In 2010, the Ministry of Education introduced new National Standards for primary schools. In September this year, stuff.co.nz published the first data set. Hidden in the foreword was a disclaimer: results are not a proxy for quality.

The debate on National Standards has conflated two distinct issues: national standardised testing and presentation (or not) of results.

National Standards aim to measure primary school numeracy and literacy levels. This is not a new or crazy concept; New Zealand has routinely done this in one form or another for years. Measuring the skill levels of students is useful – but it must be done in the context of other relevant factors?

But opponents of National Standards have focused almost entirely on what to do with the data once collated, as if the primary purpose of the standards was to demonstrate the quality of schools rather than give information to parents.

The current data set is an analytical tool to show a student's standard compared to class mates and other student's nationally. However, its usefulness for finer analysis is limited by subjectivity. School A may assign a student a ‘well above’ standard whereas school B would have assigned an ‘at’ standard to the same student.

So it is a crude way to determine the quality of a school.

Others argue that publishing the data in league tables will undermine the learning of children; however, this argument is tenuous. The Press, in Christchurch, used to publish school certificate and bursary results every year with little fuss. Students were not disadvantaged by seeing how their school did overall or by comparison to others.

It is possible that some parents may have read the published results and used them to choose a college for their child. But what is objectionable about that?

Most parents weigh all manner of factors to decide where to send their children to school. How well a school performs on National Standards is just another factor for consideration.

In any case, suggesting that parents would base their choices solely on National Standards is ludicrous. It is fairly apparent which schools do better academically; you don’t need a league table to figure that out.

There is nothing to fear from publishing this data, and it’s insulting to suggest that parents cannot be savvy consumers of this information.