More than 220,000 students across New Zealand have taken part in the Government’s new Student Mentoring Assessment Tool (SMART), with Education Minister Erica Stanford saying the programme is delivering the clear and consistent reporting parents have long been seeking.
Since its introduction in February, more than 1,300 schools have used SMART, which forms part of the Government’s commitment to introduce twice-yearly assessments in reading, writing and mathematics.
Stanford said the assessment tool was developed in response to concerns from parents, academics, the Education Review Office and education experts about the need for better information on student achievement.
“We campaigned on this in 2023, we funded it and we delivered it,” Stanford said.
Under the system, parents of students in Years 0 to 10 receive nationally consistent reports covering reading, writing and maths achievement. Reports include one of five progress descriptors, explanations of achievement levels, attendance information, phonics results and guidance on next learning steps.
Stanford said detailed reports for participating students would be released to parents and schools from July 3.
“By using a nationally consistent reporting approach supported by twice-yearly progress check-ins, parents receive reliable, easy-to-understand information about progress in reading, writing and maths, alongside attendance information and guidance on next learning steps,” she said.
Stanford described the initiative as the first time in more than two decades that parents would receive straightforward and nationally consistent reporting on their child’s academic progress.
“For too long some students have been turning up to high school without knowing the basics of reading, writing and maths and their parents have been in the dark,” she said.
“Using better reporting we can get these students help earlier and giving them the opportunity they deserve to succeed.”
The minister said the programme was focused on improving educational outcomes rather than ideology and argued that removing SMART from schools would ignore the needs of students, parents and educators.
Student completion rates have exceeded 70 percent across participating schools, which the Government says demonstrates schools and kura are actively incorporating the assessment tool into teaching and learning programmes.
Image credit: Debby Hudson
Yeah all sounds wonderful but where’s the extra founding for our defunct education system? Knowing your kids are getting C’s and D’s when they could be doing better is meaningless.
I hear you but ultimately it’s up to you as a parent to engage with your child and their teachers. Go to teacher meetings so they know you’re watching, help your child to the best of your ability. My ids all went thru NCEA at an average state school and all,have managed to achieve full literacy and numeracy. I have taught them lots myself. Sure school could be better but it’s up to you as a parent. Primary school children need testing because if they don’t learn to read at the age of 6 7 8 9 etc then they are honestly doomed to a lifetime of problems.
I can go one step further. I enrolled my kids in the “Crimson Global Academy” on-line, thinking there wouldn’t be any woke shit, just education, unfortunately this was not true. . However it was twelve weeks in before they mentioned to me that my children hadn’t even handed anything in.
The kicker is, there weren’t that many kids enrolled and all they had to do was message me. So at least if I had been given that information of C’s and D”s i could have been pro-active.
On top of that, I payed dearly for that privilege
But they were too involved in growing the school and revenue.
Your best bet is probably to get them into a catholic school these days. Friends kids went to a private school and one never learned to read properly. How does that happen? Especially when you pay over 25K a year? Hopeless.
The revenue part is especially true of these so-called ‘Christian Schools’ where they agree to take a child with a disability, but as their rolls grow, they then want the disabled children OUT of their schools by formulating ‘bad behaviours’ and ‘lack of attention’ or ‘classroom disruptions’.
The public schools were horrific, especially for the children who are ASD / Aspergers. These kids are targeted for bullying, disenfranchisement and marginalisation, and the parents of these children are usually the targets of hateful behaviours from the school teachers, staff members and other ‘in the know’ parents.
That is why we homeschooled our Aspie.
Today our child is enrolled in a Correspondence Uni School majoring in Psychology, as our child has been the brunt of such behaviours whist in school and in Special Olympics!, and thus desires to help other Aspies and ASD persons thru such problems when graduation occurs in another year!
Look like a preamble for Digital ID and profiling….
Get OUT of the MoE WEF-based Matrix- HOMESCHOOL, especially if you have a Special Needs child!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360946135/hes-easy-target-mum-says-autistic-son-assaulted-and-targeted-ai-image-school
https://theconversation.com/dehumanising-policies-leave-autistic-people-struggling-to-access-health-education-and-housing-new-review-202997
https://theconversation.com/anxiety-in-autistic-children-why-rates-are-so-high-131424
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/autism-brain/
https://trineday.myshopify.com/products/autistic-holocaust-the-reason-our-children-keep-getting-sick
It should be SMARTASS- STUDENT MONITORING ASSESSMENT TOOL for ANTI SOCIAL STRUCTURING. (WHEN A.I. / DIGITAL I.D. AND PALANTIR TAKES OVER WITH THYE HELP OF 5-EYES DATA SHARING AND IDF UNIT 8200 SUBVERTING AND TARGETING THOSE WHO DO NOT SUPPORT GLOBAL ZIONISM, NOAHIDE LAW AND TALMUDIC ENFORCEMENT!…!)
Yessirree, Bob…now, let’s see if anyone can pass a geography test and tell me where New Zealand is on the map?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/books/why-does-new-zealand-keep-disappearing-from-world-maps