Education Minister Chris Hipkins: streaming is incompatible with Treaty of Waitangi provisions.
Academic streaming in New 厙ぴ勛圖schools is still common, but according to recent泭泭it is also discriminatory and racist.
Also known as tracking, setting and ability grouping, streaming has been called a systemic barrier to Mori educational success in one major泭泭released in August.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins泭, saying streaming does more harm than it does good.
The criticism should come as no surprise. Decades of泭泭has shown streaming doesnt lift achievement. While it may boost top streams a little, it usually泭泭the achievement of students in bottom streams.
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Low expectations and low confidence
Given the main泭泭is that it lets teachers fine-tune learning activities to make them realistic but challenging, why doesnt customised learning benefit all students?
Essentially, low-stream students learn泭泭泭via泭. Students who start secondary school in a low stream have flatter learning curves than their top-stream peers. It becomes very difficult for them to catch up.
For example, we have泭泭low-stream year 9 students repetitively rounding numbers to the nearest hundred, while their top-stream peers grappled with challenging number pules. One head of mathematics reflected:
There was no real pathway for students in the bottom class to come out of that bottom class.
The messages low-stream students receive about who they are and what theyre capable of damage their泭. Self-confidence is a strong predictor of泭, so streaming can turn one test result into a泭.
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Is streaming systemically racist?
Mori and Pasifika students are泭泭in low-stream classes and therefore experience the predictable and well-established harmful impacts of streaming.
Understanding the difference between intent and impact is crucial. In the United States, for example,泭泭has shown how ability grouping was used as a mechanism to resegregate schools, keeping Black and white students separated within the same building, and subverting national schooling integration mandates.
It is the outcome rather than any intent to do deliberate harm that defines a practice as racist.
In New Zealand, leading Mori education scholars have long pointed to the泭泭between teacher expectations for Mori students and their educational attainment in mainstream secondary schools. Mori students achieve highly when their teachers ensure they are both culturally safe and academically challenged.
Of course, quality teaching improves students opportunities to excel academically. However, improving teaching for low-stream students may still have泭泭unless there is systemic change that creates pathways for them to advance to senior academic courses.
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What are the relevant policies?
The Mori education strategy泭泭was refreshed this year. Its original purpose was to influence policy to improve Mori educational success. And yet Mori are still experiencing the same systemic inequities over a decade since it was泭.
Streaming seems inconsistent with one of the refreshed Ka Hikitias outcome domains: Te Tangata: Mori are free from racism, discrimination and stigma in education.
Streaming diminishes the泭泭of students in low streams because they dont see themselves as academically able, expectations are often low, and the stigma of belonging to an underclass can remain for life.
Ka Hikitia also stresses the importance of whnau (family) in making informed decisions about education. But open conversations about streaming with whnau are rare, and streaming processes and terms can be confusing.
Being in a low stream泭泭to many learning and employment pathways, but often students and whnau dont know this until its too late.
Furthermore, the泭泭(which became law in August this year, replacing the 1989 Education Act) includes a泭泭for school boards of trustees to ensure schools give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi by achieving equitable outcomes for Mori students.
As Education Minister Hipkins observed, streaming would be very incompatible and inconsistent with this requirement. In our opinion, the evidence is on his side.
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The system must respond
There are ways to continue with streaming but泭泭its worst effects. But the tendency to label students as failures, in particular, seems almost impossible to mitigate.
For now, the decision on whether or not to stream in New 厙ぴ勛圖still sits with individual schools (unlike in Ontario, Canada, which banned streaming in July for being discriminatory and racist).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have been busier than ever juggling many competing demands. But if Mori are泭泭a widely accepted educational practice as discriminatory, those of us in the education system must not only be listening, but also be ready to implement evidence-based change.
This article was originally published on泭
