UNLEASH

ED

Tag: success

  • School funding not always linked to results

    Investing in education is one of the most promising ways for countries to secure their future.

    And yet, there is a surprisingly tenuous relationship between the amount of money spent per student and the results of international Pisa tests, at least when comparing relatively wealthy nations.

    South Korea is one of the highest-performing OECD countries, but spends well below the average per-student expenditure.

    Students in Poland, which spends around $68,000 (£52,000) per student between the age of six and 15, perform at the same level at age 15 as the United States which spends over $115,000 (£89,000) per student.

    That means despite spending much more money the US does not gain any advantage in results.

    More broadly, the world is no longer divided between rich and well-educated countries and poor and badly educated ones and success is no longer just about how much money is spent, but about how that money is spent.

    The teacher-pupil ratio in China and the United States is almost identical. But the Chinese chose much larger class sizes than are seen in the United States, up to twice the size. That enables the Chinese to give teachers much more preparation time, lesson-development time, time to collaborate with other teachers, time to work with parents and time to tutor students who are behind in class.

    It is the same cost, but very different approaches. Chinese policymakers traded larger class size for more professional collaboration and more favourable working conditions for teachers, while American policy-makers opted for smaller classes, lower salaries and less time to plan and collaborate.

     

    Read more here.

    Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40511185

  • Academic or Mechanic?

    The old smell of oil, diesel and grease fills the nose. The hunched over worker looks sideways from under the hood of a new Mercedes Benz and sighs with disappointment at the new arrival to his workshop. As I get out from behind the wheel of my pride and joy, my very first car, he wipes off his hands on a rag and comes over, somewhat disapprovingly. My light yellow, 1980 Daihatsu Charade coughs to a stop as the ignition switches off. The mechanic folds his arms.

    “It’s not quite up to standard.” I begin. “It needs a few new bits and pieces. I have the original owners manual, it’s in the back. The spare tire is inflated enough, and there air freshener inside has just been replaced.”

    “So what’s wrong with it?” muttered the mechanic, not at all impressed that I’d chosen his workshop to drop into. Usually cars like this go down to the wreckers.

    “Well, the Ministry of Environmental improvements have release New Standards for all cars, and this one seems to fail in most areas. It runs rich, costing lots more when I go to the pump. The emissions are through the roof evidently, and the steam coming from the bonnet after I run it flat out is a bit concerning. Also, I can’t remember the last time I changed the oil. I haven’t had time to get it serviced on any regular basis. The standards suggest that all cars need to be tuned to the optimal running speed of the Ferrari 458 Italia, which I assume won’t be too much to ask for?”.

    “Of course. The good ol MoE and their NS BS.” the mechanic replies in some sort of mixed up code.

    “So can you help me?” I ask, almost pleadingly.

    “Well, I’ll give it my best shot. But it’s going to take me quite a bit of time, effort, and of course, money.”

    “How about, if you just get paid your standard hourly rate. You can pay for some of the materials yourself, and after 5pm, you’ll be able to keep on working on it in your own time, I’m sure. I will need it back for the MoE by the end of the week.”

    “You’ve got to be joking?” laughed the mechanic, though obviously not in response to anything that would be considered humourous.

    “Well, that’s what the New Standards say customers should expect.” I reply. I’d done my research.

    “Like I say. I’ll give it my best shot.” retorted the mechanic, resigned to the fact that all he could do was try his hardest, knowing full well that getting the best out of this machine was one thing, getting it up to these New Standards was another.

    The mechanic returned to work on the Merc. It wasn’t far off the standard. It was new, and had obviously been looked after. The records showed regular servicing, and the fresh leather seat smell still lingered in the air. It was well fed too, with 98 octane premium fuel, and the best of synthetic oils. The engine ticked over into a gentle purr. It didn’t need much work to meet these new standards.

    Needless to say the Daihatsu never made it anywhere close to the speed of the 458. Not for lack of trying though. The mechanic worked night and day, and every working hour he had was poured into it and the other 29 cars in his workshop that week.

    In fact, the mechanic worked on it for a year, each and every day.

    By the end of that year, he had the little Charade up and running smoothly. The steam had gone, as had the oil leak. It got up to speed of around 100km/hr with little more than a sigh, and the coughing and spluttering that happened when ignition ceased was a thing of the past.

    Unfortunately, the mechanic was labeled a failure by the MoE because the 1980 Charade did not meet the expected level that they had set for all cars.

    Why is a short story about a mechanic and cars featuring on my education website?

    Well, as I’m sure you’ve worked out by now, this is a very simple analogy using comparison. In this particular example, the mechanic is a teacher, the selection of cars; students. Each and every year, teachers are expected to work miracles with some students, who face a range of challenges to meeting the standard, none of which are their fault. Some have had good support and upbringing, and others have had to face poverty, hunger, anger, and violence. Some have the essentials required to learn in a efficient way, others lack the basics to face the day.

    There is little doubt that the current Ministry of Education (MoE) and their National Standards (NS) seem ridiculous when applied to cars. But on many levels, the correlation in this analogy rings true, and holds firm.

    Maybe, just maybe, we should be educating students differently. Rather than getting each and every child up to a somewhat unattainable level, maybe we should focus on just getting from A to B, just like a good car should.

  • Gold medals for all

    Global (Bulk) Funding

    In the weekend just been, I caught up with Ms Parata’s latest palava regarding schooling and in particular, the funding of it. Needless to say, there was lots of conjecture, and I found it hard (yet again) to agree with much of what she has to say.

    Olympics

    At the same time, we saw the wind down of the 31st Olympiad in Rio De Janerio. I was able to make some links between the two. I’ve tried to get my head around the idea of what success is, and what it looks like; both in education, as well as in life, and using the Olympics as a starting point On what success looks like for New Zealanders.

    Assessment

    Ms. Parata signalled the intention to have a never-ending assessment system throughout every year of a child’s schooling, so that we can track and monitor student achievement, and thus be able to allocate funding more accurately to children who need it as soon as we begin seeing them to fall behind.

    But how robust are these assessment systems? The National Standards are full of holes and have long been criticised for their lack of National moderation and lack of Standard measurement. Yet, as we know, the Government continues to set the expectation that 85% of students will be At or Above their corresponding level across the country according to those National Standards.

    To University and Beyond

    In her statements, Hekia also mentioned that the aspiration for her assessment and data driven school system is to monitor students at each and every level so that they can go on to finish school, go to university and get employed.

    I have a series of problems with this.

    Don’t get me wrong; University definitely expanded my worldview, my knowledge and skills as an artist, as a photographer, and as a teacher. I met my wife at University.
    However, my personal view on this point is that if everyone has a degree, then that degree becomes less valuable, or even meaningless. The more people that get it, the less rare it is, and the more people are expected to get it or achieve it, and therefore starts on a never ending downward spiral in worth or value. Even take, for example, the status a Ph D. It still holds a lot of value because it’s a whole heap of hard work and not everyone can achieve that level of study or knowledge. If they started handing out Ph D’s to any Joe Bloggs who shows up, then the value of it decreases.

    The Value of Gold

    Much like at the Olympics, if we were to hand out gold medals to all who attended, then the value, the meaning, and the hard work that is represented in the gold medal would become completely meaningless. Gold medals become worthless, and suddenly don’t mean anything to anyone. They may as well be medals for participation.

    The New Zealand Olympic committee seemed to have a more realistic view on success rates. At no point did they expect everyone to get a Gold medal. In fact, some weren’t expected to medal at all. Some achieved that Gold medal who were expected to achieve it (Bond & Murray, Drysdale, Burling & Tuke, Carrington). Some missed out who we expected to get it (Adams, All Black Sevens), but we certainly don’t see them as failures. We also had some athletes get medals with non-gold shades on them who we expected to do so (Ko, Willis). And then we had others who we never expected to medal, but who shone on the world stage to get a medal around their necks (Walsh, McCartney, Rooney).

    There’s more to Education

    Like I say; don’t get me wrong; University is great and is a huge expectation and motivator for many of our students. The high expectations of teachers these days assist students to surge on to extend their learning at university; and somehow we manage to correlate this with success.
    However, that’s not a good picture to paint, especially if you look at the employment depletion in the area of trades. You see; some students might not be wired to go on to university. Some students would and will make great road workers, builders, plumbers and electricians without having to attend University. Some students show great natural talent in sports and university simply gets in the way of them making the most of their younger fit years. Are they any less successful, just because they don’t go on to university?
    No.
    So why are we making university the be-all-and-end-all of our education system? Surely it should be aimed towards making each student the best they can be to make the most of what is before them and give them the skills they need to be successful in life, regardless of what that life may be?

    Failure or Success?

    What’s more, just because you go to university it does not mean you will succeed. I know of many people who have got a degree and haven’t been able to use it to gain employment at multi national companies making lots of money or otherwise being deemed as successful. They’ve ended up pushing trollies at the local New World, or working retail on the city mall.

    In addition to this, I know of cases where folk who have never set foot in university are having an incredibly successful life. My brother is one of them. Never been to University. Got a job pumping petrol for a year while he studied automotive electrical at polytechnic, and at 26 was owner operator of his own workshop in that industry. In more, seemingly substantial terms, the likes of Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates all dropped out of University. One could not say that these people were not successful.

    Success Never Looked So Good

    Nikki Hamblin made international headlines these Olympics, not because she won a race or achieved a Gold Medal in her time at Rio, but because she stopped and assisted an injured runner who had toppled over Nikki only moments earlier. Both runners finished stone cold last. No medal. No glory. But both women went on to achieve sporting greatness and success in a different way – in Olympic spirit (as opposed to worldwide trending – just type Nikki into Google and see what shows up! ).

     

    Likewise, take the story of nineteen year old Eliza McCartney, who against all odds, found herself in medal contention with a few jumps remaining. In the following moments, the look of success, the sense of achievement could not be hidden from McCartney’s face as she took out the Bronze medal.

    A massive achievement for the 19 year-old, and a successful Olympic campaign, even though it wasn’t a gold medal.

    Success at the Olympics is not just about getting a gold medal. It’s about so much more than that. Likewise, being successful in education isn’t just about heading off to university after you’ve finished high-school.

    In Conclusion

    We need to broaden our definition of what we consider success. I’ve said it all before. This continuing narrow view that all students should go to University as a measure of success is stifling the entire education system of this country as we measure and measure again the weight of the pig at every opportunity. To use an Olympic analogy; a runner, rower, pole-vaulter won’t get any better by continually going for personal bests and trying to set records. Strength training, fitness, endurance, mental coaching, and more is needed for any athlete to perform at their best when it matters – on the world stage, at the Olympics.

    Students need to see that they can be successful in life without that pressure of having to go to University. Going to polytechnic, learning a trade, or even going to work in retail can all be successful pursuits in life. Let us not forget, that just because the All Blacks were not at the Olympics, doesn’t mean they are not the world champions who can embarrass Australia given the other sporting event on this weekend just been. We can hardly call them failures just because they do not have a Gold medal around their necks.

  • Inherit Racism in NZ Education

    Time and time again, we are told about the ‘long tail of underachievement’ and the hideously stereotyped over representation of Māori students within it.

    And because there is a ‘problem’, it seems that everyone is solely focussed on the achievement rates of Māori students. Ministry advisors visit principals and ask how their Māori target students are doing.
    Upon visiting ERO’s website, we see that they have a new approach for accelerating Māori achievement. Their major focus on any school they visit now is ‘How effectively does this school respond to Māori students whose learning and achievement needs acceleration?’
    In addition to this, we’ve heard from the Auditor-General that the supposed answer is more data on Māori students. All of this in an attempt to address the ‘problem’.

    It amuses me that ERO state that their reason  for targeting Māori student achievement is in an attempt to achieve ‘…equity and excellence of education outcomes for all New Zealand’s children and young people.’
    In other words; by targeting and singling out the failing Māori students, we are making schools more equitable for all students.

    This itself is incredibly insulting, and does nothing but reinforce the already very presumptive notion that Māori students are failing, as well as implies that Māori students are not intelligent, and aren’t achieving.

    What began me thinking about this was this video. It is a reaction towards the racial unrest happening in the US today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj19qIgkJUs

    It was very eye opening for me, especially when she says that there is only one race, and that is the human race. Races are just a construct that people have made to  over others.

    For years, ever since entering the classroom, I have rarely ‘seen’ the colour of my students. Obviously, some are white, like me, and others are brown; being Maori, Samoan, or other ethnicity where the pigment levels are higher than my own. But internally, in the way that I treat students, in the way I talk to them about their learning, their behaviour, their life; the colour of their skin has not even come into my consciousness. Interestingly, as I reflect on this fact – the students themselves don’t distinguish between being Māori, European, or Pasifika. They’re friends with whoever they want to be friends with; they work with whoever they want to.

    However, I’ve been made to feel bad about this. Evidently, by not noticing the colour of their skin, I am not addressing THEIR needs as a Māori student; even though I am treating them on an equal and level playing field as the many other students in my class. 

    Jane Elliot (of the prior video) illustrates why we should not say “we don’t see colour”. She has two people from a group come to the front, one white female, one black male, and asks what is the first difference the group notice. Someone says “male”, and Elliot asks if being a male is important to the man at the front. He responds appropriately. She asks if he would want others to see him as male. “Of course” he says. The next difference is his skin colour. “Is being black important to you” Elliot asks. 

    “Very important” he states.

    “And do you want others to see you as black?” 

    “Absolutely”. 

    It’s a part of who that man is. It makes up his identity; it’s part of his story of who he is, and he would want it to be valued by others just as he values it.

    We should absolutely see colour and value it as a factor in what makes up an individual’s identity; but that should have no bearing on the way that we treat them.

    Each child has their own culture, background, family situation, background, living environment, demographic, and world view (even if that has been constructed mostly by their parents and whanau at their age). Each child has their strengths, each child has their weaknesses. Being good at Mathematics, or succeeding in Reading, or creating amazing work in Writing has little to do with the colour of their skin or their whakapapa (genealogy), just as it has nothing to do with being right or left handed, which gender you are, or if you have blue or brown eyes. Intelligence, or educational achievement is not determined by the level of pigmentation that students are born with.

    No doubt; being of Māori descent has a lot more to do with a person than the colour of their skin; just as having Irish, Japanese, or African origins would as well. We’ve been told to “help Māori achieve as Māori“, and there has been endless discussion as to what this means, and what it looks like in the classroom. In a nutshell, teachers need to ensure that each child is valued for their culture. In particular, this statement refers to our Māori students. However, it is my belief that teachers already are doing this – certainly all the ones I have been in contact with over the years. Valuing a student’s culture, and treating them as important is completely independent of their intelligence or educational achievement. No matter the ethnicity, there is no evidence to suggest that a person’s culture or ethnicity has anything to do with their level of intelligence. There’s no evidence, because it simply does not exist.

    Of the many classes I’ve taught, there have been many, many students who have succeeded. Many, many of my best students (in academic regards, as well as all-round individuals) have been Māori, and despite the ongoing stereotype that they ‘should’ be struggling, have left other students, some Māori, some non-Māori, in their wake. In addition to this, many, many of my students have fallen short of the farcical ‘National’ ‘Standards’ level for their year group. Many of these students have not been Māori, and many have been girls – even though the presumption is that those that struggle most are Māori boys. Many of the best students in my class have had blue eyes, and some have had brown. Others have been left handed. And all of them have had some other random categorical anomaly that we could use to put them in a box.

    It wasn’t that long ago when children attending school were discouraged heavily from using their left hand to work. Starting back in the middle ages, left handers were believed to be of the devil, and “…discriminatory practices and attitudes against left-handers persisted well into the 20th Century. At mid-century, eminent American psychoanalyst Abram Blau was still suggesting that left-handedness was merely due to perversity and the result of emotional negativism, on a par with a child’s obstinate refusal to eat everything on its plate.”

    Yet now, it would seem completely ludicrous to begin collecting data on left handed students and pouring over their academic results in an attempt to prove or disprove their academic ability. Likewise, if blue eyed students were disproportionately making up the ‘long tail of underachievement’, then you would say that it would be a complete waste of time to begin targeting these students, over-testing them, collecting and analysing data to see what kind of teaching is going to best suit students with blue eyes. These two examples both seem ludicrous because a) they are, and b) we KNOW (or assume) that neither left-handedness or iris melanin levels have anything to do with a person’s academic potential or ability.

    maxresdefault

    So what is the solution? Well, if you can answer that, then you could probably make yourself quite a bit of money.

    All I know is that there are a myriad of things that allow students to achieve well academically.

    • Sometimes it may be their ability to focus and remain on a task.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to retain information, whether from visual (pictorial, or words), aural, or kinesthetic.
    • Sometimes it may be the support they get at home to assist with their learning, or the development and engagement they get from adults in the household.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to overcome distractions, health issues, or learning difficulties.
    • Sometimes it may be the amount of food they have to eat each day.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to deal with stress, depression, or other mental struggles.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to lead others, or work with others in collaborative ways.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to use their own experiences to inform and make their  learning personal to them.
    • Sometimes it may be the importance or priority that education has in their family.

    Very few of these have anything to do with ethnicity. Regardless if you are left handed, blue eyed, Māori, Samoan, Irish, Japanese, African, or European, your ability to have academic success is largely based on things other than your culture or ethnicity.

    But most importantly, let’s abandon this construct of race. Regardless of who you are in New Zealand, we cannot change the past. Yes, there have been some atrocities carried out by the European’s upon arrival and colonisation – but none of them are alive today. Likewise, those that these acts were carried out against are no longer with us. Instead, it’s about time we begin moving on as one nation – together.  We are New Zealanders. We live in Aotearoa. We’re in this boat together.
    We cannot keep separating ourselves, and we cannot keep ‘targeting’ Māori students because they’re susceptible to failing. That merely provides and enables the box to keep them in – the very box we are trying to get them out of! It puts Māori in an inferior place – even if only subconsciously – and keeps them there by continuing to revisit, deliberate, collect data, analyse and otherwise pull apart every aspect of any test students sit. Instead, we need to see each student as individuals. If they need help academically, we provide them with the skills they need to hopefully succeed, regardless of their race. We value students of any nationality, ethnicity, culture, or eye colour. We consider this as an important part of each child’s character, and we use it to their advantage wherever possible. We ‘target’ the students who need help, and we celebrate the success of students, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, and eye colour.

    This essentially gets rid of the box.

    This essentially creates “…equity and excellence of education outcomes for all New Zealand’s children and young people.”

    Ki te kotahi te kakaho ka whati, Ki te kapuia e kore e whati

    Alone we can be broken. Standing together, we are invincible.

     

     

     

    Please note; as I write this, I want to maintain a very independent view. However, being of NZ/European descent, I have a certain point of view which may be different to others. I do not wish to speak for Māori when I say ‘get rid of the box’ – though I would very much assume that Māori wouldn’t want that box anyway!

    In all seriousness though, I cannot and will not speak for all people, and the views I share are my own. I am not an advocate for racism and sincerely hope that none of my statements have caused offense in regards to race. I am also not an advocate for ‘anti-racism’ or ‘reverse racism’, such as being annoyed or disgruntled at the priority placed on Māori students and not students of other ethnicities. Such a view is not helpful and shows a distinct lack of understanding of key issues relating to race and ethnicity prejudice.
    The statement of ‘Māori achieving as Māori’ has very much been difficult for me to get my head around over the years. This is mostly because I don’t see the relevance of defining a person’s culture with anything related to achievement.

    Please comment below, or get in touch with me if you would like to discuss any of the points raised, or to put me right in any of my statements.

     

  • The All Blacks and Education – Hekia Parata

    In response to Hekia Parata’s Facebook image this week.

  • Bill Sole: NZ needs more apprentices | NZ Herald News

    Once again the universities are the big winners in the Budget. Unfortunately, despite international research increasingly pointing to the value of workplace training and apprenticeships, the 2015 Budget…

    Source: Bill Sole: NZ needs more apprentices – Education – NZ Herald News

    The idea of success in education is almost entirely based on academic results leading to university entrance, completion of a degree, and then onto a high paying job in an ivory tower south of Mordor.

    Okay, maybe that’s slightly Tolkien-ised.

    But success can be, and is, so much more than this.

    At the age of 26, my brother took over the business he was working for. Both of us were lucky enough to have parents who were able to send us through private schooling. So we had ‘the best’ of education. Both of us went onto further study – myself heading to art school and then Victoria University to become a teacher. But for my brother, the idea of sitting a) through lectures, and b) in an office, were less than appealing. Instead, he decided to get into something he was interested in. Cars was it.

    From there, he went through polytech, served an apprenticeship, and now is in his third year as a successful business owner. And he is under 30.

    Success.

    But no university qualification. No long hours of study or endless exams. And he’s not stupid, nor academically inept.

    The reason I bring this up is because the current education climate in this country is best summed up in this poem I wrote last term.

    Test, test, test.
    Assess, assess, assess.
    Achieve academically,
    and that is success.

    If this is what success is deemed by, then very few will be determined to be successful. Let us not forget that the likes of the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple – the world’s most valuable company (May 2015) Screen Shot 2015-07-11 at 12.58.00 pm– was a college (NZ calls them ‘universities’) drop out – ie. he left before completing any tertiary qualification. Another rather successful college drop out is one Mark Zuckerberg, who is creator and CEO of a website called Facebook.com. You might have seen it? Zuckerberg has a reported personal wealth of some $38.6 billion (US) at the age of 31. He was a billionaire by the age of 23 – 5 years out of high school. He put himself on a $1 salary in 2013. Screen Shot 2015-07-11 at 1.03.50 pm

    Both of these cases are extremes. Once in a lifetime examples. But examples none the less. Both of these men are undoubtedly what we would deem as successful, in terms of their influence in the world, as well as their personal wealth and the wealth of the companies they ran/run. But according to our current educational climate, they would both be considered failures.

    For me, education is important. But doing what you love to do in life is more important. Getting to the point in education where you can go on and do what you want to do in life is what I would determine to be ‘academic success’. Apprenticeships should not only be supported, but encouraged as a viable means of continuing with educational success, rather than the stigma of what you do if you’re ‘no good at school’, so to speak.

     

  • Student Success

    Can you read? Can you write? Can you count?

    If you say yes to these then you are a success. You have succeeded at school. You’ve made suitable progress through your years at school. Heck… You’re verging on being a genius. You’re probably headed to university, or some high end CEO job, and once you’ve done that, and are trying to work out what to do with your money after all the property you now own, you might just run for prime minister.

    If the importance that is placed on National Standards in this country is anything to go by, then this will be reality. Yet we keep on getting pressured into widening the curriculum day after day, by all the different curriculum areas; science, the arts, p.e. and health. Fitting all of this in within the school year is challenge enough, yet alone finding time in the school day. Many teachers have had to learn and adapt, and thus begin integrating reading, writing, and maths in amongst the other subjects.

    children-99507_640But isn’t success more than this?
    I’ve had a myriad of students through my classroom doors, some who are very successful academically. But I will always remember one student, Polly. Polly of course is a made up name designed to remind me who it is, but disguise her identity for privacy reasons. Polly was a neat student. She was on time most days, was well presented, had lunch, came from a home with supportive parents who turned up to school events when they could.  Polly had great friends, and was always very kind, considerate, and respectful towards others. She didn’t have a bad word to say about anyone. Polly got on and did her work. She was enthusiastic about school and about learning. She wasn’t the best at maths, reading, or writing, but always gave 100% effort and put her heart and soul into her work. But 2010 rolled around, and with it the implementations of National Standards, I found myself having to try and explain to Polly and her concerned parents why she was Well Below in all three areas. It simply wasn’t fair. Polly became a target student, and her progress was routinely monitored. By the time she left school, she was still Below the National Standards in all three subjects, but was a long way from being an ‘unsuccessful’ student. In fact, she was a very long way from being a ‘below’ student as well.
    You see, Polly had a lot going for her. She had perseverance. She had respect. She had kindness and reliability. Polly had great running ability, and determination, confidence, and commitment to boot. She had a dramatic flair, although only used this when she was required, on stage, in assemblies, and class plays. She got along with everyone, even those who crossed her. You see, when I said goodbye to Polly from my class, I knew it wouldn’t be the last I saw her. I knew that out in society, in the real world, whatever Polly chose to do with her life, she would be a success. She had the qualities that will make success inevitable. While she was not the brightest student academically, she will do well for herself regardless. Whether she becomes a stay at home mum, or a fast-food chef, air hostess, veterinary assistant, early childhood educator, bus driver, receptionist, or the second wealthiest CEO in the country, it won’t matter, because what ever she chooses, she will be successful at it – I am sure of it.

    grads

    In my experience, I’ve been through a few different ‘Graduate Profile’ activities, where we as teachers get around and discuss what skills and qualities we would like our students to leave our school with. Each and every time we end up with a list that includes many, if not all of the following skills and qualities:

    Creativity, Resilience,Able to work with a variety of different people, Motivated, Persistence, Expresses themselves, Curiosity, Humour, Endurance, Reliability, Empathy, Leadership, Compassion, Courage, Resourcefulness, Humility, Communication Skills, Thinks of others, Shows respect,  Shows not tells, Trusts others, Social skills,  Role model, Mentor, Volunteers, Gives to others, Active participator, Takes suitable risks, Uses initiative, Confident, Trustworthy, Problem Solver,Self Awareness, Self Discipline, Self Motivated, Ambitious, Flexible, Positive attitude.

    When you look through this comprehensive list, there is no question that they are suitable desires for schools to have for their students to have leave with, and more often than not, when teachers are asked to come up with such lists, no where is academic ability mentioned. No where on our Graduate Profile as a school does it say that a ‘model A’ student that leaves our school will be At or Above the National Standard.

    It’s definitely worth thinking about.

    What does success mean to you in regards to education and learning? Feel free to comment your ideas below.

  • Educated Statistics

    Those that know me, know I hate Maths, but love Statistics. Maybe it’s the graphs and the figures; but mostly it’s the story they tell without having to say anything. Interpreting the statistics isn’t rocket science, and generally they can speak a lot of sense into a confusing situation.

    It’s no wonder then that recently I have been looking into a range of different statistics surrounding Education in New Zealand at the moment. With the upcoming election, it’s important to have a grasp on what the current Government is trying to do, as well as what the implications are (if any) for them or the opposition hopefuls.

    Class Size vs & Quality Teaching

    Firstly, there is a perception out there that the two major parties are at odds about their policies. National are investing in IES / Quality Teaching and Labour are saying the money would be better spent being putting into lowering class sizes. This is not an either / or situation, but a fact that both are important, but each are differing as to the importance of them, and the priority they hold in the current educational climate.

    I must say that having worked in a classroom for the last five years, I would be able to better spend my time focussing on each individual child in my class if there were less of them. Not because of a time factor (although this would certainly come into it) but because of a behaviour management factor. I certainly notice a huge improvement in my students focus when there are 5 or 6 away. My class size for the lat 6 years has been:

    • 2009: 31 students
    • 2010: 28 students
    • 2011: 29 students
    • 2012: 27 students
    • 2013: 27 students
    • 2014: 27 students

    National claims to already have addressed the class size issue by employing more teachers. I’ve yet to see any impact of this at the school where I work, and certainly from the class sizes above we’re still talking a lot of students. I’m also not about to say that Labour’s proposed ratio of 1:26 is going to change much; except that if I’m operating on a ratio of 1:29 and I have 27 (2 less than the ratio size), then under Labour I should see a class of 24. Which already becomes more manageable from a teaching point of view.

    Class Sizes & Number of Teachers

    Yesterday I wrote about this in another blog post (see here):

    “I headed over to EducationCounts.govt.nz and downloaded their spreadsheet on student numbers since 1996.

    We can see that Screen Shot 2014-09-05 at 6.29.05 pmin 2008, the student numbers were 758,094 students.

    In 2013 there were 762,400 students. This is an increase of 4,306 students. That’s 0.56%. Half a percent.

    4,306 students would be spread across 149 classrooms, (based on the teacher/pupil ratio in NZ state schools of 1:29)

    That’s 149 teachers that are needed in the increase to maintain this ratio.

    In 2008, there were 52,958 teachers according to EducationCounts.govt.nz. In 2012 (which is as far as I can go from the same spreadsheet) there were 54,250 teachers.
    However, in this news release, it states that teacher numbers increased from 55,124 in 2008 to 58,707 this year. Discrepancies will exist, and some will include ECE Teachers and other teachers.
    For the first set of data from EducationCounts (which remember, is a government website), there is an increase of 1,292 teachers, or 2.4%.
    For the second set of data from the press release, there is an increase of 3,583 teachers, or 6.4%.

    Both somewhat removed from Hekia’s 15% (or ghost teachers as I call them).

    Even if we take the smaller percentage, and the increase of 1,288 teachers in 2012, it is still far, far away from the 149 new teachers that are required. That’s a surplus of 1,139 teachers.

    Obviously a lot of teachers are part time or reliever teachers. So lets take a look at FTTE teachers (Full Time Teaching Equivalent).

    With full time teachers, there has been an increase of 1,102 FTTE Teachers (2008-2012 data). Still not even close to the 149 teachers it would require to lower the class ratio to 1:29 based on the data.

    The difference between full time teachers, and the total number of teachers is just under 6,000 teachers in 2012. With 49,305 full time teachers spread across the 762,400 students (2013), this makes a teacher ratio of 1:15. This of course is an average, with a lower ratio in junior classes and senior classes, creating the 1:29 bulge in the middle.

    To change the ratio from 1:29 to 1:26 it requires a bit more mathemagic. The main reason for the difficulty is we have to work out the different ratios. For this, we go back to our first spreadsheet. I’ve put the resulting data into the table below.

    Current Teacher / Student Ratio No.of Students Required No. of Teachers Lowered Teacher / Student ratio Required No. of Teachers
    for New teacher/student ratio
    Year 1  1:15 64,208 4,280 1:12 5,350
    Year 2-3  1:23 118,549 5,154 1:20 5,927
    Year 4-8  1:29  295,858 10,202 1:26 11,379
    Year 9-10  1:23.5 117,265 4,990 1:20 5,863
    Year 11  1:23 60,805 2,643 1:20 3,040
    Year 12  1:18 55,277 3,071 1:15 3,685
    Year 13  1:17 48,905 2,876 1:14 3,493
    Total 33,216 Teachers  38,737 Teachers

    I don’t confess to being a mathmagician; and there may be a high possibility I’ve missed out some key information. At least I’m prepared to admit it if I get it wrong. If you find some issues with these numbers, can you please comment about where I’ve gone wrong so I can put it right.
    But to my knowledge, I’ve done the math correctly; and it raises some very interesting questions. Most importantly, if we lowered class size ratio by 3 students for each year bracket, we only increase the FTTE by 5,500, and we are still well within the current 49,305 current FTTE teachers.”

    The Cost

    One thing I didn’t go into in my last post is the cost associated with lowering the class size. Obviously cost is a big factor when government’s make policies, though some (including me) may ask does it matter when it comes to Education – we’re building the future generation… We do still need to be accountable.

    One thing I won’t go into arguments over is the associated costs such as building new classrooms to accommodate the extra classes needed due to the decrease of teacher:student ratio (needing a higher number of classrooms in the school”. The reason being is two fold: firstly, that the government hasn’t taking into consideration the associated costs, such as, hiring relievers, in their IES policy, and secondly, there are many, many schools with now empty classrooms, as there are also those with no extra classrooms. When we are discussing averages (such as we are here given the access to data I can find) we learn that we give and take a little either way.

    So lets have a look at the stats:

    The average teacher salary in 2012 was $71,526. The average secondary school teacher earned $73,995, while the average primary school teacher earned $69,660. Whether this figure has gone up or down since 2012 is difficult to guess as we would have to ask Novopay!

    Using these averages and multiplying them out by the increases I found yesterday, we get a table that looks like this:

    New T:Ss Ratio Number of New Teachers Req. Cost
    Year 1 1:12 1,070 $74,536,200
    Year 2-3 1:20 773 $53,847,180
    Year 4-8 1:26 1,177 $81,989,820
    Year 9-10 1:20 873 $64,597,635
    Year 11 1:20 397 $29,376,015
    Year 12 1:15 614 $45,432,930
    Year 13 1:14 617 $45,654,915
    Total 5,521 $395.5 million

    Don’t worry though. Take off 15% that the Government gets back through taxes, and the actual cost to the Government to lower class sizes to my proposed (and generous) class size model is $336.2 m. Certainly looks a lot like $359m to me. In fact, with the additional $22.8 million left over, they could put it into my personal account for having such a brilliant idea.

    What about Private & Charter Schools?

    Private Schools

    One of the most boring and overused quotes in the class size debate is: “You don’t remember your class size, but you remember when you had a good teacher.”

    I went to private schooling. I think my largest class was in Intermediate where I think we peaked at about 24 students. I certainly remember my good teachers. I also remember the bad ones. I also remember that none of my classes were with 30 other students.

    The quote is over-rated. You can say just about the same for anything. ‘You don’t remember all the meal’s you’ve had, but you remember you if you had a good chef’ or ‘You don’t remember all the kilometres you walked, but you remember your favourite pair of shoes’ or ‘You don’t remember all of the politicians names, but you remember when one used this quote’! It’s just silly nonsense they try and play with your intellect.

    The fact is, yes; I felt I was an individual in the classes. I wasn’t lost under 30 other students. I had my chance to shine.

    Incredibly interesting that John Key chooses to send his children to private schools. Hekia Parata’s own daughter attended Wellington Girls High School, the only Decile 10 state school for girls, which also consistently gets 4-5 year ERO reviews (since 2005), and boasts a 25 pupil class size.

    Charter Schools

    Based on the interview given on Q&A this morning (part 1, part 2) (Sunday 7 September 2014, 13 days out from the election), Hekia listed some hard hitting ‘facts’ about Charter Schools and their registered teacher status (Video at 5:57) . I put facts in inverted commas, because we all know how the Minister can get these wrong from time to time and has to back down from her statements. However, she was quite adamant that these were in fact true, that out of the 36 teachers at the charter schools, 32 were registered with a practising certificate.

    Unfortunately for Hekia, she also spelled out a few more interesting pieces of data along side this. She stated that there were:

    340 students in the 5 charter schools. Doing the maths, this makes the average Charter School size with a roll of 68 students. Obviously, some will be higher, some will be lower. I’m purely talking about the averages.
    In addition to this, if we take our 340 students and divide them evenly among the teachers at these charter schools (all 36 of them), it doesn’t take much to realise that there is less than 10 students per teacher. In fact it’s 9.6 students per teacher.

    Put in cold, hard, but realistic terms, it’s an average class size ratio of 1:9.6 . Which is quite low when considering my class of 27. That’s one third of the size, something I couldn’t even have a decent dream over these days.

    As a side note, I’m quite intrigued that the term ‘Partnership School’ (remember that!?) has been dropped in all political debates around this issue so far.

    In Conclusion

    Do we need lower class sizes? No.
    Do we need the Investing in Educational Success policy? No.
    Do we need to make wholesale changes to the Education system? No.

    We have world class teachers who get paid boatloads to go and work overseas.
    We have a world class curriculum which other countries only dream of and drool over.

    The reality is that as most educationalists (including Parata and Key) know that the biggest influences on a child’s upbringing happen outside of the school gates. National Standards have done nothing but show where people live. I’ve calculated in my previous posts the amount of time our children are actually in school in any given year back in 2011. The stats are hard to believe: its less than 15% of the year when broken down into hours!
    The problem for the government (and teachers) is that they cannot control those factors. And so rather than being seen to be doing nothing about ‘the tail’ of underachievement, the government is targeting teachers and schools and saying that we aren’t doing a good enough job and we have to try something different. That quote pops out from Hekia’s mouth ‘If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we’ve always got’. Yet what if it’s not education that is the problem? We have a tail which underachieves, not because they are dumb or incompetent, but because their home-life is stressed, violent, and broken. There’s no food on the table and no money under it. Keeping warm is a luxury, let alone keeping healthy. All of these issues are BIG factors which I have written about before. My challenge for those that don’t believe these are factors is to go without food for a day or two and try studying for an exam. Seriously, after about 10 minutes of reading text, you will only be thinking about how hungry you are. And when that’s all you’re thinking about, it becomes very difficult to stay focussed and learn anything. Now make yourself a 10 year old child. You might begin to understand the ACTUAL reality behind our under achieving tail.

    Unfortunately for everyone, those issues are out of anyone’s control. There is a limit as to how much the government can control those ‘out-of-school’ influences. And so they make changes to those things they can control – the teachers. Change. Change. Change. Assess. Assess. Assess. And cross our fingers that things get better.

     

    Note: You may detect a degree of bias away from the National Party, and that is purely because they have made the job of teaching to be a lot more work for not much reward with National Standards (which aren’t even National, nor Standard – yes I have proof should you wish to see it), as well as a lack of confidence in Hekia Parata; backing down on increasing class sizes (which was the honourable thing to do), closing schools in Christchurch, and the ridiculous implementation of Charter Schools based on the wishes of ONE candidate who had a cup of tea with the Prime Minister once. Need I mention the balls up with Novopay, the resignation of Secretary of Education Lesley Longstone, the deformation of Teacher’s Council to be replaced by a board with no Teacher representative, and of course the new Investing in Educational Success initiative. I am in no way a Labour supporter or spokesperson, and have disagreed with many of their policies around the Mid 2000’s.
    None of the stats, facts, or figures I have had to hack into anyone’s emails or websites to obtain. These are all freely available to the public through websites that I have visited. I have no affiliation with WhaleOil.
    I must also point out and make this very clear; I write this as an individual, not as a representative of my classroom, nor my school, or Board of Trustees which I currently serve on. My views are my own, and I encourage you to talk with me should they raise any concerns for you.