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Selling out our education
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, March 19th, 2013 - 35 comments
Profit-driven private sector cowboys are damaging the reputation of our education system. Naturally, National wants to make matters worse by subsidising foreign owners of profit-driven charter schools. Brilliant.
Novopay: debt collection
Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, March 13th, 2013 - 26 comments
Apparently quite a few teachers got tempted from the fold and voted for John Key in 2008… it’s hard to imagine many of them wanting to do so after the Novopay debacle. But Novopay seem determined to make sure of it. Not content with failing to pay large numbers of teachers, it’s now persecuting those it overpaid, even when they give the money back.
Novopain protest Tuesday!
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, March 4th, 2013 - 18 comments
Nationwide protest against the Novopay fiasco tomorrow Tuesday (early!). Check here for details of a protest near you…
Back to basics
Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, February 24th, 2013 - 15 comments
Looks like we’re in for another round of nonsense in mathematics education from a bunch of politicians who know more about their own prejudices than they do about teaching and learning.
Sorry seems to be the hardest word
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, February 20th, 2013 - 23 comments
Hekia Parata is in deep trouble. She has even resorted to grudgingly forcing the word “sorry” from her lips. But it isn’t even close to the apology that is needed…
Christchurch kids as political pawns
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, February 19th, 2013 - 39 comments
Looks like Parata has been shafted by Key – her written promises to Christchurch schools will not be honoured. Instead it seems that Christchurch kids are being used as pawns in National’s electoral maneuverings.
Parata and the Christchurch schools
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, February 18th, 2013 - 73 comments
As widely reported, Chirstchurch schools find out their fate today. The damaged Hekia Parata was the wrong person to front this process…
NRT: Unconstitutional and dangerous
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, February 15th, 2013 - 8 comments
I/S at No Right turn writes on the Ombudsman’s report which finds some of the Nats’ plans for charter schools to be unconstitutional and dangerous.
Novopay going from bad to worse
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, February 7th, 2013 - 103 comments
Mr Fixit Steven Joyce has been handed the Novopay fiasco, and the first pay round under his watch is the worst yet. Teachers are currently owed almost $12 Million in missing wages. Is this a conspiracy, or just a good old fashioned cock up?
Action: Stop Charter Schools
Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, January 21st, 2013 - 91 comments
The chance to submit your opposition to Charter Schools closes this Thursday 24 January. An easy submission form has been set up, or you can follow how to make your own more detailed submission.
A solution to the Novopay fiasco
Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, November 30th, 2012 - 33 comments
I have a suggestion.
Which Parata to believe?
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, November 12th, 2012 - 15 comments
Hekia Parata September dressed up plans for school closured and mergers in high-sounding language and pushed them hard. Hekia Parata November says that some of those plans were crazy. Which Hekia Parata should we believe?
World class education
Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, October 31st, 2012 - 34 comments
The Secretary for Education has drawn the wrong conclusions from data on educational performance, and a bunch of commentators (including a particularly egregious anonymous editorial in The Herald) have been quick to follow. We certainly have a world class education system. The fact that not every child can take advantage of it is our real failing and our shame.
Charter schools shoot themselves in both feet
Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, October 23rd, 2012 - 16 comments
Evidence of the supposed success of charter schools in New York is doing the rounds. Unfortunately for the right-wing ideologues, charter schools shoot themselves in both feet when they use “relaxed” assessment standards and other methods of artificially “boosting” their results.
Children of Men: money or our lives
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 18th, 2012 - 28 comments
Paid Parental Leave, Charter schools, compulsory early childhood education for beneficiaries: for NAct it’s all about money, and they use ‘shonky’ figures to justify their ‘shonkey’ policies and vetos. This is ostrich and patriarchal behaviour, ignoring the evidence of the wider benefits to communities and society of good quality child care, education and Paid Parental Leave.
97% of teachers are useless – right?
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, October 6th, 2012 - 13 comments
Teachers are terrible at national standards. Almost half of them get them wrong, on one standard 97% of teachers were wrong. This is an outrage! Teachers are terrible!! Right? Am I right? Or is there an alternative hypothesis…
Parata bungling inexcusable
Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, October 3rd, 2012 - 74 comments
Parata is trying to close schools based on data that is (as even the Ministry now admits) massively incorrect. The attack on the social fabric of Christchurch was already inexcusable. This latest fiasco makes it even worse.
The Press on Standards
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, September 26th, 2012 - 34 comments
The Christchurch Press as part of Fairfax released National Standards data, but had a number of articles with a curiously sensible line on it: “…the standards’ main effects will be to impose on schools a crude, misleading and unhelpful form of accountability and to focus attention on learning targets that are inappropriate for many children.”
National Standards Solve Nothing
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, September 24th, 2012 - 85 comments
Reprinted with permission from Dave Kennedy (bsprout) at Local Bodies. “While National Standards has cost around $60 million to force onto schools many programmes designed to address the causes of underachievement have been under resourced or cut altogether.”
Standards slipping
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 22nd, 2012 - 135 comments
So the first ‘ropey’ National Standards data is slipping out. It may not bear comparison, and not be moderated or indeed standardised, but Hekia Parata can now divulge the great wisdom that National’s StandardsTM provides.
NRT: Charter schools in the UK
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, September 21st, 2012 - 19 comments
No Right Turn on the waste and divisiveness of charter schools in the UK.
Latest education stuffup quickest U-turn ever
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 pm, September 13th, 2012 - 38 comments
Brownlee and Parata announced school closures and explained the rationale. Now they’ve backed down and they’re trying to blame a Ministry mistake. This was the quickest U-turn in the history of politics. Update: And this morning it seems that closures and mergers are back on again – does anyone know what is going on?
Education, evidence, and a tale of two leaders
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, September 10th, 2012 - 86 comments
Shearer has set out some bold new ideas for education. Key is clinging to failed national standards. Shearer’s views are well supported by the successful Finnish model, while Key’s are condemned by failures in the UK and USA. Does the evidence matter?
Shearer – excellent education speech
Written By: - Date published: 2:46 pm, September 9th, 2012 - 115 comments
David Shearer’s education speech today was excellent in every way. Core Labour values, a sound understanding of the issues, significant concrete policy, and the promise of more to come. “Under Labour, the world’s best education will be available at your local school”.
Unqualified teachers in charter schools condemned
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, September 7th, 2012 - 181 comments
A stinging report from the Ministry of Education condemns the proposed use of unqualified teachers in charter schools. The Nats won’t listen because the Nats don’t care about the quality of education, they only care about privatising it.
On decile ratings of schools
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, August 21st, 2012 - 20 comments
Decile ratings of schools are to be dropped from ERO reports because they are “confusing” and “unfair” and lead to “white flight”. Unlike, say, ropey national standards data. Uh huh.
Nats’ education plans make sense after all
Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, August 11th, 2012 - 33 comments
How to explain National’s blatant inconsistency in not requiring national standards for charter schools? After further reflection, I think it makes sense after all…
Nats don’t believe their own education policy
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, August 7th, 2012 - 28 comments
As usual it is the kids who will suffer.
Incoherent education policy
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, August 3rd, 2012 - 215 comments
The right hand of National’s education policy doesn’t know what the far-right hand is up to…
Local Bodies: NZ Charter Schools Defined
Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, August 2nd, 2012 - 62 comments
A post (reprinted with permission) from bsprout at the Local Bodies blog…
100 academics opposed to league tables
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, July 17th, 2012 - 154 comments
School league tables are harmful to education. Tables based on “ropey data” are even worse. In this open letter 100 academics speak out against league tables.
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