The article about Diane Ravitch, an education historian, who now renounces many of the market-oriented policies she promoted as a former federal education official in the US shows that even previously staunce pro-standards people have regrets about the wholesale changes they made – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022505543.html

God forbid you get near my child or any school I deal with! To clarify what I mean by that statement, I have NEVER heard a competent, forward thinking and responsible teacher ever say that they find the new curriculum terrible – the only complaints that have reached me from teachers are from the ones who fear change, and who are unable to provide learning programmes that are designed to meet the needs of the diverse students in their class. These are the types of teachers who are the ‘talk and chalk’ variety or lack the skills to respond to a 21st century educational environment. This is not to say you are a teacher that falls into this category by any means, but your comment is either to raise the bile in people like me – or to stir mud for an agenda that smacks somewhat of trollish behaviour. If so, mission accomplished.

If you are unable to see the vision that is behind the new curriculum, the principles that underpin it, and the importance of teaching our kiwi students the 21st century skills they need for today and for tomorrow, than I am most concerned that you say you are in education. The new curriculum is innovative, research based and a great opportunity for our students to reach their potential in an engaged and appropriate way that will assist our country to move forward. National stds undermine this.

There is apparently a National Party view that National Standards would work more productively if we also had ..

.. Performance Pay for teachers!

Read all about it ..

http://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2010/02/alan-peachey-performance-pay-for.html

and to quote the opening ..

” There is an elephant in the room of National Standards. That is performance pay for teachers. People around education circles are beginning to whisper it, a few have the courage to talk about it openly. Nobody who knows anything about how children learn doubts that it is the quality of the teacher in the classroom more than any other single factor that determines whether children learn or not. National Standards of themselves will not make children learn. The way that quality teachers use them will. If we accept that premise, then we have to ask why we are not prepared to pay highly performing teachers more than ordinary or poorly performing teachers are paid. “