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25 June 2010

Dear Principals and Chairs 

National Standards

After significant deliberation, APPA recommends that its members cease to attend any training around the implementation of the National Standards.  APPA believes that the government's National Standards policy is irreconcilably flawed, confused and unworkable.  The standards are not in fact standards and therefore cannot be moderated to provide valid, reliable and consistent achievement data.  

APPA reminds the Prime Minister and Minister of Education that the key issues concerning National Standards as raised by leading New Zealand academics in an open letter dated 19 November 2009 remain unanswered. The academics stated that the National Standards system “will not achieve intended goals and are likely to lead to dangerous side effects". 

In summary, the concerns raised by the academics are:

1. "The intended National Standards system wrongly assumes that children are failing if they do not meet the standard for their age"
2. The potential for harm that "repeated labelling of many young children as failures" can cause to both learning and motivation
3. The damage that will occur to our students and our world class education system if the performance of children against the "standards" is reported publicly, as has happened internationally
4. The limited nature of the descriptions and standards without effective moderation will mean the information will be inconsistent and therefore unreliable

APPA believes the government's National Standards policy will not provide a solution to the Minister's issue of under-achievement. APPA advises members to continue to use robust assessment practices in schools and report accurately to parents in plain language.

Principals who have attended National Standards training so far have expressed very serious concerns about the inability of the trainers to answer crucial questions around the government's National Standards.

If these fundamental issues are not addressed, APPA will need to take further action.

Yours sincerely

Iain Taylor

APPA President