Phil Cullen of Australia is a zealous critic of his nation’s national testing and accountability regime.
He wrote about this important news from New Zealand, whose new government has decided to abandon the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM).
He wrote:
“New Zealand leads the world.
“New Zealand leads the way down under and maybe across the world in caring about kids.
“Its determination to return to sanity, humanity, progress, initiative and competence for its schooling system, which itself determines national progress in the long run, is now being unpacked and, I am told that the new coalition government contains a few former teachers and school-active parents around as heavyweights who can talk school and lead the conversion for a better world down under.
“There’s dynamic Tracey Martin, former School Board chair; Kelvin Davis, highly respected former principal and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party; and Winston Peters of NZ First and, Deputy PM who trained as a teacher. In Australia we only have legal eagles.
“Parent groups in NZ are claiming that now, teaching will be returned to the teaching profession and democracy will be returned to schooling in New Zealand soon. The isles are shaking with joy for kids.
“It’s a country that has always been to the forefront of school improvement but then, the take-over by the irrational managerialists and corporate heavy-weights circa 1990, and the addition of GERM in 2008, has had a detrimental impact that has lasted for a decade. They’ve had enough, now. We still tolerate it to our shame and academic deterioration.
“How come New Zealand leads the world now in the decontamination of the establishment’s unworthy, useless, immoral, unethical, unprofessional testucation procedures in schools? Well, there’s been a number of factors.
“Fortunately, during this period, it has had its crusaders for kids who just don’t give in too easily. It’s been a long and arduous battle, of the kind that must continue next door, in Australia.
“There’s Kelvin Smythe, former Chief Inspector and Allan Allach, energetic, thoughtful former primary school principal, reader and writer and Bruce Hammonds, former principal, consultant and writer – a valiant trio that has been unafraid to have their say. They set the pace.
“There’s Chris Hipkins, in particular, who has been the shadow Minister for Education whose inspirational speeches and talks have been based on a sound knowledge of schooling and who has been unequivocal in his aim to rid the country of testucation and de facto schooling.
“There’s the Primary Principals’ Association which kept its administrative distance from the government testucrats and compliant GERMans, never properly complying .
“While “The Government will never listen and nothing will change and we are just one little country.” Some timorous principals said, there were others of the association, especially the leader of the organisation, Whetu Cormick, described as “The greatest teacher organisation leader of our time,:” by Kelvin Smythe. We didn’t hold back, “At the other extreme are those like me,” he said “who will continue to fight to the end. We know that National Standards and all the ‘reforms’ that go with them are bad for our young people. Our young people have faith in us to protect their futures by continuing to fight for the best education that our young people deserve.” Looking directly into the face of Nikki Kay, the then Minister, he said, “Let’s wait no longer to get our young people on the road to success. Let’s put up a big STOP NATIONAL STANDARDS.” The organsation has always been fearless…
Click to access opinion_piece_nzpf_presidents_column_on_ns_may_31_2011_.pdf
“There’s Diane Kahn and the Save Our Schools organisation whose prime target has always been the elimination of ‘national standards’ and was heavy and constant with dynamic opposition. [ https://saveourschoolsnz.com/ ]
“There’s an influential Kiwi sciolist [aka schooliolist – one who pretends to be well informed about schooling] and academic testucator who played a significant role in the introduction of testucation into NZ…..who left the country at the right time.
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“There are some messages for Australia. In world schooling terms, it is the boondocks of failed political schooling, the backward West Island of learning progress, the most over-tested country in the world.
“A political party needs to think. Does it believe in providing the best schooling possible, or doesn’t it give a damn as Aussie political parties do?
“Listening to schooliolist academic know-alls, qualified testucators, loud-mouth politicians, corporate unions [like IPA, BCA and Farmers] inhabited by conservative capitalists, neo-libs and delcons, which still rule the roost on the west side of the ditch, continues to lead Australian schooling in the wrong direction. New Zealand has now told these cocky roosters what to do with their distasteful attitude to children.
“Australian schools are in dire need of some Finnish-ing tactics.” said Wendy Knight in The Age….and we can now add: ‘and some Kiwi tactics’. What really happens in a good school system? Why don’t we look around and learn?
An example of off-the-hip, loud-mouth political interference is contained in suggestions made in Treasurer Morrison’s Shifting the Dial, another imported kind of measurement.
“It presumes that the hiring of skilled subject specialists like mathematicians will improve standards in schools. It overlooks the reality that real teachers teach real pupils….real people! The secret is in the interaction. They teach them about mathematics, to like mathematics. They don’t get up in front of a class and pontificate about what they themselves know. Effective teachers of anything operate from the learner’s level. Socrates was a better teacher of Maths than Einstein and a better teacher of literature than Shakespeare. His pupils learned how to learn.
“A strong and outspoken principals’ association can be truly influential as they are in NZ. Protection of children and their future as well as the provision of a rich holistic curriculum, undaunted by fearful interruptions to positive learning, should dominate the spirit of every principal’s personal professional code. Laxity, timidity, compliance and silence have no place in their organisations when the chips are down for kids….as they are now in Australia.
“It’s looking more evident every day that the lower half of the existing Lib-Lab delcon group viz. Labor under Shorten, will be the government after the next federal election in Australia. The lib-lab neo-con conventions will probably continue as they did in the passing of klein deforms from Labor to Liberal. Neither political group, Labor nor Liberal, ever expresses any thoughts about the continuance of the Klein system of schooling, now almost a decade old ; and which should go because it is proving useless.
“Neither party knows much about schooling and hides its ignorance by talking only Gonksi and funding and teacher quality. For them, the plight of children lies in the dollar sign, not in compassion and humanity and learning and in experience and excellence. Each remains ultra-complacent by making do, making silly schooling decisions, maintaining the mediocre, and supporting private schools before helping public schools.{Remember DOGS – Defence of Government Schools?} A country that treats its children the way that Australia does, is in for big trouble….really big trouble.
“It just won’t be able to handled itself in world affairs.
“It relies on the cockeyed Gillard Theory of Testucation, using Kleinism to control operatives and operations, to no end except to gather data; then ignores the basic laws of administrative order and effectiveness [Campbell, Goodhart, Lucas and Common Sense] and treats the electorate as if everyone is a dill or doesn’t care what happens to kids. The present government will go while it maintains these attitudes to schooling and doesn’t have the capacity to think. The Labor Party will replace it and not do any better. Both need to think seriously about schooling…very, very seriously.
ooo000ooo
“I’m deliberately apolitical and have voted informal at the last few federal elections because I’ve been offered only lower-order policies in general and crazy views about schooling. …nothing that really suggests that there is a healthy future for this wonderful country. Schooling is the most important issue of this century for Aussie citizens. If it is not rejuvenated, Australia has some big problems coming up. I’ll vote for any party -Pauline’s, Bob’s, Nick’s, Jacqui’s, anybody who says that it will get rid of NAPLAN.
“I’ll know by its standard of advocacy that such a party likes kids, that it is thinking and will do something about our future. Our present klein system relies on child abuse.
“I’ll study the detail of course, but no party can be so blithely ignorant of schooling as our major parties are at present. Their mentors can only bark Gonski, data, scores, testing, funding, teacher quality with schooliolist pedantry and no regard for the real spirit of learning at school.
“Seriously – rejuvenation of schooling from the mess of mass testucation will be very difficult. Unscrambling an egg always is. Since New Zealand will have to do the job before Australia wakes up, it might be wise to locate some observers there to learn how to go about it.
“We need to do what New Zealand has done :
“DECLARE OURSELVES
“It’s rejuvenation time down under!
“THANKS NEW ZEALAND”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Fortunately, during this period, it has had its crusaders for kids who just don’t give in too easily”
Like you, Diane Ravitch!
We, too, will look back on this testing mania as a very, very dark time.
“A country that treats it’s children the way that _________(insert country of choice) does, is in for really big trouble” The US is in for really big trouble. Actually, I’d say we are in the midst of really big trouble. I believe I read somewhere recently that the UK is done with the “rephorm” movement and will be sliding back to the good old days of education. Nope, not here in the US! Our greedy, free market loving government will keep on going with the “rephorms’, doubling down on everything that’s bad for children. Guess who will be taking care of the next elderly generation of decision makers?…..the mistreated children. Will those same mistreated children have a heart and care? I think not. Karma!
Two thoughts here:
first this statement, “Our young people have faith in us to protect their futures by continuing to fight for the best education that our young people deserve” – I wish that this were always true, but I know plenty of cases when young people have lost their faith in the system. An interesting trend I noticed – many of my former students are parents of their own (yes younger parents – so mothers who are 25-30 years old)…They have kids in elementary school. Nearly EVERY ONE sends their child to a charter school in the DC area. When asked, it’s because they recall their own experiences in public schools in DC and don’t want their own children to have the same experience they had.,.
Second – why do we try and compare nations and what one does versus another one and just think we can instantly adapt another country’s methods. Implementation matters. Context Matters. Yes, we need to study and pick and chose what could work. But to just say New Zealand does it, so we should do it too..
As an aside, the population of New Zealand is 3.8 million. So an entire country is about the size of one major city here in the US…Sort of apples to oranges when considering national education policy
A parent of 25-30 is not a young parent. A young parent is one of 13-20 with a grandparent around 30.
And those parents of whom you speak would have been in DC schools when the Ultimate Rheephormer was in charge, Michelle Rhee (2007-10 and beyond with Henderson). So all that Rheephorm testing and teacher evaluation that was taking place must be seen as the cause for that dissatisfaction, eh!
As far as your “second”:
The sooner we get out the “testucation” (Cullin’s phrase) mode the better off the students will be.
And the reason to do so has nothing to do with what NZ is doing but the fact that the testucation regime has been harming too many students for far too long.
As far as apples to oranges, then let’s just have the states individually reject the testucation that way it’ll be more like apples to apples, eh!
Effective teachers of anything operate from the learner’s level. Socrates was a better teacher of Maths than Einstein and a better teacher of literature than Shakespeare. His pupils learned how to learn.
Without understanding the “learner’s level” , how the learner perceives the world, we are doomed to fail our children. Thank you Diane and Mr. Cullen!
Phil Cullen is Australia’s premier educator and a national treasure. He has been involved with education as an elementary teacher, administrator, state coordinator, teacher of teachers and now activist who has traveled the world in working to improve education for all for almost 3/4 of a century. He has earned the highest medal of honor in Australia, the Medal of Australia, for his service in education. As he put it to me, “the Queensie pinned it on my chest”.
His sense of humor is not surpassed by anyone. As the Kiwi educator and activist (one who has had a major hand in NZ beating back the testucation), Allan Alach, puts it in reference to Phil’s writing and thoughts: “The Aussies beat all hands down when it comes to English language usage. You know how hard it is for a Kiwi to say that an Aussie wins in anything?”
My favorite phrase of Phil’s is “I’m still for the children, are you?”
Phil and Allan have worked together to produce “The Treehorn Express” website which can be found at: https://treehornexpress.wordpress.com/ (They serialized my book on the site.)
Just a quibble: the award is called the Order of Australia (OA) or the Order of Australia Medal (OAM). Sometimes you’ll see these letters after “significant” Australian’s names in official documents.
Australians’
Thanks for the correction, David.
Despite its checkered past in mistreating the native Maiori population, New Zealand has learned its lesson and was recently voted the most equitable industrialized nation in an international poll. New Zealand has always been a leader in humanistic education. It is the home of Whole Language and Reading Recovery, both very child centered approaches to learning. It seems fitting that New Zealand would take a stand against the commodification of the nation’s children. I had a chance to visit schools there several years ago, and the needs of children were always priority #1.
New Zealand is very different from our country. First of all, it is small, and our country is vast. It is easier to launch as resistance campaign in a small country. Second, corporations do not run New Zealand. In our country, with huge income inequality, corporations and billionaires are writing our policies. Of course, they will produce policies that directly benefit them. These wealthy business leaders see the whole world as a business opportunity, and global education represents a 4.265 trillion dollar “business market.”
“It is the home of Whole Language and Reading Recovery, both very child centered approaches to learning.”
Reading Recovery is actually very expensive and unfortunately very ideological in its outlook. Added to that, it’s actually not very effective.
I have spent some time in Australia and New Zealand–enough to know that these countries had imported some bad ideas about education from the US and the UK. It is good to hear that they are resisting the attempt by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank, and others who want to determine the educational productivity of each nation by means of standardized tests, and other measures. At the time I was in New Zealand, the Maori leaders in education had succeeded in gaining leadership positions in higher education and in policy formation. At that time, almost all natural assets legally belonged to the Maori people who could determine which of these could be exploited for economic gain, by whom, how, how much and for how long. That helped to keep the nation from being fully exploited by corporations. Filmaking became a major source of revenue.
They also started bilingual-bicultural programs for Maori young people. They felt that this would lead to a stronger sense of identity which, in turn, would give young people a better foundation.
I was delighted to hear that Jacinda Arden has risen to the prime ministership of NZ. I have a feeling she’ll be there for quite some time.
One aspect of the NZ education system has been overlooked in Phil’s post, however: their Catholic schools were integrated into the state system back in the 1970s and are fully state-funded, just like charters. They get to maintain their Catholic character and the church still owns all the land and buildings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_in_New_Zealand#Education
I’m also a bit disappointed that he mentioned the DOGS (Defence of Government Schools) as if they no longer exist. They are definitely still around and still fighting – they have a weekly hour-long radio show which you can download as a podcast. One of their veteran members, Dr Jean Ely, is now in her eighties, still fighting for state schools, and I know that she reads Diane’s blog regularly. She often quotes from the blog in the radio show.
DOGS website is here:
http://www.adogs.info
I’m willing to add to the list of travesties occurring in Australian education. This morning I heard on the radio that our federal government has decided to give extra funds to the Direct Instruction program that has been rolled out in the Northern Territory and Western Australia – specifically for Indigenous students, who are the most disadvantaged in the country. And yet, the evidence for its use is fairly dodgy:
https://aeunt.org.au/news/merits-of-direct-instruction/
And yet, this is the same government who, only a few days ago, disgracefully rejected the Uluru Statement of the Heart, a carefully-crafted document that represents the wishes of countless Indigenous Australians who have respectfully asked for greater recognition and representation in government decisions:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-27/decision-to-reject-uluru-statement-is-indefensible/9093408
Talk about paternalism – white people telling black people what is best for them. Over two hundred years and still the same story. Shameful.
For those who are interested, listen to the interview with the Indigenous Affairs minister about it at the link below. The interviewer, Patricia Karvelas (who has considerable knowledge of Indigenous affairs) can barely contain her rage. This interview was conducted on the same day as the announcement that the government rejected the Uluru Statement.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/government-rejects-constitutional-indigenous-voice-to-parliament/9090304
David,
Have you read Noel Wilson’s works on the invalidities of the standards and testing regime?
If so, your thoughts, please!
Are you talking about Noel Pearson, the Indigenous leader? If so, he has a somewhat chequered history in this area. He has tended towards the conservative side of politics in the past, holding positions of power when the Liberals (conservatives) have government. He is the one behind the DI push in Indigenous schools in Cape York (far northern Queensland). His leadership of these schools has not been without controversy:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-10/good-to-great-schools-linked-to-high-risk-business-practices/8000858
(Shades of “charterism” in this, wouldn’t you agree?)
However, I think he has now regretted trusting them, and his response to the rejection of the Uluru Statement, an initiative that he was responsible for driving, was absolutely withering. He was interviewed straight after the minister in that radio interview I linked to.
No, I’m talking of Noel Wilson whose 1997 dissertation “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” is, in my mind THE most important education writing in the last 50 years.
If you’re interested, my book tells the story of how New Zealand transformed from old-school to future-ready Education system, not confirmed by a study by The Economist : https://eduwells.com/2017/10/03/highest-ranked-futureready-education-newzealand-told-you-so/