The Long Tail (Tale?)
As you may be aware the campaigning is well underway for the upcoming election, and as usual, education will be a hot topic. Politicians will no doubt debate, throw statistics, policies and philosophies at each other, and to the voter, in a bid to hold office for the next three years.
Thus, I thought I might throw some stats too. Often we hear (usually from the Minister of Education) about the 20% of students, or one in five, who leave school that can not read or write. This 20% has been named the ‘tail end’. This would be a total outrage, if true. An article by NZEI President, and local Principal, Ian Leckie published some more accurate facts in the recent Education Aotearoa magazine.
The first is that 84% of New Zealand students pass NCEA Level 2 (old 6th form cert). Of the outstanding 16%, 3% have servere learning disabilities (that is, they have trouble holding a pencil). So this now leaves 13% of students who are not passing NCEA level 2. Of this 13% about half have the ability to pass but choose not too. This could be for a number of different reasons, job offers, apprenticeships, or the student does not what to sit NCEA. The remainder are the students who are leaving school with a very low reading, writing and maths level (about 6% to 7% of students). These are the students that need a lot of help and unfortunately a lot of these students are closely correlated to poverty too. It is here that politicians must recognise the student as a whole, that schooling, home and community all play a part in helping these students reach their potential.
I believe that most politicians get into the game to truly make New Zealand a great place to live, but it is important that they do not use misleading statistics for political gain, especially when there are children at the end of those stats.
What’s The Plan??????
I recently attended an Asia NZ Foundation meeting here in the sunny Bay. The meeting was held for school principal’s to express that students need good, strong and positive Asia links within the curriculum. There were a number of speakers, who spoke about how important the Asian market is to New Zealand, especially around the dairy industry.
It is would appear the the next economic super power will be a country in the Asian region, in fact probably a couple of countries, and that we need to prepare students for this. I directed a question to one of the guest speakers, who spoke really well I might add, about what the big picture is. I asked the following question;
“It is clear that we will never be able to produce enough dairy or produce to satisfy the Asian market. It is also clear that it would not be sustainable to clear all forests and towns to put into farms, orchards or the like. The Asian area is renown for their ability to produce goods to a very similar appearance to other well know goods. New Zealand’s Cookie Time Cookies, to the USA’s Apple Stores have all been reproduced in the Asian area. So what can we offer to an area that they can’t make for themselves, and is unique to us? What is the 20 year plan? Making Chicken Korma and learning about the Punjabi area is all nice but how can we really prepare our students to be ready to be part of the Asian economy?”
The answer I got wasn’t really what I wanted to hear, which was a whole lot of not much. Being told that schools need to prepare students with ‘skills’ is fine, but schools need to know what these skills are and what plans government has that we can ready our students for.
This was when Mary-Anne Mills from Core Education then offered a differing point of view. She suggested that schools really need to focus on Science in the classrooms. Students at secondary level are dropping out of science at a large rate and it is an area she suggested would be of great benefit for schools to target.
This was music to my ears, as we have just begun developing a science curriculum for our school. I believe that by infusing the Key Competencies with Science and Technology and throwing in some Kiwi Ingenuity our students can truly be ready to be global traders. What do you think?
A Dictionary Lesson
The definition of ‘juxtaposition’ on the TV 3 website?
“I’ll be back.”
I have just watched Green MP Gareth Hughes question the Commerce Minister Simon Power on what steps the Government had taken to prepare the public for the legislation. One question in particular was of interest, and that was around what had been done to advise schools on the new ‘Skynet’ law. Mr Power appeared confident that schools had been advised, I guess we must have missed that memo.
At present this is not a big deal for our school (try downloading a movie at the gargantuan speed of 256K). However with fiber being installed at our school this year (and other schools throughout NZ) this will be an issue. Sure we have encrypted passwords, and security, but so does the FBI and people can still get into their systems and have a good old poke around.
My point is with ultrafast broadband and a virtual ocean of torrents out there and kids being kids, the temptation (and challenge) is there to download the latest movie using the schools internet access. If this happens (and it probably will to at least one school) what happens? Does a school loose it’s internet access due to one student, or one member of the public with a lot of time on their hands?
What is clear here (and Mr Power’s non-answer to the Netflix question clearly supports this statement) is that a law that has good intentions has been rushed through with little thought and very little understanding. Here is hoping the T800 doesn’t come knocking on our door anytime soon.
Have A Say
I recently received a letter from the Hon Tony Ryall, MP for the Bay of Plenty, asking for my thoughts in regards to education issues. Whilst some of these questions are more appropriate for me to answer, I felt it would be beneficial to hear your opinions on the other questions.
The following are questions that you may like to have a say on. You may like to comment here (click on the comments bar), email me, or if you want to be more personal you are more than welcome to come into school and have a chat.
- What challenges do rural communities face in early childhood education? What would you like to see from the Government policy in this area?
- What do you see as advantages/disadvantages of learning in a rural school environment, rather than a larger city school?
- Does a small classroom/school size have a social impact?
- What is your view on recapitation (a school that offers year 1 to year 8 classes)?
- What does high-speed broadband mean to you?
Please feel free to send me your thoughts/opinions. One of the luxuries of living in a democratic society is that we have the opportunities to have a say on how you would like schooling to be offered to your children.
Ms Rhee Heading Our Way???????
Whilst looking at Twitter today (yes I am that geeky) I came across an article that was written by Adam Bessie for the Daily Censored. It is about the former chancellor of the District of Columbia for Public Schools, Michelle Rhee. As chancellor, Ms Rhee implemented many policies to help get rid of bad teachers, principals and schools, and tried to reward the good ones. She has appeared as a guest at George W. Bushes state of the union address in 2008, appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and even was a guest on Oprah (which surely solidifies her success!). Ms Rhee’s time as chancellor used mainly students standarized testing to sort the wheat from the chaff; she is an advocate of getting back to the basics. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of what Ms Rhee observed needed attention, and fast, but to determine the success of a teacher on standardized tests raises some eyebrows in the education sector (see blog below).
Ms Rhee does have some clouds of controversy hovering over her, mainly related around her claims of classroom success as a teacher and her districts standardized testing error-correction ratios, but I don’t really want to go into that. One general impression I have got from Ms Rhee’s education philosophy is that schools don’t really have time for the ‘fluffies’ of life. She has been quoted as saying “When you are basing the effectiveness of teachers on lots of softer things, whether the kids feel good, whether the classroom is happy, whether we’re creative (don’t get me wrong, those things are important), but if the kids can’t read…that’s not acceptable.” I am not going to argue with the last part of the statement, of course everyone needs to be able to read, but I think here in lies the problem Ms Rhee, and perhaps America, is missing.
Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Mark Zuckerberg and the Walton Family are but some of what are being called Educational Venture Philanthropists or less eloquently, the ‘Billionaires Boys Club’. I believe all these people have the best interests at heart, educate our young for the future, but they are going about it in an old school way. Ms Rhee and her followers are all for students that can perform well on tests, regurgitating, facts, figures, dates, etc. then head on out into the great capitalist society to fight your way to the top, to get what you deserve. The ‘softer things’ like ummmmmmm lets say; thinking, managing self, participation and contributing, relating to others, appear to be of little value. These are of course our Key Competencies and are the fundamentals of our education system (an education system that is one of the best in the OECD).
I recently attended a WBOP Principals professional development day and listened to people from Asia NZ Foundation. They were speaking about what students would need to work and form business relationships with Asian countries, both now and in the future. What was very clear was that schools need to really work on the key competencies to ensure a student will be successful in life. This is what I feel a lot of the USA Education policy makers may be focusing less on. Treating education like a capitalist venture or as Bessie describes ‘the Gordon Geeko Elementary Schools’ will do little for future development, either through business or personal relationships.
Now you may be wondering why would a rural principal in a country that most of the world has heard little of (apart from LOTR) would care about the Ms Rhee? Well according to the rumour wheel our Minister for Education has been talking to Ms Rhee, hopefully they are just exchanging recipes!
Easy as pi?
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I came across a mathematical formula on Twitter this morning, and had to write a little about it. I have (along with many other people who listen to talk-back or read comments on news websites) heard mumblings that we should pay teachers according to results, much like a business model. ”It is easy, just set a standard or formular, then use this to pay the good teachers and get rid of the bad ones,” is a call one sometimes hears or reads.
On the surface this may make sense, but this surface is thinner than the thinnest wafer thin skin on an invisible man. Schools are not like factories, you can’t put a student on a conveyer belt, pour in the resources, which then results in a consistent product. There are just too many variables, but some clever clogs in the USA has given it a crack.
As you can see this would be easy to implement into schools and would quickly get rid of the teachers who were not performing and reward those who are (tongue firmly in cheek). It is of real concern that this is being used in schools, and reading this article, shows how serious the results can be. I thank my lucky stars (and those of our children) that NZ has not gone down this path, and I hope to heaven that we don’t.
Ukelele Baby
At Kaimai we offer our year 1 to 3 students the opportunity to play the ukelele. Hopefully they will one day be as good as Jake Shimabukuro. Even though I have been a Queen fan for about 22 years I never tire of Bohemian Rhapsody, and hearing this cover is awesome.
Writin’ and Fightin’
We have recently completed a writing matrix that covers levels one to five of the curriculum. These matrix sheets outline what a student needs to do in order to be working at a particular level in the New Zealand Curriculum.
To design sheets that span the five curriculum levels, written so that students will understand what is being asked (we tried to avoid ‘education jargon’ where ever possible), that cover seven writing genres, and address the four deeper features of writing and three surface features of writing, whilst ensuring we are also addressing the National Standards and the Literacy Progressions and linking to classroom practice of using the Six Traits of Writing was no easy task!
However, looking at the finished products I am confident that our students will be able to use these writing matrix sheets to help progress their writing to the next step. We have just begun to produce similar sheets for reading; highlighting what reading skills a student needs in order to meet the specific curriculum levels. These should be available for our students by the beginning of term 2.
On a totally different note, you probably have seen on the tv, floating around on the internet, or heard the discussions on the radio, the case of the Australian student Casey Haynes who ‘fought back against the bully.’ It has thrust this student and the ‘bully’ into the international spotlight and has created a lot of debate about what happened on the video.
Whilst I will not comment on the rights or wrongs of what happened, what did occur to me was the total lack of values (or virtues) there appeared to be. Students deliberately seeking out to hurt another student and filming it was deplorable and, in my opinion, just about the lowest a human-being can act.
It was clear that self-respect, consideration, compassion, kindness, to name a few, were not in the bullies (I am talking to you too, person filming) vocabulary. If they were, they definitely were not in the habit of practicing them.
Each fortnight a virtue of the week is outlined at school. These virtues are taken from, what appears to be, a consensus of what makes someone of good character, regardless of religion, race or gender. The virtues are being reinforced in the class, during Cool Bananas and at school assemblies. I feel that when a student sees, hears and observes what makes someone of good character enough times they too will act in the same way. We want it to be the norm to show kindness, peacefulness, courtesy, etc at Kaimai School.
I truly believe that our children are a reflection of society. It can not be totally up to one part of society (school, home, church, sports group, etc) to reinforce good values, it can only be done through a combined effort. What is also concerning is the comments left on blog sites, Youtube, etc aimed at the perpetrator, Ritchard Gale. It shows how easily we can become the bully too. Now I am not defending his actions, but watching Campbell Live last night this boy clearly has a lot of issues he needs help with. I feel by society working together hopefully, we will never have to hear about sad stories, such as what we have witnessed this week, again.
Homework
We have recently been examining the subject of homework. We have looked at the latest research from Professor John Hattie, as well as research from around the world. What we have found has been quite interesting, but inconclusive.
All the research, so far, has suggested that homework does not make any significant advancements in a student’s education at primary school level, but as a student progresses through their schooling years, homework can become more advantageous, especially in the years of years 11, 12 and 13.
A number of studies did show that homework did improve students standardized testing results. In other words, rote learning of the ‘test questions’ will help students pass the test (who would have thought).
What the studies also found was that depending on whether a student came from a high or low income family also determined how effective homework was, or wasn’t, for the student.
Homework for some parents can be a nightmare. At times a seminally normal household can erupt into World War III with words, threats and consequences used as offence; and diversions, tears and quazi efforts used as defence! Students can, sometimes, have failure reinforced as well as the notion that learning is always difficult and ‘boring.’
At Kaimai School, our aim is to encourage students to find the value of independent learning through achievable and relevant ways. We also have tried to implement what our parents want from homework, through the survey that was conducted last year.
Most of our parents told us that they wanted to see homework that was relevant, achievable and a continuation of classwork. These views also happen to fit in with Professor Hattie’s research too.
After careful consideration we feel that we are on the right track in regards to achieving our aim to encourage students to find the value of independent learning through achievable and relevant ways.
Whilst we will send out a more detailed procedure of homework to families soon, the general outline is as follows; all students should be reading at least four times a week, basic maths facts need to be revised and spelling rules reinforced.
We are well aware that many students participate in sporting and cultural events outside school hours, and that family members have busy lives and time as a family together can be precious. We are conscious of trying not to ‘overload’ students as well as preparing students to be ‘life long learners’ and hope we have achieved a balance. As mentioned more information will be available soon.
Clustrmaps
