Kerre Woodham: Our kids are back on track

I love the fact that New Zealand Education Minister Erica Stanford and the Prime Minister presented improved reading stats to the nation yesterday. Erica Stanford was very quick to praise teachers for the much-improved results in phonics reading. She said this is an incredible improvement in reading scores in less than half a year and reflects the brilliant work teachers are doing, and it does. 

Teachers have had a difficult time with changes in curriculum and dealing with increasingly disruptive children and school closures during Covid – it has been a difficult time. But when given a challenge, and when given a mandate, and given the tools to help do it, they rose to the challenge and the results have been, in these very early stages, remarkable.  

There needed to be a turnaround. New Zealand's reading results have been declining since 2006 in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which is done every five years, and just about every international test where we mark ourselves against other countries we have been on a downward spiral. Interestingly, educators, teachers, principals insisted that it's just tests. Our kids don't like tests, they don't like being compared, it's a very crude way to measure achievement. No, not really, it's not. It's an accurate assessment of where we were at. And where we were at was dismal.  

The results from this year look extremely promising. Data showed 58% of students were at or above expectations at their 20-week phonics check in Term 3. That's up from 36% in Term 1. So they were measured after Term 1 – the little five-year-olds were at or above expectations, 36% of them in Term 1, and that has moved to 58% in Term 3. 

In Term 3, 43% of students were classed as exceeding expectations, more than double the Term 1 rate. For Māori students in mainstream education, 47% of them required further support with phonics in Term 3. That is down from 62% of them needing support in Term 1. So to put it in another slightly more positive way, in Term 1 a quarter of Māori students were at or above expectations, by Term 3, that was 43%. So that's a significant difference. Education Minister Erica Stanford says this is only the beginning.   

“From next year, twice a year, every year in reading, writing and maths, there'll be a progress monitoring check-in. I do not call it a test. But we will be essentially assessing every child from year three to make sure that they're on track with their reading, writing and maths. And that includes higher level literacy like comprehension.” 

I have absolute faith that we'll see a lift in children's educational achievements under the new curriculum. Structured literacy, which involves explicitly teaching word identification, including through phonics, became mandatory in schools at the start of this year. Certainly it was used in many schools before this, but not necessarily by every teacher at every year level. It was very much hit and miss, and that was one of the things they talked about in the election campaign. They didn't want educational success to be by postcode because one principal did things one way and another principal did things another way. They wanted a standardized education for every child right across the country, and one that worked. 

Labour leader Chris Hipkins was quick to claim credit for the structured literacy program, telling reporters after the press conference yesterday the scheme had been underway under the previous Labour government. It was being rolled out, he said. We were in the early stages of rolling it out, but then we lost the election. Clearly, we believe in it, we developed it, the vast bulk of the work around structured literacy was done when Jan Tinetti was Associate Minister of Education and I was the Minister. Right. You had six years to make the changes, being generous, to look at the science and introduce a best practice for all of our Kiwi kids, but you didn't. You didn't. And as for the comment he made too, in a really churlish kind of look at me, what about us? He said, of course we'd be making more progress if teachers were in the classroom rather than on strike because the Government are offering them a real terms pay cut. 

Short memory former Education Minister. 2023 was a terrible year, absolutely terrible year for strike action by teachers. In March 2023, tens of thousands of primary, area, and secondary school teachers participated in an historic one-day walkout, but that show of strength didn't work. Despite the fact Labour is supposed to be the teachers' friend, teachers, primary and or secondary, went on strike for six days in 2023. And there were further rolling strikes and works to rule. So yeah, it would have been good to have them in the classroom in 2023 when you were Prime Minister, especially after the disruption of Covid.   

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Mornings podcast from News
Talks HEADB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
I love the fact that when Education Minister Erica Stanford
and the Prime Minister presented improved reading stats to the
nation yesterday, Erica Stanford was very quick to praise teachers
for the much improved results in phonics reading. She said,
this is an incredible improvement in reading scores in less
than half a year and reflects the brilliant work teachers

(00:36):
are doing. And it does. Teachers have had a difficult
time with changes in curriculum and dealing with increasingly disruptive
children and school closures during COVID. It has been a
difficult time. But when given a challenge and when given
a mandate and given the tools to help do it,
they rose to the challenge and the results have been

(00:59):
in these very early stages remarkable. There needed to be
a turnaround. New Zealand's reading results have been declining since
two thousand and six. In the Progress and International Reading
Literacy Study, which has done every five years and just
about every international test where we mark ourselves against other countries,

(01:20):
we have been on a downward spiral. Interestingly, educators, teachers
principles insisted that it's just tests. Our kids don't like tests,
they don't like being compared. It's a very crude way
to measure achievement. No, not really, it's not. It's an

(01:43):
accurate assessment of where we at. Where we were at,
and where we were at was dismal. The results from
this year look extremely promising. Data showed fifty eight percent
of students were at or above expectations at their twenty
week phonics check and term three. That's up from thirty
six percent in term one. So they were measured after

(02:04):
term one. The little five year olds were at or
above expectations thirty six percent of them in term one.
That has moved to fifty eight percent in term three.
In term three, forty three percent of students were classed
as exceeding expectations, more than double the term one rate.

(02:28):
For Marty's students in mainstream education, forty seven percent of
them required further support with phonics in term three. That
is down from sixty two percent of them needing support
in term one. So to put it in other way,
slightly more positive way, and term one, a quarter of
Marty's students were at or above expectations. By term three

(02:51):
that was forty three percent, so that's a significant difference.
Education Minister Erica Stanford says this is only the beginning.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
From next year. Twice a year every year in reading, writing,
in math SELBIA Progress Monitoring check in. I dare not
call it a test, but we will be essentially assessing
every child from year three to make sure that they're
on track with their reading, writing, and maths, and that
includes high level literacy like comprehension.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
I have absolute faith that we'll see a lift in
children's educational achievements under the new curriculum. Structured literacy, which
involves explicitly teaching word identification, including through phonics, became mandatory
in schools at the start of this year. Certainly it
was used in many schools before this, but not necessarily

(03:43):
by every teacher at every year level. It was very
much hit and miss, and that was one of the
things they talked about in the education in the election campaign.
They didn't want educational success to be by postcode because
one principle did things one way, another principle did things
another way. They wanted a standardized education for every child

(04:06):
right across the country, and one that worked. Labor Leader
Chris Hopkins was quick to claim credit for the structured
literacy program, telling reporters after the press conference yesterday the
scheme had been underway under the previous Labor government, it
was being rolled out. He said, we're in the early
stages of rolling it out, but then we lost the election. Clearly,

(04:29):
we believe in it, we developed it. The vast bulk
of the work or unstructured literacy was done when jan
Toinetti was Associate Minister of Education and I was the minister, right,
you had six years to make the changes. Being generous,
he had six years less two over COVID to look

(04:49):
at the science and introduce a best practice for all
of our key we kids. But you didn't. You didn't.
And as for the comment he made too in a
really churlish kind of look at me, what about us?
He stead, of course we'd be making more progressive. Teachers
are in the classroom rather than on strike because the

(05:11):
government are offering them a real terms pay cut. Short
memory for my education minister, twenty twenty three was a
terrible year, absolutely terrible year for strike action by teachers.
In March twenty twenty three, tens of thousands of primary
area and secondary school teachers participated in an historic one

(05:35):
day walkout, but that show's strength didn't work, despite the
fact Labour supposed to be the teacher's friend. Teachers primary
and or secondary went on strike for six days in
twenty twenty three, and there were further rolling strikes and
works to rules. So yeah, would have been good to
have them in the classroom in twenty twenty three when

(05:57):
you were Prime Minister, especially after the disruption of COVID. Ultimately, though,
what matters is our kids are back on track baby steps.
But it's a very very good beginning. For hundreds of years,
a decent education was what gave you options. Didn't matter

(06:19):
where you were born and what circumstances you were born.
A good education gave you options. It emancipated you from
material poverty, intellectual poverty, spiritual poverty, and the quality of
New Zealand's education for all children, not just the children
of the elite, was what set us apart from the

(06:39):
rest of the world. We lost our way for a time,
and we lost a whole cohort of young New Zealanders.
But hopefully this is the beginning of giving New Zealand
kids choices and opportunities. Giving them the sort of future
that they deserve.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
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