Blinded by the data?

It seems like every piece of quality teaching has to be backed up with evidence and data. Every decision we make has to have measurable outcomes. After spending a few hours at the NZPF education summit it became a little more obvious that there was some discourse around what truly is measurable. Several comments around measurable success: is it really about PISA and OECD or is it something less measurable but more tangible. Sometimes as a teacher we have the gut feelings and gain lots of success but not necessarily in a reading age or maths score/stage. Sometimes its an innate knowledge of where to go next, we must always have these opportunities open and celebrated.

A challenge laid to teachers around Maori and Pacifika learners is that without identity and relationships then academic success will not happen. Seems simple and obvious but do you measure identity and relationships. Are they measurable? If you don’t measure them then have you critiqued what they are, broken them down and set a plan for implementing them. Ka Hikitia is not a strategy, its a philosophy/framework, schools need to devise a strategy, make a plan for all students and implement it. Schools have break down what works for their learners and set some reachable goals and scaffold these on their values and beliefs. Its not all about data or test results there are other more important things. Define them, articulate them, do them.

So i’m going to ask, what does your living local curriculum look like sound like smell like?

What are the non negotiables ?