids is a talent development programme providing

challenge in students’ areas of strength. The review provided the strongest evidence of increased outcomes in opportunities for: 1. knowledge growth in strength areas, 2. in-depth projects, and 3. challenging thinking.

Dave says, ‘It’s a different way of operating. In mainstream we’re looking at “What are their weaknesses? What gaps do we need to fill?” You’re looking at their strengths and their talents. “What do we need to do to strengthen and channel that?”’

At Gifted Kids, students spend quality time with like-minded peers. Research shows that like-minded peer interaction is one of the greatest benefits of out-of-school gifted provisions (Freeman, 1991). Gifted Kids alumni students provide more evidence of this in research conducted by Clark (2009): ‘It was easy to fit in and feel part of things and to make friends, which was a novelty to me and not like regular school where I was not really like the others.’

A student’s visual response to learning about the holocaust

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Managing students being out of school – sometimes teachers and students worry about school work that has been missed, time away from friends, or clashes between special school events and a Gifted Kids day.

Transport – transport can be a challenge, particularly in rural or low socio-economic areas.

Costs – schools pay $15 per student per session and parents are asked to make a termly donation.

Understanding who should attend and why – some teachers see Gifted Kids as a privilege and struggle to understand why the students that are going are not their best behaved or highest achievers.

‘It was my best time at school ever, the only time I’ve ever felt I fitted in.’

Sending students to Gifted Kids helps a school to better understand what giftedness means and to identify gifted students.

Schools are an integral part of the selection process and this involvement helps the school staff cement their understanding and make informed decisions for their students. ‘It’s helped us to realise how uneven the profile of a gifted child can be. If you just use regular school assessments for identifying gifted children, it really doesn’t quite work. There are other things that need to be considered,’ says Margaret.

Mainstream teachers can access the Gifted Kids’ teachers, resources and professional development. Gifted Kids provides free professional learning and development opportunities, invites mainstream teachers to several annual events and shares student portfolios with schools. ‘If the professional development is accessed or if the teacher makes connections with Gifted Kids, it can make them a more effective teacher back in their classroom and effective teaching will have spin-offs for all students,’ Dave comments.

Challenges Clearly, there is much to be gained by gifted students accessing an out-of-school provider like Gifted Kids. The review showed 97 per cent of respondents felt that the Gifted Kids curriculum helps to meet special learning, social and emotional needs.

However, such opportunities also have barriers and challenges.

Challenges may include: Students engage in hands-on chemistry lesson

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Wellington Gifted Kids students visit Victoria University

Overcoming the challenges Making out-of-school provisions a success is a matter of schools acknowledging the value of the programme and doing what needs to be done to overcome the barriers. As Margaret says: ‘Yes, of course there are some challenges and some barriers, but do we crash through the barrier and just keep going, or do we just build it higher?’

Out-of-school provisions, such as Gifted Kids, work best when the following things are in place.

1. Teachers value the learning and accept that sometimes those opportunities are more beneficial for that student at that time.

It works best when teachers see that the combination of school and Gifted Kids is what their student needs. ‘Gifted Kids is just one of the things that we do. It’s an accepted part of our culture. And particularly too because the teacher values it then the kids value it,’ Margaret comments.

2. Teachers have strategies in place for managing students being out of class. Dave Appleyard shares some strategies used by his staff to overcome this problem: juggle groups so kids don’t miss out on guided instruction; recap the day missed and ask about the student’s day; don’t be hung up about work that is missed –acknowledge that they’ve had a good days’ learning.

3. Both school and the out-of-school providers are flexible, but also recognise that regular attendance is important for kids to settle and succeed. When teachers at school and Gifted Kids are flexible, communicate clearly, problem-solve together, and consider options such as a half day or a day-swap, this problem can often be overcome.

4. A school financially plans for sending students to Gifted Kids.

There is a cost to a school for sending students to Gifted Kids. In return, their students receive specialised education for one-fifth of their school time and the staff are offered free professional learning and development. (Currently, Gifted Kids receives no funding from the Ministry of Education, despite the Ministry advocating for schools to access a range of provisions for their gifted students, including withdrawal programmes.)

There are many benefits to gifted students accessing an out-ofschool provider, but some effort and commitment is needed to make it work. When asked for her advice to schools considering

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Ollie learns about portraiture

sending students to Gifted Kids, Margaret responded, ‘For us it has been really successful. Certainly, take the opportunity to go to the open-days and evening events and find out what’s going on. Give it a go.’ As education moves more and more towards a learner-centred focus, Dave’s thoughts go to the individual child.

‘For that student, Gifted Kids could be “the thing” that hooks them into learning. There’s nothing to lose and you should make it happen.’

References Clark, D (2009). ‘Student Voice: Perceptions of the Gifted Kids Programme alumni 2000–2007.’ MEd thesis, Massey University, Palmerston North.

Freeman, J (1991). Gifted Children Growing Up. London: Cassell.

Ministry of Education (2000). Gifted and Talented Students: Meeting their needs in New Zealand schools. Wellington: Learning Media.

About the author

Joanne Bate was Associate Principal at Gifted Kids until December 2011. She has specialised in gifted education for ten years and has a Master’s Degree in Education, with a focus on gifted, through Massey University. She has taught gifted children and delivered professional development workshops around New Zealand. She has also attended several international Gifted Education Conferences. Jo enjoys travel, photography and spending time with friends and family.

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Solutions to inequality in sc achievement: policy mix or po John A Clark

School of Educational Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North j.a.clark@massey.ac.nz

New Zealand is not alone in acknowledging the serious problem of inequality in school achievement. Chris Husbands, the Director of the University of London Institute of Education, has observed that ‘England is notable for its PISA results for having a proportion of pupils whose performance is among the best in the world with a long tail of poorly performing young people’ (Husbands, 2012, p. 8). Where New Zealand seems to differ from other countries with the same problem is with the solutions offered to remedy the inequality. Some of the solutions are similar to those in other countries, but some are unique to New Zealand. This in itself might not matter except for two things. First, given that the causes of the inequality are to be found primarily in factors external to the school then it is a puzzle why all of the solutions on offer in New Zealand have a within-school focus. Second, given the plethora of solutions, as reported in the media, which all appear to be independent of one another rather than having a coherent policy mix we seem to have an incoherent policy mess. Given both of these points, it seems extremely unlikely that the inequality of school achievement will be sorted out until such time as attention turns to external causes and solutions which address these.

to substantially reduce unequal educational achievement must institute policies which both reduce social and economic inequalities and directly address the cognitive and affective disadvantages these cause long before schooling begins (ibid., p. 15).

They are right; any explanation of inequality of educational achievement must accommodate both within-school factors and those external to the school if a full account is to be given. To rely solely on within-school factors is only to tell half the story, and if Snook and O’Neill are correct then this would amount to even less than half. So, an explanatory theory which comes anywhere close to the mark in illuminating the cause(s) must be comprehensive rather than ideologically partial.

The difficulty with this way of seeing things is that it casts the matter as a dualism, of a conflict between within-school and external factors, which is not all that helpful in trying to get to the bottom of things. Another way, and a better way, is to reconceptualise the problem by replacing the dualism with a causal continuum. At one end are the proximal factors close to the action while at the other end are the distal factors far removed from the action and distributed between are those factors closer to or further from the action. Things close to the action might include whether a child is hungry or well fed, warmly clothed or feeling cold, is read stories by parents or reads to parents,

Causes of inequality in school achievement One of the biggest problems lies in locating the causes of the inequality in school achievement. The debate as it is currently engaged in pits external factors against within school ones. There is very substantial support amongst some academics, policymakers and Any explanation of inequality politicians for the notion that the causes of the of educational achievement must inequality can be firmly sheeted home to withinschool considerations. The Treasury and the accommodate both within-school Ministry of Education are of this persuasion as are those academics who support such programmes as factors and those external to the school reading recovery and Te Kōtahitanga. On the other if a full account is to be given. hand, there are some academics and many teachers who hold a contrary view that the causes of the inequality are located in factors external to the school and it is has a good or bad relationship with the teacher and so on. Far here that a causal mechanism must be found. Snook and O’Neill removed at the outer edge are things like government policies (2010), for example, remark that ‘It is clear that home background which determine the allocation of resources for, amongst other is the major determinant of educational achievement. . . . When things, education and health and frame the economic direction considered together, social class and home background effects which impacts on employment and the plight of the unemployed are always much more significant than any school or teacher in particular. effects’ (p. 15). They go on to say: While this reconceptualisation is much more complex than the There must also be changes in the wider community as simple dualism it replaces, and requires far more working out of this will require changes in social and economic policy, how it all hangs together as part of a causal mechanism to explain including parental support, pre-school and out-of-school the inequality in school achievement, it does have one great virtue education programmes, and efforts to enhance family over its impoverished rival – it is holistic in its approach and if and community well-being. Governments which want adopted would lead to a much greater impact on eliminating 26

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hool licy mess? the inequality. There is only one problem. For policymakers and politicians it is intellectually less demanding and politically more expedient to retain the dualism and favour the within-school side of the debate where they can pour resources in and hold teachers to account even though the causes, being external to the school, are not of the teacher’s making and are largely beyond the teacher’s control.

Solutions to inequality in school achievement A considerable number of solutions have been advanced as plausible means of reducing or eliminating the inequality of school achievement. Some of these are well known while others are not. What they all have in common is that they are within-school remedies. Given that the causes of the inequality are external to the school then it seems very unlikely that they will have much causal impact on the problem at all. This is not to deny that some of them might have some effect but this is likely to be minimal compared to the gains in achievement by the poorest performers if their out-of-school circumstances were significantly improved.

What are these various proposed solutions? Some of them are ‘biggies’ with the full support of the state. Perhaps the best known example is national standards. The National coalition government continues to pin its hopes on the dream that national standards will in some mysterious and miraculous way solve the problem of the inequality of school achievement. However, it seems very unlikely that National Standards will ever come anywhere close to doing so. Backing National Standards as a solution is a bit like boarding the wrong train at the wrong station.

The other major government initiative, more in the making than actual, at least at the moment, is the proposal to introduce charter schools. From the information about charter schools contained in the Annex to the National-ACT Confidence and Supply Agreement, the characteristics give no indication of how charter schools could possibly contribute to reducing the inequality but they do give very clear pointers to the role of charter schools in leading the way of competitive private providers in a free market of education provision. If anything, the pursuit of this proposed solution will in all likelihood increase rather than reduce the very inequality it seeks to address. But this contradiction somehow escapes the blinkered view of proponents.

Another option, perhaps slightly less well known but nonetheless well resourced through government funding, is Te Kōtahitanga, the research-based professional development programme. Not only does this eschew external factors, especially family-related differences which it labels as deficit

theorising, but it makes a virtue out of doing so. The Annex to the report on phase two of the project states the position quite explicitly and unambiguously: Effective teachers of Māori students create a culturally appropriate and responsive context for learning in the classroom.

In doing so they demonstrate the following understandings: (a) They positively and vehemently reject deficit theorising as a means of explaining Māori achievement levels (and professional development models need to ensure that this happens) (Bishop et al. 2005, p. 139) It requires very little imagination to picture teachers, in their Te Kōtahitanga professional development sessions, being instructed to chant with conviction and passion, with appropriate measures to ensure that they do, ‘I positively and vehemently reject deficit theorising as a means of explaining Māori students’ achievement levels’. How strange to deny that poor nutrition, ill health, inadequate clothing, illiterate parents, lack of new family experiences, parental supported truancy, absence of children’s books, consumption of alcohol and drugs, along with teenage pregnancy, road accidents and criminal activity could possibly have any causal link to school achievement. With this ideological stance, Te Kōtahitanga, too, seems doomed to fall well short of bringing about the equality its backers seek.

There are a number of other so-called solutions touted as worth considering for their power to ameliorate the inequality of school achievement. These include: quality teachers (Mr Makhlouf, the Treasury Secretary), performance pay (Mrs Parata, the Minister of Education), reading recovery (David Shearer, Leader of the Opposition), six-week teacher training programmes (Shaun Sutton, CEO of Teach First NZ / Graeme Aitken of the University of Auckland), computers in schools (Pat Sneddon, chair of the Manaiakalani Education Trust) and kōhanga reo (Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust Board). However, as within-school solutions, they are poorly placed to have any significant effect on the inequality of school achievement.

Policy mix or policy mess?

Given the various solutions advanced to date, with the likelihood of more to come in the future, it has to be asked whether these, taken together, provide a coherent policy mix or are no more than a very unfortunate policy mess? Taken at face value, the parts do not add up to much of a whole at all. Starting with national standards, the National party’s flagship, there does not appear to be any policy alignment with charter schools, the ACT

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party’s misplaced initiative. Add to the mix the other solutions and instead of baking a wonderful cake what we have ended up with is a very unappetising goo. None of the pieces fit together in any coherent or rational sort of way. Rather, new solutions emerge which their proponents champion as either the or a way forward with no regard to how any particular proposal contributes to the formation of a more coherent policy mix. So, instead, what we are left with is a policy mess which is deficient in one fundamental respect – the partial scope of within-school coverage and the incompatibility of the various bits renders the whole and its parts completely ineffective. Only when a coherent approach is adopted to identifying the causal set upon which plausible solutions can be based will we as a nation begin to address our greatest education problem, the inequality in school achievement.

References Bishop, R, M Berryman, A Powell and L Teddy (2005). Te Kotahitanga Phase Two – Towards a whole school approach. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Husbands, C (2012). Teaching and Learning in the Twenty-first Century.

London: University of London Institute of Education.

Snook, I and J O’Neill (2010). ‘Social class and educational achievement: Beyond ideology’, New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 45(2): 3–18.

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School Lines The new pandemic: growing numbers of schools and teachers with disabilities Lester Flockton

Feedback, feedforward, feedup, feeddown lester.flockton@otago.ac.nz

ERO has reported that a little over a quarter of primary schools have effective science programmes in place and that they are letting down their students when it comes to science.

In commenting on the report, Mr Stoop (chief review officer) said there has been a focus on reading, writing and mathematics (National Standards) in schools, meaning science does not receive the attention it could. I suspect that he could have extended that sentence to include speaking and listening (oracy), social sciences, music, art, dance, drama, health, physical education, etc.

The ERO finding is hardly surprising. We now have a system that puts virtually all of its eggs into the literacy and numeracy basket; a system that has reverted to 19th century thinking on the direction and purpose of education. This is the direct result of the backward flip (which in time will prove to be a flop) championed by the erstwhile Mrs Anne Tolley and hammered in by a Ministry of Education besotted with its new-found and spiralling power and control over boards, principals, their charters, targets, data, reporting (and there’s more of their way on the way). The consequence has been predictable: the growth of unwanted bureaucratic intrusiveness, an insidious erosion of self-management, formulaic teaching, and growing curriculum poverty. So, let’s do an epidemiological analysis of the viral contagion that is disabling the ability of many schools and teachers to advance the intent of the vision and direction of the New Zealand Curriculum.

It started in 2009 with Mrs Anne Tolley. I asked for her position on a good, well-rounded education for New Zealand children living in the 21st century. Her answer was quick, insistent and to the point: ‘It’s literacy and numeracy.’ And therein lies a key causal symptom underlying the current malaise. Regrettably, New Zealand does not have people in senior governmental positions of authority capable of or committed to enthusiastically embracing and leading a strong, progressive vision for the kind of education that would help enrich the lives of our young people living in times distant from Tolley’s 19th century. The Ministry of Education’s Statement of Intent 2011/12–2016/17 (2011) says (as it keeps on saying): New Zealand has a world-class, high-performing education system. International studies show that our highestachieving students are among the best in the world.

The system performs well for the majority of students, particularly those in higher decile schools, and tends to perform better for European/Pākehā students and Asian students. . . . yet a proportion of our population continues to be under-served by the system . . . Across the sectors the education system continues to persistently under-perform for some of our students. These students are proportionally more likely to be Māori or Pasifika, be

from low socio-economic communities or have special education needs. Disparities in education appear early and persist throughout learning.

We know ad nauseam about this performance profile based largely on international pencil and paper, multiple choice, timed tests that have been proven questionable for judging the achievement of children from different cultures. Moreover, since the large majority of our children are performing very well indeed, we need to keep asking why on Earth we have a National Standards system indiscriminately imposed on every school and every child? You don’t need to be too smart to work out where targeted support is needed. But it is the sort of MOE instrumentalist vision lurking behind National Standards that should raise serious questions and concerns: What we will do to effect change We will bring about change by supporting the teaching profession to improve the effectiveness of its teaching of foundation literacy and numeracy skills to all students. . . .

By helping more students to gain these critical skills when first taught, the pressure on and demand for corrective targeted interventions will reduce. It is anticipated that this in turn will free up resource currently being spent on these targeted interventions, and improve overall cost-effectiveness of expenditure in the schooling sector.

(Ministry of Education 2011, emphasis added) The vision is clearly about saving money (a dream, yet music to the ears of the Minister of Finance). There is nothing wrong with being cost-effective, provided we are careful about what we mean by effectiveness, especially in relation to the potential scope of outcomes in education, and how any ‘freed up’ resources would be used.

The disproportionate concentration of time, energy and resources on one basket of outcomes (reading, writing, mathematics) is ill-conceived and misdirected (the majority of children are already succeeding) and at the expense of a rich, balanced, modern curriculum (something that may not be within the radar of the Secretaries of Treasury and Education).

As Phil Harding, NZPF Vice-President has correctly stated, millions of dollars are being poured into implementing national standards that had to be drawn from somewhere: reduction in resources for professional development in all curriculum areas.

Support services for professional development and learning across the curriculum have been all but decimated by the Ministry with the exception of literacy and numeracy. Years of expertise, resourcefulness and wisdom have been summarily and shamefully wiped out – a move that fails to understand and recognise that primary teachers are general practitioners – not N Z Principal | J u n e 2 0 12

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subject specialists. For them to provide effective programmes across the curriculum they need and deserve access to ongoing professional support and guidance of a kind more powerful than TKI and the like can hope to offer despite good intentions.

The MOE’s much-vaunted Best (Available) Evidence Syntheses proclaim that high-quality teachers make the most difference for student achievement outcomes, and school leadership that promotes and participates in teacher learning and development has the greatest impact on student learning outcomes. While these findings are hardly news to practitioners in the field, the real issue is what outcomes are we talking about here? Since the Minister and her Ministry are fixated on reading, writing, and mathematics measures, these are seen to be the outcomes that count most with resultant serious neglect of other outcomes that are worthy of comparable value. Thus, teacher effectiveness for student outcomes beyond curriculum basics seems of little interest. They are largely unacknowledged by a governmental system that is controlling education in our country, despite occasional Education Gazette spin-ups that my inquiries suggest few teachers bother to read.

Ms Hekia Parata, the Government’s second Minister of Education, is stuck on the same wave-length, but she tunes in with a velvet glove. ‘I can’t raise achievement levels. The 54,000 teachers in classrooms and their 2,500 principals can do that.

We need to support them’, she is fond of saying. And in the same breath, ‘We need to increase accountability of teachers and principals’. Accountability for what? The quarter or so share of student achievement that can be attributed to teacher and school effects (the other three-quarters being attributable to personal attributes, home, income, etc.). Or accountability for student

achievement outcomes not in speaking and listening (oracy), social sciences, music, art, dance, drama, health and physical education, problem-solving, creating, etc. – but in reading, writing and mathematics?

And so we have the systemic disabling of schools and teachers to confidently commit to providing children with the educational opportunities and experiences that will help launch them with confidence into a world of complexity, challenge, change and excitement.

My advice, therefore, is to look beyond the narrow instru­ mentalist and technicist devices of current education policy in New Zealand with its denial of the factors other than school that affect student outcomes. It is time to enable our teachers to be responsibly non-formulaic, exploratory and adventurous risk-takers who competently attend to the bread and butter of literacy and numeracy, as they always have, but also take pride in giving children good daily helpings of the delights offered by a smorgasbord of rich and stimulating learning experiences across the curriculum. Don’t look to the Ministry for support or understanding. Take charge and do it yourself because the alternative may be a situation ‘where education is suffused by a cowering, utilitarian atmosphere that on the whole leaves it repressed, joyless and ineffective’ (Neyland 2010).

References Ministry of Education (2011). Ministry of Education Statement of Intent 2011/12–2016/17. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Neyland, J (2010). Rediscovering the Spirit of Education after Scientific Management. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

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• Access to the latest Education Resources, Products and Services and Infrastructure • Inspiration and ideas for your students, school and career For more information: Ph: (09) 448 5210

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Rural Ramblings Size does matter!

Baabaara Ramsbottom

It was only very recently – during an excellent Incredible three sets of scrabble, all with pieces missing.) Despite four years Years Teacher session when we were asked to recount what led of weekly lectures on the sociology of education, nobody had us to become teachers – that I realised that I began teaching bothered to explain the rudiments of classroom management. By at the age of 12. My Sunday school class of ten children were Friday lunchtime I was completely exhausted and on the verge pretty attentive given that the alternative was listening to the 45-minute-long Sunday sermon. I would spend several hours I find support in the evidence for the a week making cardboard models of whales which could swallow Jonah whole and then miraculously eject him days claim that there is a positive effect later without a scratch. Thankfully, 30 years on, I have reduced on achievement when class sizes are my lesson preparation time!

Despite this early apprenticeship, at the age of 18, I went reduced, although this effect is small to varsity to study law. It was after my first presentation on the components of a contract that my tutor suggested I look relative to other influences. into the Education Certificate being offered alongside degree courses – my multicoloured pens and bubble writing must of tears – my mentor (who had popped his head round the door have been a dead give-away! I wasn’t particularly sold on the every day to say, ‘everything alright?’ and then, despite the fact idea of ditching my glamorous vision of a career in law; until that it very obviously wasn’t, disappeared back to his classroom) my first teaching section when I met Mrs Grimshaw. I can still took me to the pub and bought me a pint of Guinness and vividly recall the assembly we planned together on the theme of imparted the golden advice, ‘It might help if you wait for them sustainability and American Indians. When I asked her how she to be quiet before you start talking.’

That afternoon the effects of four sleepless nights and some would create a full-size totem pole, she grinned and said, ‘Oh warm English beer meant that my class went shrieking home I’ve got no idea – but the children will!’

We spent three weeks adding papier mâché faces to Weetbix to tell their mothers that Miss (momentarily) fell asleep while boxes and fixing them on to a 3-metre cardboard tube (Shane’s reading the story. His advice worked though!

Over the course of my career I have taught classes which varied Dad ran a carpet warehouse.) On the day of the assembly all 42 children in the class danced in to ‘Walk this Way’ by Aerosmith/ in size from 10 to 60. Admittedly, the class of 60 was only for Run–DMC (Mrs Grimshaw brushed off the complaints of the an hour in a school in the Philippines with a total roll of 7,000 deputy principal who didn’t hold with that new fangled rap split into a morning and an afternoon shift. The school had very music!), while Emily read the speech of Chief Seattle in response little space and children spent the whole day in their classroom to the request of ‘the great chief in Washington who sends word he wishes to buy our land.’

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: the white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. I am a savage and I do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.

What is the white man without beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man. All things are connected.

Four years later, when I called the roll for the first time in my own classroom there were 37 names on it. (I seemed to have a disproportionate number of Waynes, Shanes, Tracys and Lees as well as a cupboard full of maths textbooks from 1965 and

Rangiwahia Jubilee

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and were rostered to play on the basketball court once a week.

That said they were strongly motivated to learn, their behaviour was impeccable and they learned in both Filipino and English.

John O’Neill’s article in the last issue (and Hattie’s response to his points which can be found online) have caused me to think back again over my experiences and the years when I know there was greatest pupil progress. Whilst I agree that quality teaching can occur in any class with a skilled and well-educated teacher – Mrs Grimshaw being a case in point – in my own experience it is certainly harder to meet the individual needs of 40 children than 20. It is widely misquoted that John Hattie’s work on Visible Learning claims that class size does not have an effect on learning.

In his response to John O’Neill’s article he clarifies: I find support in the evidence for the claim that there is a positive effect on achievement when class sizes are reduced, although this effect is small relative to other influences.

Both O’Neill and Hattie agree that this may be because most

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teachers do not change the way in which they teach in response to a smaller class and there would be merit in researching how teachers can do so. I would suggest that this research could be carried out very easily in any number of rural schools here in New Zealand, and I believe there would be numerous examples of teachers using approaches which maximise pupil progress.

In my own experience, given the assumption of an effective teacher, the behaviours that have the largest effect sizes such as giving high-quality feedback, using formative assessment and managing classroom behaviour are simply harder to deliver with a larger class. The Kahikatea strategy tells us that Māori learners – and I would argue all learners – need positive learning relationships with their teacher. Relationship building takes time, and again, is more achievable with a smaller class.

Meanwhile, like many of my rural colleagues, my mind is currently engaged with the problem of too few students. We have a roll of 16, my junior teacher is currently supernumerary and I will become sole charge at the end of the year . . .

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