An independent expert
June 20th, 2012 at 1:51 pm by David FarrarThe Herald proclaims:
An expert on school league tables says introducing the system here would lead to schools narrowing their teaching focus, competing for the “best” students and rejecting those who fall behind in order to reach national targets.
Professor Martin Thrupp, of Waikato University, spent six years in Britain researching education markets and accountability in schools.
The name of that expert sounds familiar. As it happens, I have blogged previously on him:
A teacher union is funding independent research into the impact of the new National Standards in schools. …
“Given the absence of a trial of National Standards and the deep concerns the profession and school communities have, NZEI has decided to fund this research in a bid to get robust evidence about the impact of National Standards on teaching and learning,” he said.
The project is being run through the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research at the University of Waikato and is headed by Prof Martin Thrupp.
It may just be me, but I think readers would have found it useful to know he is being funded by the NZEI.
Hmmm… I wonder if this is the same “independent Martin Thrupp that has railed against national standards in March 2010, and is it the same Martin Thrupp who is very active on the national Standards protest site, including this blog post about how to get traction in the media against National Standards and the same martin Thrupp who sent an email of support to the NZPF for their action against National Standards?
The fact that he is also a persistent activist and campaigner against the Government, might also be something readers would want to know. But alas, they are just told he is an “expert” and nothing more.
In no way do I suggest Professor Thrupp should not be quoted. But I think media do the public a dis-service when they do not report he is funded by NZEI and a prominent campaigner against the Government on education policy.
Related posts:
- The independent research into national standards
- Herald on school data
- Fight bad info with good info
- Auckland school
June 20th, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Is it that they, the media are biased against this Government or not doing so, that people won’t be alerted to a beat up to create news by repeaters.
I suspect that they are poor journalists as are their copy editors unprofessional editors.
Thank you for outing the agenda and the biased person.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Media outlets and opposition politicians both benefit from public outrage and you don’t get that from fair balanced reporting or representation of the facts.
Everyone wants to be happy, but to succeed these people have to make people unhappy — what sort of person would want that sort of job?
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Waikato University
Vote:says it all really
June 20th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
‘An expert on school league tables says introducing the system here would lead to schools narrowing their teaching focus, competing for the “best” students and rejecting those who fall behind in order to reach national targets.’
DPF, as your attacking the man and not the message I guess you’ve got nothing to refute what he is saying.
[DPF: Don't lie. I have not attacked the man at all. I have attacked the media for not reporting his affiliations]
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
YesWeDid, there’s a useful feature called tags in play on Kiwiblog. You can easily see any post tagged as relating to League Tables just by clicking on the tag at the bottom of the post that says ‘league tables’. To make it even easier, click this link:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/tag/league_tables
Because you guessed wrong.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
‘The fact that he is also a persistent activist and campaigner against the Government’
I struggle to see how the media are meant to ‘report his affiliations’ when all he is ‘guilty’ of is having an opinion and for voicing it.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
He is a political activist for the teachers unions. His opinion is worthless
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 2:56 pm
I am sick of these so-called experts not being identified as the campaigners they really are – The Herald and TVNZ has a string of them from Jane Kelsey, to Bryan Gould to that Island Bay principal. I think we are always entitled to know who the messenger is especially when we are being spun a party line.
I am also sick of people being introduced as ‘professor’ for instance, suggesting that we are going to hear something objective and data based when all we receive is polemic.
It doesn’t say much for our educational leaders when they don’t identify themselves as spokespeople for a partisan point-of-view.One wonders what they are actually teaching their students.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 3:00 pm
“I struggle to see how the media are meant to ‘report his affiliations’ when all he is ‘guilty’ of is having an opinion and for voicing it.”
Vote:There is a distinct difference between being an expert and an advocate. An advocate is partial and therefore unreliable no matter how well informed. His opinions are being publicised as though he is acting as an independant expert when, in fact, he is demonstrably partial. That is dishonest reporting
June 20th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
An education expert from Victoria University was on RNZ this morning complaining about league tables. I guess questions will be asked by DPF about his parentage. There shall be no criticism of National’s education policy.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
In fact, there are several academics and experts who have questioned the effectiveness of league tables.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/search/results?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=league+tables
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
Everyone please stop calling them ‘league tables’ that is what they were called yesterday, today they are called ‘student achievement data’.
They can’t be called ‘league tables’ because Hekia Parata said the government wouldn’t be publishing league tables.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
High schools have been ranked publicly for years and years and the sky hasn’t fallen in. What are primary schools so scared of?
Vote:Perhaps their assessments are so shonky they are embarrassed. If this is the case, what on earth are our poor kids putting up with every day? How can we trust anything these principals say?
June 20th, 2012 at 3:26 pm
DPF: But I think media do the public a dis-service when they do not report he is funded by NZEI and a prominent campaigner against the Government on education policy.
Do we need more reasons for not reading the MSM? But yeah, they’re in the entertainment business, not informing business.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
I don’t particularly care, as I abhor children, but given schools, teachers, and their students cost taxpayers lots of money, then they should be ranked, open to criticism, and subjected to consumer choice.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Frankly with the state of churnalism at the NZ Horrid being what it is, I’m surprised that they haven’t offered Thrupp a job as Education Reporter – he’s eminently qualified to join their red ranks
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Waikato University, it’s a wonder the poor bugger can walk in a straight line. Anyone spending time in that reeducation camp usually comes out so bent to the left they spin around in circles.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Ross69 said “June 20th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
An education expert from Victoria University was on RNZ this morning complaining about league tables. I guess questions will be asked by DPF about his parentage. There shall be no criticism of National’s education policy.”
He wasn’t complaining about league tables per se he was objecting to league tables that didn’t smooth out decile impact on student achievement i.e. didn’t cover the teachers for the effort that was required to bring the kids of the deadbeats up to par with higher decile kids.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 7:05 pm
League Tables.
Vote:There seems to be an objection to them because we might make decisions using information they don’t like. Apparently that’s bad.
So the offered solution is to deny us the information.
Argue against a decision I might make, and if you like, use additional information, to cconvince me to change my mind. That’s OK.
But it’s particularly objectionable to deny me information at all.
I will accept or reject information. That’s my right.
And those who seek me deny me information, just in case I might use it, are right out of line.
June 20th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
The objection seems mainly to be that such tables are likely to paint a highly misleading view of school performance. If there is actually a demand for information on the ‘performance’ of schools, perhaps it would be better achieved by augmenting the information provided in the ERO reports. After all, there is it, an agency charged with reviewing and reporting on education performance. Interested in a school? – see what the ERO reports say. Does anyone really believe that it is possible to construct a table that accurately ranks schools from ‘best’ to ‘worst’?
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Relative student achievement paints an entirely true picture of student performance, it’s just that education professionals don’t want the great unwashed seeing that picture.
Mike said “Does anyone really believe that it is possible to construct a table that accurately ranks schools from ‘best’ to ‘worst’?”
Vote:The joker on RNZ this morning said it was quite feasible.
June 20th, 2012 at 7:22 pm
I tend to think that it might be a holy grail beyond reach. We have an Education Review Office that assesses schools against set criteria, and well-established mechanisms to intervene when schools are not performing. I’m not sure a ‘league table’ will actually add much to the picture.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Well, I think that we get fuck all real visibility of pupil and school performance out of the education system so a league table will add another dimension that we don’t currently get, *relative* performance.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 8:18 pm
The only comparable nations above us in the OECD’s league tables of national education achievement – well researched and highly regarded, unlike our pathetic National Standards – are Canada and Finland. Their governments don’t do league tables.
On the other hand, equally comparable nations below us, sometimes well below us, in the OECD rankings are very keen on league tables.
Which countries should guide us as regards best practise?
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 8:26 pm
Shh Luc, it’s not done here to remind people that we have a great education system.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
expat
Without moderation of National Standards any information will not be “relative.” This is a major objection of the experts opposed to league tables. In addition, to properly and accurately measure the performance of teachers and schools requires in depth analysis of many factors and this is so costly as to be prohibitive, and is still likely to be inconclusive and unfair to many.
The OECD tells us the biggest single improvement in our education system is to address our inequality gap. Just a one point improvement in that index, they say, will increase our score in the PISA tests by over 50 points. This would place us easily first in the world.
Why don’t we do that, utilising proven, credible, evidence based research that guarantees results?
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 8:29 pm
Humble apologies, mm. Please don’t tell DPF I blasphemed.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
“Does anyone really believe that it is possible to construct a table that accurately ranks schools from ‘best’ to ‘worst’?”
We believed it in my schooldays milkey. All us Proddys knew our schools were best and the Fenian schools were worst.
Even if the St. Marys girls were reputed to be the best roots!
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 9:29 pm
Canada and Finland don’t do league tables – and? So we can’t?
The moderation in NS is OTJ which apparently is much better than a national test measuring all kids against the same thing.
Additionally the bloke on RNZ this morning said that NZ’ NS framework was light years ahead of the UK and in his opinion that putting a moderating framework around NS was a relatively moderate exercise.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 9:30 pm
But I guess Labour activists don’t really want to listen eh guys.
Vote:June 20th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Still can’t stick to the topic, I see, expat.
However, to answer, of course it is possible to apply moderation to NS (it should be being done regardless of tables etc if you accept the need for such simplistic nonsense) but that’s not what is being proposed.
Because then NS would start to cost serious money, including the need to, god forbid, hire more teachers to train teachers!
Vote:June 21st, 2012 at 7:24 am
Read again “The moderation in NS is OTJ”
And the actual topic is about the NZEI being duplicitous.
Vote:June 21st, 2012 at 8:28 am
The Herald has lost any claim to credibility and integrity. Almost weekly people tell me that they’ve cancelled their decades-long Herald broadsheet sub and they almost always cite issues of content and editing. Granny’s habit of not disclosing the personal political motives of commentators is inane. It makes a mockery of their profession and it’s patronizing. Along with ever burgeoning public preference for digital news sourcing, readers are increasingly better educated and usually seeking multiple sources. Half-arsed hacks and lazy editors will become irrelevant and eventually defunct.
Vote:June 21st, 2012 at 10:53 am
Surely his credentials as stated
“Professor Martin Thrupp, of Waikato University, spent six years in Britain researching education markets and accountability in schools”
are pretty informative as to his expertise.
If all academics giving opinions have to report their sources of income then it should be the same for all people who have or relate opinions such as politicians and people doing surveys.
Vote: