Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the response from schools to the Government's new standardised tests

The Education Minister says many schools across the country welcome the idea of standardised testing in primary schools.

Erica Stanford's announced next year, all children in their first year of schooling will do a phonics check to help teachers understand how well they read, by sounding out letters.

Stanford says it's far from being controversial, despite criticism from Labour.

"Look, I absolutely think there's a level of acceptance. Most schools are doing assessments, using tools - and they're doing it in a really good way."

LISTEN ABOVE

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather Duke for ZL.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Now, the government's confirmed they're bringing in tests for school
kids from the very first year that the kids are
in class, So new year one students are going to
be tested twice in their first years just to see
how they're going with the phonics, and then from year
three to the year eight they're going to be tested
twice a year for progress on reading, writing, and maths.
Erica Stanford is the Education Minister.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hey Erica, good after know and how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm well, thank you. Are teachers on board.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
With this, but we were really cautious and careful in
our approach with us that we want parents to have
really good information about how their children are progressing through school,
but we also wanted to make sure that we weren't
putting more burden on teachers. We've chosen tools that teachers
already know, already use, and we're going to be investing,
you know, a lot of PLD to make sure that

(00:44):
all of the upskilling that we may need to do
in the center that we do over the next year.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Is it fair to say that, given that ninety percent
of schools are doing this in some way already, there's
a level of acceptance from teachers and educators that it
needs to happen.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh, look, I absolutely think there is a level of acceptance.
Most schools are doing assessments and using tools, and they're
doing it in a really good way. But ero have
been saying for a long time that there is no consistency.
We don't use consistent tools, and that while some schools
are using assessment data to inform practice really well, there
are many other schools who are doing it sort of averagely,

(01:18):
and then a number of schools who aren't doing it
very well at all. And so we just want to
make sure it's consistent across the country and we'll put
in resource where it's needed to upscool those teachers in
schools to make sure that they are using assessment data effectively.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
What happens if the kids are falling about behind, if
the tests show that they need a little bit of help.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
This is the whole purpose of assessment, because, as you know,
assessment on its own is going to do nothing. The
whole purpose of assessment is to make sure that early on,
as early as you can in year one, which is
why we're doing the phonics check. In year one, you
can tag those students who are not progressing as expected
and put that early intervention in place, which is what
we're doing with structured literacy in terms of our small

(01:57):
groups and one on one interventions. These phonics checks, for example,
will trigger that early intervention. Currently, we wait till the
kids are age fifteen. Forty percent of them can't pass
literacy and numeracy as you spok, and then we go,
oh dear, we want to get to them in year
one and get them on the right track and say
to parents, this is how they're progressing. These are the
interventions that are putting in place and give parents more

(02:20):
knowledge about how their children are progressing.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, good stuff, lover Erica. Thank you. Erica stands for
the Education Ministry. For more from Heather Duplassy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.