Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the criticism of the SMART reporting system for Year 0-10

The Education Minister's hitting back at union claims her flagship assessment tool is falling flat. 

The Educators Collective says fewer than 60% of schools have signed up to the SMART reporting system, with some not planning to use it. 

The tool gives parents progress markers and twice-yearly updates for Year 0-10 students. 

But Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking the criticism is a political hit job and the union’s fudged the figures.  

She says 250 thousand students were signed up to SMART in nine working days, which shows the sector understands assessment is important to raise achievement.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To education where the unions this morning are back for
another scrap with the government, this time over this new
smart assessment tool. Basically, they're claiming less than sixty percent
of schools have signed up. They don't like the look
of it, they don't like the pace of it. Erica
Stanford is, of course the Education Minister, and as with us,
good morning, Good morning, Mike. Did you see this coming
or we got a problem here?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well? I saw the unions coming, of course I always do.
I mean, this is what they do, right. This is
a bumbling attempt at some kind of weird political hit
job by a union.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
You know. I've had to give themselves.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
A new name because no one takes the NZDI seriously anymore.
I mean, actually, we have quietly reached a massive milestone
in our first term that no other government in history
has managed to achieve, despite the Education Review Office asking
for it for years, a nationwide consistent monitoring of student
progress and reading, writing and maths twice a year using

(00:48):
a cutting edge international tool with New Zealand content, so
that we can report to parents and tell them how
their kids are doing.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
It's huge.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
So as sixty percent or not.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, that's not the number, Mike, there three hundred and
sixty thousand students in year three to eight who are
required to be assessed twice a year in reading, writing
and maths, and in nine working days, two hundred and
fifty thousand students were signed up into this new smart
tool that we've acquired, and another number that the union

(01:18):
didn't mention or fudged. There are actually three assessment tools
that schools can choose from. There's pat Astel and the
Smart tool. So spread evenly, it's about one hundred and
twenty thousand per tool, but Smart got two hundred and
fifty nine days. That is a ringing endorsement from a
sector who know the importance of assessment to raising achievement.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I mean it's a huge milestone.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Does this union actually represent teachers or not.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I don't think that they do. I think look a
really embarrassing part of their claim that they said, you know,
there was a number of principles who've signed up for
this tool without any intention of using it.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I mean, what's that number? They should tell us a number?
Is it?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
One?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
One's a number.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Apart from the fact, I absolutely refuse to believe that
any hard working principle in the last two weeks of term,
when they're so overwhelmed and so busy that they would
take their time or a staff member's time to upload
all of their student data out of enroll and into
the new smart tool and then select which assessments they're
going to do it which level, take all of that time,

(02:26):
essentially faking student enrollments to prove some kind of weird
political point when they're so busy. I've got more respect
for our principles and our educators than to believe that
the union may have a very dim view of principles,
but I do not share that.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Is it the union or is it this Liam Rutherford
guys he particularly a problem or does he represent the
whole union view of the world?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh? Lot, he is the Union. I mean he has
the lead negotiator, so they're one and the same. I
mean it's the Union and drag Rights. But as I
said earlier, they don't have any respect anymore, so they've
got to use a new name in a new vehicle.
But really, as I said, this is an embarrassing, bumbling
attempt when actually we should be focusing on parents and students.
The number that I care about is three hundred and
sixty thousand primary school students, and there's seven hundred and

(03:09):
twenty thousand parents who are going to be receiving high
quality data showing where there how their kids are tracking
in the basics so that they don't fall behind without
parents knowing about it. You often hear parents going, oh,
my gosh, my children have got to high school. They
don't know their timestables, they don't know their basic facts,
they don't have instant recall of those really important facts
to be able to solve problems.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
And I never knew. Now they will know because we
will be reporting to them with this new tool.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Good quick word on social media if you wouldn't mind.
I know that Grease is the latest to join the line.
Are you on to Are we going to do actually
going to do anything on this or do we not
believe that it's working.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
No, I've got papers that are going through cabinet at
the moment, and I am a huge believer that we
need to change the behavior of the social media companies.
The ban is the the age restriction is only a
very small part of it. It's not the silver bullet.
The silver bullet in my opinion, as all countries joining
up with very similar regulatory systems to say to social

(04:08):
media companies, you need to change your behavior. You need
to be reporting on what are the harms and how
are you mitigating them. That's what we are proposing and
that's what we will be introducing before the term is up.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Good to catch up, Erica Stanford, who's the education industry?
I reference Greece this morning there as of January next year,
under fifteen's are out. But I also what drove that
was an article. It was a newsroom the other day.
Were apparently are looking now to Europe more than we
are looking to Australia, because Australia started all of this.
But as I tried to explain on the program a
number of times, it was deeply flawed what Australia was doing.

(04:40):
It was all for headline grabs and clickbait. It doesn't work,
It isn't working, it hasn't worked, and what's the point
of putting in law that doesn't work. So presumably we'll
get something a little bit better out of Europe by
the time we get around to actually doing it.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to
news Talks.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on it out Radio.