SecQual

Update on Standards Alignment for NCEA levels 1 - 3
S2011/026 - 20 Jun 2011

Level 1

All level 1 standards were registered on the NZQA website in December 2010 and January 2011. The Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) website has assessment activities (a task and assessment schedule) for all internally assessed level 1 standards labelled 'Final published’ for use with students in 2011. These activities have been quality assured at the national standard and can be used with confidence by teachers. In some cases, the generic activity for an internal assessment will need to be set within a specific context or topic. As with all assessment resources, schools will still need to follow their own quality control processes, in the same way they have always done, to ensure the authenticity of student responses. Samples of student work are being annotated for many new or significantly changed internally assessed achievement standards and progressively published on the subject pages of the NZQA website.

Sample assessment tasks for externally assessed level 1 standards, along with annotated samples of student responses, are published on the NZQA website under the subject specific pages.

Level 2

Level 2 draft standards have now been published on the TKI website. Final drafts of the level 2 standards will be released on the TKI website in September 2011. Level 2 standards will be registered by NZQA in December.

The Ministry of Education is also developing two assessment activities (a task and assessment schedule) for each new or significantly changed internally assessed achievement standard at level 2. The activities are working drafts  and are watermarked as "Drafts for School Planning Purposes Only".

The draft activities have been published on the TKI website except for:

• Generic Technology and Home Economics where there have been recent changes in the standards and material will be published as soon as possible.
• Construction and Mechanical, Processing and Digital Technologies, which are being developed through a separate project. We aim to produce resources to support 17 standards by 31 July. The five remaining standards in these categories assess the new learning in technology, which are not yet widely in practice. Assessment resources that support these five standards will be available by 30 September 2011.
• a very few specific resources which require further development.

See the TKI website for updates.

NZQA has two projects developing and/or trialling assessment materials for the draft level 2 standards. We are grateful to those teachers and schools who are prepared to participate in these trials to help ensure their teaching colleagues are better supported in the implementation of the new aligned standards.

Resources for externally assessed standards
The NZQA External Assessment Resources Project team is contracted to develop, trial and publish sample assessment resources for all externally assessed achievement standards.

Sample level 2 external assessments and schedules have been written by subject experts, and are now being trialled by students in schools across the country to ensure they are "fit for purpose". The process of resource development is helping to identify and address any design issues with the draft standards before they are submitted for registration.

Final versions of assessments, accompanied by annotated samples of marked student responses, will be published on NZQA’s website on the subject pages by December 2011.

Trialling of resources for internally assessed standards
The NZQA Internal Assessment Resources Project team is managing the trialling of assessment materials for the draft level 2 standards. Teachers have been contracted to either gather student evidence against the new standards or to develop expected student responses. Samples of student work will be annotated for many new or significantly changed internally assessed achievement standards. In most cases this will be six samples per standard.

Most new standards are similar to existing standards, and there is no need to change or adapt teaching programmes to undertake these trials. It is expected that the teachers involved will seek the support of their school and students to assist with this project. 

Teachers involved in the trials are working with the direct support of NZQA moderators as supervisors. There is no requirement for materials from these trials to be internally moderated as they are all subject to external moderation by NZQA moderators. At least two moderators will review these assessment decisions, one of whom will be the national moderator for that subject.

For some standards, trials of assessment materials cannot take place. For standards where there is no match to current learning programmes or assessment is by portfolio, for example, contracted teachers are developing expected student responses.

Some of the level 2 trials have already been completed and the rest are on track for completion no later than August. This will ensure quality, annotated samples of student work at level 2 are developed and available to teachers by the start of December for many new or significantly changed internally assessed achievement standards. If any problems are encountered, the trialists and moderators will develop expected student responses before the standards are registered

Reporting grades for evidence gathered in level 2 internal assessment trials
Evidence of achievement generated by students may be able to be used to award credit, where appropriate. Any results data will be captured directly from the teachers involved in trialling. Schools will not make entries for students involved in the trial or report results through their SMS software or web entries. When the new standards are finalised in September 2011, grades for internally assessed standards can be confirmed if appropriate and may be awarded in December when the standards are registered.

While students can gain credit from both the existing and draft level 2 standards, results are subject to an exclusions list when counting towards qualifications as well as certificate and course endorsements. The exclusions list for level 2 standards will be published in August.

Reporting of results is not possible for externally assessed standards as the trials are not conducted under examination conditions. However, where appropriate, relevant evidence may be presented for assessment against a suitable internally assessed standard.

Level 3

The first drafts of level 3 standards are now available on the TKI website. These drafts will be amended and updated as part of the resource development and trialling process. Online consultation on level 3 draft standards will take place in August and September 2011. Interested parties are invited to take part in the consultation process and participation is important.

Enquiries

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