Alice Wilson: Lifting Literacy Aotearoa chair advocates for more assessments and testing following release of new report

A structured literacy advocate says testing needs to be an important part of teaching.

A report by the Ministerial Advisory Group reviewing English and maths learning has recommended annual checkpoint tests for students.

It also recommends children be encouraged to write by hand as much as possible for their first three years at school and handwriting lessons in years four to six.

Lifting Literacy Aotearoa chair Alice Wilson says the assessments being talked about are not meant to be stressful.

"We need assessments that are providing the right kind of information into the teaching process - and that's what's being talked about." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back to the classroom. This advice to the government to
use checkpoints throughout each school year to test children on
their literacy and numeracy. Handwriting lessons also recommended. Curse of writing.
We should be encouraging kids to write by hand for
the first three years. It's all in a report into
content for the Revised Curriculum and Literacy. New Zealand Chair
Alice Wilson's with us on all of this. Alice, very
good morning to you, good morning. We're a union member

(00:22):
on earlier on doesn't like testing it all. Shouldn't be
testing kids at all because kids are stressed. So what
do we do?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Look, the thing about testing is that it needs to
be an important part of the teaching process. It's not
just that we're testing. Kids are testing so we're testing
kids as part of our systematic teaching process to have
information to know where that child is at and what
the issues are and what we're wanting to see. What

(00:50):
this report is emperizing will come through from the NAG
and the direction of the government's now taking is that
a use and approach to teaching literacy and teaching mathematics
that is informed by where the children are at. Its
systematic and it's diagnostic, so it's a structure practically, So.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
You're talking to me like it's eighteen thirty seven and
we've just started the education system and we're not sure
how to do it as opposed to twenty twenty four,
and we actually do know how to do it. It's
just we're not doing it properly, and some are refusing
to fix it.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yes, yeah, but I think we've got pretty good agreement
now that it needs fixing. There are a few naysayers
out there, and there are a few naysayers that some
of the aren't nay says now that there's a lot
of money to be training teachers as well. Mike and
I think that's something we should talk about it and
we need to set But yeah, absolutely, teachers haven't been

(01:47):
trained in the evidence space teaching practices, particularly structured literacy
that helps them to be able to use good quality
assessments as part of the teaching process, not so that
we can grade heads against each other, but that so
that we provide useful information into the teaching process, so

(02:10):
that teacher knows where that child is at, what they
have and have retained in the classroom, and what they
need to now do to progress them. It's about that.
It's a diagnostic information in the teching process, and these
checkpoints they're talking about are essentially.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
That.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
So they're actually in the slope and sequence and working
on a scope and sequence of what's being taught and
how and at a certain point you're wanting to be
able to assess that child, not in an necesarily stressful way.
This is not some kind of test where they're all,
you know, that's not how No, And I think you know,

(02:52):
we have had a lot of discussion about assessment in
you know, natural standards and etc. And you know, some
assessments are not useful. They're just assessments. We need assessments
that are providing the right type of information into the
teaching process. And that's what's being talks about exactly.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
All right, Ellis, appreciate it very much. Ellis Wilson, Lifting Literacy.
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