Contents:
Preparing now for the National Standards
What will this mean for teachers, principals, and boards of trustees?
Links between the National Standards and The New Zealand Curriculum
The role of assessment
Self review for teachers, principals, and boards of trustees
Reporting to parents, families, whānau, and communities
Preparing 2011 charters
The National Standards come into effect in 2010 for year 1-8 English-medium schools. The standards describe the achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics that will enable students to meet the demands of the New Zealand Curriculum.
In this first year of implementation, schools will:
For the successful implementation of the National Standards during 2010, teachers, principals, and boards will:
Professional development about the National Standards is available for teachers, principals, and boards of trustees.
School Support Services and Ministry offices can provide information about professional development in your region for teachers, boards of trustees, and principal clusters, including RTLB clusters and ICT PD clusters.
Teachers and principals can also request professional development in literacy, numeracy, and assessment in relation to the National Standards.
Teachers, principals, and boards of trustees can continue to take part in web seminars on the National Standards during 2010. Contact [email protected].
Assessing progress and achievement in relation to the National Standards will be an integral part of teaching and learning across the New Zealand Curriculum.
The New Zealand Curriculum Online has information about the National Standards that will be regularly updated and expanded. It will also link to examples of tasks, texts, and problems that clarify the links between the standards and the curriculum. We recommend that you bookmark these pages so you can keep up to date with new materials and information.
Teachers will use assessment information gathered from a variety of sources to form an overall teacher judgment about each student's progress and achievement. You will also contribute to the moderation of overall teacher judgments across your school.
The assessment information will enable you to:
Principals: you will ensure that your school's assessment and moderation processes are sound and that overall teacher judgments are robust and consistent.
Boards of trustees, principals, and teachers: You will use assessment information as part of the self-review process.
Information about assessment is available at Assessment Online. This includes 'maps' of commonly used assessment tools and how the tools relate to curriculum and year levels for reading, writing, and mathematics. An assessment tool selector is also available.
The use of self-review processes and tools will be vital to the successful implementation of the National Standards in your school.
'Teaching as inquiry', as set out in The New Zealand Curriculum, is an important self-review tool for teachers. We recommend that you learn more about the teaching as inquiry cycle as part of your preparation for the National Standards.
Teachers will use self-review to:
Principals will use self-review to:
Boards of trustees, with their school's leadership team, will use self-review to:
The Ministry has developed self-review tools for teachers, school leaders, and boards as they work to implement the National Standards.
Parents, family, whānau, and communities want to receive clear and specific plain-language reports about their child's progress and achievement and to know how they can work with the school to support their child's learning. The National Standards are designed to support such plain-language reporting.
Schools will work with parents, families, whānau, community groups, and iwi to learn what information these groups want to receive about their children's progress and achievement and the most appropriate format for this information. (There will be a range of report templates available.)
Teachers will provide a plain-language, written report to parents, family, whānau, and communities at least twice a year. You will also work with parents, family, whānau, and communities to learn what's needed to help them support their child's learning.
Principals will ensure that reporting to parents, family, whānau, and communities supports learning relationships between teachers, students, parents, family, whānau, and communities.
Principals and boards will ensure that plain-language, written reporting takes place at least twice a year, with appropriate content.
At least one of the written reports each year should include:
In consultation with parents, family, whānau, and communities, schools can design their own written reports or choose from one of the report templates designed by the Ministry of Education. Guidelines and templates are available at Assessment Online.
The progress and achievement for English language learners in reading and writing will be reported to parents against National Standards. It is recommended that schools also assess and report the progress and achievement of English language learners in relation to the English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP), as the Progressions provide a guide to typical language learning pathways for students learning English as an additional language.
The achievement of students with special education needs will be reported in relation to the standards as part of the students' Individual Education Plans.
If parents, families, whānau, and communities ask for more information about the National Standards, you can refer them to The Ministry of Education website. The National Standards page has information tailored specifically to these groups.
Schools' 2011 charters will include specific school-wide targets for student achievement in relation to the National Standards. Assessment information and self-review will underpin the development of the targets.
Schools will report their progress in relation to their targets in their annual reports from 2012.
Updated on: 07 Sep 2011
