Tag: deciles

  • Decile Ratings to be Replaced

    “A controversial risk modelling tool to guide Government spending in schools is reportedly close to being signed off as a replacement for the decile system.

    The predictive risk modelling index would replace the decile system, Newshub has reported. The Government had long been in talks with organisations including the New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI), which also wanted the decile system scrapped.”
    Decision close on controversial predictive risk

    So, now that we have moved forward from the initial outcry over this model, what has changed?

    Not a lot – otherwise you’d think they would have announced those changes to smooth over the transition with the profession.

    Like I expressed in this post, there is a bigger picture at play here. Students will begin to get linked entirely to social, poverty, and criminal factors that they have little to do with. We will begin to judge parents over their pasts, and any record that they have that contributes towards funding. The Government will then have a complete and all encompassing database of every parent and every child in the country. Chances are, that while all good intentions may be behind this, at some point, something will go wrong. Chances are, they already have said database.

    A year ago this all hit the headlines. No surprises that John Hattie was in the thick of it throwing his virtual educational powers in the Government’s favour as per usual.

    So it would seem that regardless of what the sector say, the Government will just keep on rolling on with whatever they want to do.

    I’m quite glad I live in a democracy.

  • John Hattie: It is time to be rid of deciles – Education – NZ Herald News

    The decile system was introduced to guide equity funding to schools and in general it has worked very well. But there are two distinct aspects of deciles that need to be looked at separately.Firstly…

    Source: John Hattie: It is time to be rid of deciles – Education – NZ Herald News

     

    Deciles have long been under attack. Schools complain going up and down, parents are misguided as to what they mean, and the whole system is destined for an overhaul.

    However, I tend to agree (surprisingly) with Hattie’s comments regarding it. Let’s not completely throw the baby out with the bathwater.

    “It is time to be rid of deciles, but please find a way to have equity funding without the stigma that students in poorer areas receive a poor education. It needs to be based on a “basket of measures” and not be a single measure.”

    The reality is, that the key focus is around deciles being mis-interpreted as the quality of education at that particular school.

    Surely a little bit of public education would go a long way as to expelling this myth? Maybe then the government might come to realise just how difficult teaching actually is!