When each of my three sons were born, we enrolled them with Plunket. This is an organisation that has been in existence since the 1940s and was designed to help young parents (mothers) with the development and health of their young families. One of the key aspects was measurement; weight, and length. This was then plotted against "normal" growth graphs. Now, none of our three sons grew at normal rates. This was the cause of much (unnecessary) angst by my wife who wondered what she was doing wrong! The simple reality of course was that these boys were healthy and growing at their own rates and have grown to be healthy young men. Had there been any need for help, or concern this would have been obvious in just by knowing the individual, not by benchmarking against an arbitrary "normal"graph!
To really help children learn and develop, we have to lose the obsession with data and attempts to measure value add! These are not designed to enhance learning of students, but rather an ill informed attempt by the purveyors of the market economy to have teachers stump up.
Reality is, the value a teacher adds is largely immeasurable.
I work with children who have chaalenges in all shapes and forms in accessing the NZC and the benchmarks that have been set are cruel and disempowering in my mind. Any small gains mark huge milestones in these childrens lives and need to be celebrated not considered to be below where they 'should' be. There are many people in our society who are fully contributing on levels that are not the standardised norms.
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