Collective Matters #5
Kia ora,
Welcome back to Collective Matters. Our work and community continues to grow. People reach out often asking about the best way to be involved.
Our Facebook Community has grown to over 950 members. This is an outward facing community that looks to discuss issues directly connected to the changing education landscape. We aim to be an example of the profession engaging in high quality discussion. We welcome voices from across the profession to engage in robust evidence informed, critical debate.
Our Substack now has over 1200 subscribers. This is where we curate readings from Collective Members or others in the profession. We are currently focusing on issues related to curriculum, initial teacher education, and charter schools.
Thank you to those that have become paid subscribes to our substack, we have over 60 people. We currently don't offer any extra content for subscribers, but the funding does allow us to continue to grow the work we do. For instance, this funding enabled us to have Professor John O’Neill attend a panel discussion in Auckland on Charter Schools.
This month we published an open letter on behalf of a group of academics involved in mathematics education. They came together to highlight the misuse of data for the purpose of driving a political agenda. A extract is quoted below-
Both the Prime Minister and Education Minister have stated that this study shows that only 22% of students are working at or above the expected curriculum level for Year 8 students. The result of around only one in five students working at the appropriate curriculum level in Year 8 seems questionable given it contradicts previous national and international studies, including NMSSA, TIMMS, and PISA, which all show higher levels of student achievement.
The release of this assessment information today shows that it is not reflective of a drastic drop in achievement but instead a change in the benchmarking being used. These results have been benchmarked to the refreshed curriculum (Sept 2023), and not to the current The New Zealand curriculum document (2007) that is being taught.
This misuse of data ushered in the introduction of ‘Structured Mathematics’, which continues the government’s over-reliance on the ‘science of learning’. The government's approach of buying in an off-the-shelf pedagogy and then mandating it into classrooms is a recipe for disaster. While we should all be impatient about how we improve learning outcomes, forcing a quick-fix solution is only going to waste time and funding. Instead, we should be investing in the profession and providing appropriate supports. Research into professional development and learning demonstrates that lasting change takes time.
Finally, look out over the next week as we are about to advertise for our third event. This one will be focused on curriculum and the need to push back on government overreach.
How you can help
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We want to work alongside people to create content for the Substack. You do not need to agree with everything the Collective has said. But we do want to create a place for wide-reaching professional discussion. You can see more info here.
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5 August - Another rush education policy not based on research, evidence or consultation - full release here
Substack Summary
2 September - The Ministerial Advisory Group takeover of the curriculum refresh - full release here
22 August - University Initial Teacher Education programmes are strong and fit for purpose - full release here
6 August - Poverty Before Profits - full release here