SecQual

External moderation of Mathematics and Statistics, Level 1 - 4
S2011/040 - 06 Sep 2011

External moderation of Mathematics and Statistics, Level 1 - 4

This year NZQA introduced a more random approach to the selection of standards for external moderation. While this resulted in an overall decrease in the total number of standards selected nationally it caused an increase in the number of standards selected in Mathematics and Statistics. This greatly reduced any extra moderation capacity we had in this subject.

The impact of the Canterbury earthquakes has had a significant affect on our moderation capacity in Mathematics as most of our full-time moderators live in this region. This disrupted their ability to moderate for many weeks. While we hoped to mitigate the impact of the February earthquakes, the impact of the further June earthquake went beyond our ability to resolve this issue before the end of the year.

These factors have greatly reduced capacity in this subject to continue NZQA’s support of the Ministry of Education’s Assessment Resources Project for the alignment of standards to the New Zealand Curriculum and to be in a position to better assist Mathematics and Statistics teachers prepare for the introduction of further new standards.

To counter this impact it has been decided not to moderate all of the standards previously selected for moderation.

For schools that have already submitted material for moderation

When moderation materials are returned for this subject you may find that moderation reports have only been completed for up to six standards.  In particular, the standards we will not be moderating are:

• ‘old’ Level 1 achievement standards that are expiring
• unit standards
• any standard that was moderated in the previous year.

Where a school believes there is a need to moderate any of the material that has been returned but not moderated, this can be discussed with your School Relationship Manager and we will endeavour to make appropriate arrangements. This material may not be able to be moderated until Term 1, 2012.

For schools that have not yet submitted material for moderation

If your school has not yet sent in your moderation materials for Mathematics and Statistics for this year, please note that you are no longer required to send in any material for expiring Level 1 achievement standards, or unit standards, or any standard moderated in 2010.

We hope that schools will appreciate that the ongoing impact of these earthquakes were unforeseen. At this stage we still hope to return all other materials submitted for moderation before the end of the year but because of the impact of these earthquakes there may be delays for some subjects in some schools.

Enquiries

Please refer any enquiries relating to this circular to your School Relationship Manager.

School Relationship Manager
School Quality Assurance and Liaison
Telephone: 04 463 3000
Fax: 04 463 3113
Email: firstname.lastname@nzqa.govt.nz