New Education Minister starts her 100 Day Plan

On Tuesday the new Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, released her

First steps of 100 day for education: removing distractions and teaching the basics brilliantly press release.  Naturally every new government loves to stamp their mark on the education sector very early on.  And this does.

One hour a day....

First up, Minister Stanford states:

“We have an aspirational target to get 80 per cent of our kids to curriculum by the time they finish intermediate, to set them up for success so they can live the life they want.

“Starting from Term 1 2024, all students in Years 0 – 8 will be taught reading, writing and maths for an average of one hour a day in each subject.

“We’re seeing that many schools are already doing this well, but this change is about having time dedicated to teaching reading, writing and maths in a purposeful and deliberate way consistently across New Zealand.

“The Ministry of Education will provide guidance and support to assist schools with the implementation of these changes.”

This has been communicated by the MOE in the School Leaders Bulletin Issue 169 sent out on December 12th.  The MOE stated:

Improving outcomes in reading, writing, and maths (or pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau) is a priority for the Government. The Government will ask schools with students Years 0 to 8 to spend an average of an hour a day teaching reading, writing, and maths (or pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau).

We know many of you are already doing this teaching, so there may not be a big change for you. 

This policy will safeguard explicit teaching time for reading, writing and maths (or pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau). The expectation is that, on average, schools will be doing five hours a week of maths (pāngarau) and 10 hours a week of reading and writing (pānui and tuhituhi). 

There are some issues I can see with this, but that is for another post.  

Come again!  What is this?

But this, further down in the Minister's press release raised my hackles:

Kura with students in Years 0 – 8, run by a specified kura board, will have until Term 3 2024 for implementation of the requirement for one hour a day of each of reading, writing and maths, to enable consultation.

Specialist schools will have an extended 12 month deadline until Term 1 2025 to ensure the requirement for one hour a day of each of reading, writing and maths best supports teaching and learning for their students.

Specialist schools?  Are we talking about the schools that cater for students who have ORS funding because they have extra special learning needs?  I had flashbacks to when I was required to do National Standards OTJs in reading, writing and maths for a Year 6 child with Downs Syndrome who was not even accessing Level 1 of the New Zealand Curriculum.

The cell phone ban.  🙄

Then there is the policy for no student cell phones in schools - which I consider most schools can already make this decision effectively for themselves and completely ignores that for many students this is the only device they can access for learning.  Here is what Erica Stanford wrote.

“New Zealand schools and overseas jurisdictions that have already imposed restrictions on cellphones in the classroom have reported better concentration and engagement in class, and an improvement in student achievement and wellbeing.

“Effective from Term 2 2024, students will need to put their cellphone away for the day and schools will be required to have a cellphone policy in place by then.

“While the policy officially takes effect from Term 2 2024, it is our expectation that most schools will implement the policy from Term 1.

“The implementation and enforcement of the policy will be at the discretion of individual schools to ensure it is implemented effectively for their school community. Options that have been successfully used in some schools include having students hand in their cellphones before class or leaving them in their lockers or bags for the day. Exemptions will be allowed for students with health conditions or in special learning circumstances."

I am glad there will be an exemption for students with health conditions.  I spend a bit of time in classes in my local intermediate school.  All students are required to hand in their phones at the beginning of the school day.  The only students who are exempt have diabetes and the phone monitors their blood sugar and need for insulin through a very expensive special patch on their arm that eliminates the need to use other more traditional measures.

The School Leaders Bulletin said:

Both international and local evidence shows that cellphones can be a distraction from learning during class time, as well as reducing important face to face interaction during school breaks. A UNESCO report published in July describes the move towards cellphones being away for the school day as supporting addressing issues of classroom disruption, improving learning and helping protect children from cyberbullying. 

Smartphones in school? Only when they clearly support learning – UNESCO 26 July 2023

The expectation of our new coalition Government is that you are ready to implement a cellphone policy that has cellphones ‘away for the day’ as soon as possible in Term 1 2024.

You can find examples of how some schools have managed implementing this policy here: 

Phones away for the day – Ministry of Education 

From now until the beginning of Term 1 2024, we will be providing examples of policy practice that you may choose to consult on and adapt for your community. These will be added to the web page.

The Government’s intention is to have the regulations for this policy in place before Christmas. For those schools that have an existing cellphone policy in place there may be very little to do. Others will need to begin the process of implementing a new cellphone policy in their school community. We will provide a small number of implementation examples to support the process of policy design and implementation. 

Subject to the regulations being in place, there will be some flexibility in how you implement the policy based on your circumstances and the needs of learners and their families. For example, an exemption could be agreed where a student requires a phone to support their health or learning needs.

The Ministerial Advisory Group is announced.

But the next part concerns me the most.  And that is the announcement of who would be on the Ministerial Advisory Group to review the primary school English, maths and statistics curricula.  Ms Stanford said of this group:

“The intention for the review of the English and maths curricula is not to start again, but to build on the work that has already been done and strengthen this,” says Erica Stanford.

“The aim is to ensure teachers have the clarity and tools needed to teach these core subjects brilliantly. Work will be done in the first half of 2024, ready for implementation in 2025.

“We will make sure schools are teaching the basics brilliantly, so every child has the opportunity to succeed – in school and beyond.”

This echoes what was said in the School Leaders Bulletin.

But what does concern me is who is on the group, their links to other organisations and how many of them, if not all, were critical of the direction of the previous government's education policies and direction.

Dr Michael Johnston (Chair)   

Michael is a cognitive psychologist with experience in a variety of roles across the education sector. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the New Zealand Initiative where he leads the workstream on education. Michael has held academic positions at the University of Melbourne and Victoria University of Wellington, where he was Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Education. He has published research on human cognition, literacy acquisition and educational assessment. Prior to his time at Victoria, Michael was the Senior Statistician at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, where he developed technical processes for NCEA, including the grade score marking system for external examinations. He contributed to Ministry of Education policy work for the NCEA literacy and numeracy co-requisites and designed the framework for the Progress and Consistency assessment tool. He is a current member of NZQA’s Technical Overview Group on Assessment.

So my concerns are as follows:

• is part of the New Zealand Initiative, a right wing think tank which is no fan of a free quality public education system.
• is not actually a teacher - he is a statistician - so has no idea about how teaching is done in primary.
• it says he contributed to MOE policy work for NCEA - but this Advisory group is focused on the primary curriculum.

Dr. Audrey Tan   

Audrey is a mathematics educator with more than 20 years' experience helping primary and secondary school students to achieve significantly improved outcomes.  With a deep belief that everyone can learn maths, Audrey has, for many years, advocated a more pragmatic approach to teaching maths in primary schools.  Her professional learning and development for educators in a school setting focuses on effective teaching practices that are supported by the cognitive science of learning to raise both teacher confidence and student achievement. Audrey holds a B.Sc. Honours degree in Mathematics from the University of Canterbury and a Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.  She was a member of the NCEA Numeracy Subject Expert Group and has contributed to the New Zealand curriculum refresh as a Subject Matter Expert.

My concerns with this choice:

• Dr Tan has often been in the media over the last few years publicly denigrating our New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Curriculum and how it is taught, but to be fair, she did so under the previous National led government too.

Barbara Ala’alatoa  

Barbara is a New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) refresh Coherence Group member for the New Zealand curriculum refresh project. She is the former Principal of Sylvia Park School and is currently an Education Consultant. Prior to this, she worked as a lecturer and senior lecturer at Auckland College of Education and as a primary school teacher. She has also chaired the National Ministerial Leadership and Teaching Quality Workstream and been a member of the National Workforce Policy Advisory Group and National Curriculum Advisory Group which had a real focus on progress and achievement and building leader and teacher capability. She has chaired the Boards of Te Kura (2019 to 2022) and Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (2015 to 2019) and was on the Independent Taskforce on the Review of Tomorrow’s Schools. Her current role is chair of Ako Mātātupu Teach First NZ.

I'll just refresh your memory of Ms Ala'alatoa:

• Hekia Parata's university flatmate.
• Ms Ala'alatoa was the principal at Sylvia Park School the day former PM John Key asked Hekia Parata to ring around to find out about kids going to school without lunch.
• she was the founding Chair of EDUCANZ, which was controversially set up in opposition to 99% of submission, so has a history of being appointed by National Education Ministers to organisations.

Dr Christine Braid   

Christine is a facilitator at the Institute of Education, Massey University with expertise in junior reading. She contributed to the New Zealand curriculum refresh specifically on literacy and is currently leading the Literacy@Massey training programme, where she works with teachers across New Zealand to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to significantly improve children’s literacy outcomes. She has a background as a primary school teacher and literacy facilitator, and more recently as an educational researcher in the area of literacy. She was part of the Massey University Early Literacy Research Project and lead facilitator on the Ministry of Education contract for teacher training in TEPiL.

I know one of Dr Christine Braid's extended family members, and she assures me that Christine is a top person who upholds the rights of all rangatahi and has spent years doing substantial research regarding how teachers influence reading outcomes for beginning readers.  Another friend of mine has received some solid PLD from Dr Braid.  However, she has been published by the New Zealand Institute too, which gives me concern, but her relative informs me that does not mean Dr Braid is aligned with them.

Professor Elizabeth Rata  

Professor Elizabeth Rata is a sociologist of education in the School of Critical Studies, Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. She is Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit (KERU) and leads the Knowledge Rich School Project which focuses on national curriculum design.

Professor Rata is somewhat controversial.  It was a post on BlueSky by Morgan Godfrey that first alerted me to this appointment and the fact this Ministerial Advisory Group was announced.  Prof Rata was very involved in the early set up of kura kaupapa, but has since been described as the female Don Brash when it comes to things Māori - and I am being very polite with that description.  She does have associations with Hobson's Pledge, the New Zealand Initiative and is one of the Listener Seven.  It is amazing what a Google search finds.  I also heard she believes the curriculum should be ten pieces of knowledge.  A few people reached out to me over her, and they had nothing complimentary to say, so I won't repeat it.  I'm really perplexed as to why Prof Rata was appointed.

 

Associate Professor Fiona Ell   

Fiona is an Associate Professor in School of Curriculum Pedagogy, University of Auckland. She is a Lead subject matter expert for the Mathematics and Statistics writing team for the New Zealand curriculum refresh. Fiona was a member of the Royal Society Expert Panel on Mathematics Education from January to July 2021. She undertakes research in the area of mathematics education and prepares teachers to teach primary level mathematics and statistics.

Associate Professor Ell is also a member of the Governing Council of the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand as the Teacher Educatior's Representative.  Along with Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin (see below), Associate Professor Ell has been a member of the Royal Society Te Apārangi Expert Advisory Panel on Mathematics and Statistics convened between January and June 2021 with a brief to provide advice to the Ministry of Education on the English-medium Mathematics and Statistics curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand and I think it makes sense to have someone who has done this work be part of this Advisory Group.

Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin   

Gaven is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Massey University, and Chair of the New Zealand Mathematical Research Institute. He is the former head of the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study and chaired the Royal Society Te Apārangi Royal Society Panel 2021 providing advice to the Ministry of Education on refreshing the mathematics and statistics learning area of the New Zealand Curriculum. The Royal Society’s report was titled "Pāngarau Mathematics and Tauanga Statistics in Aotearoa New Zealand".

Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin was involved with the Expert Advisory panel in 2021.  He has spoken out in the media over the years for improvements in maths teaching.

Dr Helen Walls   

Helen is a professional learning facilitator and researcher specialising in the teaching of writing, structured literacy, school-wide data analysis, formative assessment and feedback. She has 20 years’ experience working in schools. Helen assists schools to plan effective programmes which are closely aligned with student needs. She is passionate about supporting teachers, sharing evidence-based methods that will engage with every student.

Dr Walls has worked with Dr Braid.  She is a teacher, professional learning facilitator and an educational researcher with an expertise in writing, known on Facebook as The Writing Teacher.

Iain Taylor   

Iain is an experienced Principal and educational leader. For the last 15 years he has led Manurewa Intermediate School as Principal. In this role he has worked to improve student attendance and achievement and was recognised for his service in 2017 as recipient of the Prime Minister’s Supreme Educational Excellence Award. Outside the classroom, Iain has led the New Zealand Principals’ Federation as their president and worked on the ERO Advisory Board.

This is a bit of a mixed bag.

• as the NZPF president, Iain Taylor condemned the Charter School model.
• he was one of the principals/schools rung by Hekia Parata to ask about kids having lunch or not on that infamous day, like Barbara Ala'alatoa.  (I think the other school in Ruatoria had a family connection to Ms Parata).
• he was inclined towards National Standards.
• he has hosted new PM Christopher Mark Luxon at least twice - Luxon visited Manurewa Intermediate a year ago and more recently with Minister Stanford.

In this second video, Iain Taylor is a bit dubious about Minister Stanford's goal to have 80% of Year 8 students "at curriculum" as they leave their intermediate years.  

As an aside, "at curriculum" is not a term we use in education the way Ms Stanford uses it and it really annoys me that she uses it.

Professor James Chapman   

James is an Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University.  His research interests include literacy learning difficulties, cognitive-motivational factors associated with low achievement, and learning disabilities Reading Recovery. James is an experienced researcher and university teacher based at Massey University. As well as having over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books on learning disabilities, literacy learning issues, dyslexia/literacy difficulties, and cognitive motivation factors in learning and achievement, James has been an advisor for the University of Canterbury Better Start Literacy Approach research and was a member of the Ministry of Education Literacy Experts Group.

Prof James Chapman is a big fan of structured literacy, and not so much of Marie Clay and Reading Recovery.  But, hey, research moves on.

Lorraine Taylor   

Lorraine is an experienced Primary School Principal and mentor /coach for other principals. She is currently the principal of Silverstream School Upper Hutt after serving in principal roles in three Rotorua primary schools. Lorraine has been involved in Ministry of Education work for a number of years, notably in the development and testing for the Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT).

Lorraine Taylor is an unknown element to me.  But the fact she is an advocate for the development of PaCT gives me a moment to pause, especially since National's last Minister of Education had planned to elevate PaCT and make it compulsory as part of their 2017 education manifesto.

Dr. Melissa Derby   

Melissa is a Senior Lecturer teaching early literacy and human development at the University of Waikato. She is the co-Director of the Early Years Research Centre, hosted by the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research at the University of Waikato. Melissa completed her PhD in Education at the University of Canterbury, and her project was a part of A Better Start National Science Challenge. Her primary area of research is in early literacy, in particular exploring the role of whānau in fostering foundational literacy skills.

Dr Derby seems to be the only Māori voice on this panel, however, I was somewhat concerned when I google Dr Derby to see:

• she has been interviewed several times by Reality Check Radio (home of the anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorist, the Hobson Pledgers and so much more).
• she is a governing member of the Free Speech Union.
• she may be a Posie Parker supporter and is highly likely to be anti-trans. *
• she appears to be a person who does not think socio-economic or cultural deprivation impacts educational achievement.

But I'll let you form your own judgement from these videos Dr Derby has done for the Common Room NZ, which is, as described by The Spinoff, a right wing media organisation focused on unpacking the big ideas.

I think these videos clearly illustrate Dr Derby's values and beliefs.  While thought provoking and presented in a very reasonable manner, I was still speechless that she said what she said.

Final thoughts...

So some members of the Ministerial Advisory Group raise more concerns than others.  I am concerned there is no truly strong Māori voices and that there is not one Pasifika voice in this group.  I am concerned that there is a strong element of the New Zealand Initiative and possibly more National/ACT aligned members of this Advisory Group.

It remains to see what they will recommend.  The ink is barely dry on the Curriculum Refresh and school leadership and teaching teams are still getting their heads around it... so of course, like when the New Zealand Curriculum was about to bed in in 2009, National is upsetting the apple cart completely.

* This is not included to encourage people to dox anyone - I highly disapprove of doxxing.  In fact, it is to inform that this is found by a simple Google search which brought up Dr Derby's X post "likes" and who she has supported in her role at the Free Speech Union.