Assessing Educational Delivery and Attainment.

National sets rules for success at school

"National's Plan
* Set national standards that will specify what a child should be able to do in a subject in a year.
* Require schools to choose testing methods that measure their students against others in the country.
* Require schools to tell parents about their children's assessment and their school's performance against the national standard."

"National's plan to make schools assess children's abilities in reading, writing and mathematics and report to parents has been slammed by principals as a "vote grabbing exercise" which would pit school against school."
But is it?
Teachers have ready access to laptops, so ease of recording, ease of maintaining 'running records,' a far greater ability to give immediate feedback to students on performance and progress with the positive 'spin off' of focussing the teacher on progress, learning to fluency rather than deficits or inability to learn ... and most importantly focussing them on teaching method, on how to maximise learning.
No negatives here!
And national standards? This is the only way to keep teachers honest, to ensure they are fulfilling their role of ensuring our children maximally acquire the education to which they are entitled.
No 30% 'tail of non performers' here.
And so what if it 'pits school against school,' that is entirely what it should do ... the sooner this erroneous reasoning that competition is bad is acknowledged,the better - between individuals, between groups, between classes/teachers and institutions ... and the information available should be as specific and meaningful as is possible.