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Impending NS changes: ORBIT, reducing OTJ to a figment, and expanding NS to all curriculum areas
A major claim for ORBIT is that it is curriculum levels-based not grades-based – a claim that is then used for all kinds of rationalisations. A claim that is absurd at the outset. Curriculum levels are unstable, nebulous things, unable to withstand serious consideration. The linear progressions for each child, with their multiple assessments, the numbers, the categorising into cohorts, are 18-carat gradings (in characteristics not validity), possessing an overwhelming authority in comparison. In other words, the grades established by ORBIT will overwhelm the significance of the levels, allowing teachers little opportunity for variance in respect to the ORBIT gradings. Any schools that consistently vary against ORBIT will soon be shown up and brought back into line.... more
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The day Roger Kerr sent me a legal letter from Kensington Swan
I had always thought that Roger Kerr incapable of an original idea, but I was wrong, after the publication of the following gentle satire in my magazine (Developmental Network Newsletter, No.3, 1997) he did, indeed, have an original idea (one or two others having now followed in his wake) – of issuing me a legal letter. So we had the situation of a powerful business lobbyist and powerful Wellington law firm, concentrating their sights on a magazine for primary teachers, circulation 2000 (three times a year). I was highly flattered. Apologise and retract the letter said, or else. All I did, I said in reply, was to extend the logic of your argument a little. People might think I made those remarks, he said. Yes – they might, I said, which is the justification for making them. (The two newspaper items are real.)... more
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National testing and Tolley, Key, and National: it is Testgate
Anne Tolley: ‘They say that similar schemes have not worked overseas. That is exactly why we are not introducing the kind of national testing seen in the United States and England. National standards are very different ...’... more
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Courage to seek assurances on national testing needed
A plea for our leaders, for political spokespeople, the media, to seek assurances that national testing will not be introduced – to get that on record.... more
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Government tender for rubrics is national testing and Hattie in disguise
When National came to power, the ministry set out three options: national standards; national testing (like Ontario); national testing (like Australia). The ministry, led by Mary Chamberlain, convinced Anne Tolley to national standards as the one easier to sell to the teachers and the public. We probably have to give some credit to Chamberlain and her team that they also believed it was the option less harmful to schools. Some months ago, when it became clear, even to the ministry, that national standards were unworkable, the decision was made to choose the Ontario option based on Hattie’s work. In response, a discredited Chamberlain abruptly resigned.... more
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Some very brief advice on the way forward
In undertaking such communications do not use your own computers or home phones or, of course, Facebook. These could be investigated by the States Service Commission officially. As well, there is a very active dirty tricks’ part to Tolley’s office which includes Facebook scrutiny and other digital scrutiny, the use of Whale Oil, and a whole range of occurrences. Anyone actively opposed to national standards knows what is happening and is feeling the effects.... more
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Roger Moltzen, new dean, accused of being an anarchist
To be honest (yet again) Coxy, if you can’t work out that schools are unique as government institutions, then, I’m afraid to say, your two years as an accountancy lecturer at a large polytechnic were largely in vain. Which is a surprise and disappointing, because two years as an accountancy lecturer at a polytechnic, especially a large one, has a track record of yielding considerable insight into, say, the functioning of, for instance, junior classrooms around New Zealand.... more
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More evidence of preparations for a form of national testing
The evidence for this is to be found on a relatively open government site but, at the same time, an esoteric site not normally frequented by people or institutions concerned with education issues.... more
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National testing is coming
Enquiries to reliable sources confirmed my conclusion – yes, it’s for national testing.... more
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SAPs on the move
Well, of course, how silly of us not to have recognised that public education led America into Vietnam, and Iraq, and Afghanistan; and elected George Bush; and set up a banking system akin to pyramid selling; and gave control of the media to magnates, and so on.... more
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