QA News December 2011

Level 2 assessment resources online

Assessment resources for all Level 2 achievement standards – internal and external – were put online in December.

For internally assessed standards, see the TKI website. For externally assessment standards, see the subject pages on the NZQA website.

This year, NZQA has been developing sample assessment resources for all Level 2 draft achievement standards prior to their registration in December 2011. (Resources for Level 1 achievement standards were done in 2010).

“The vision of the new curriculum is to develop young people as lifelong learners. Therefore, assessment tasks must be about ways of looking for evidence of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that lead to action,” says Bali Haque, Deputy Chief Executive Qualifications.

”Throughout the resource development, the teams have had to judge whether the standards are ‘fit for purpose’ and identify any design flaws that could impact on assessment. The trials have provided useful exemplars of student work to guide teachers and students.”

“We wish to thank all those teachers who helped trial the resources in schools. Many showed a great passion for their subjects, including contributing to the crafting of assessment resources to get the best from their students,” Bali says.

Internal Assessment Resources

For internally assessed standards, the work has involved gathering student evidence against the new standards. For a minority of standards, where there is presently no learning programme in place or where assessment is currently by portfolio only, purpose-written ‘expected student responses’ have been developed. A total of 254 resources are available, covering 120 standards.

NZQA moderators worked directly with teachers who were involved in the trials. Annotated samples of grade boundary student work were prepared to guide teachers and students as to their quality. Robust moderation processes were used to ensure good assessment decisions were made.

This year, a new quality-assurance process is being applied to the Level 2 Ministry of Education assessment resources for internally assessed standards published on the TKI website. Assessment resources that carry a new ‘NZQA Approved’ trademark have been quality-assured by moderators and are deemed ‘fit for purpose’.

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.

The use of the ‘NZQA Approved’ trademark will clearly signal to the sector that these assessment resources may be ‘used with confidence’ by teachers and ‘fit for the purpose’.

The QAAM trademark, used by commercial resource material providers, entails a different quality-assurance process.

When NZQA approved or QAAMed assessment resources are sent to NZQA for moderation, the moderator focuses on the assessment judgements made on the student work. A full moderation report is not completed unless that teacher has made significant changes to the assessment resources.

Lynne Gill, project manager for the Internal Assessment Resources project says, “A major degree of co-ordination of both people and resources has been required to complete the project. In some instances, draft standards are found to require further clarification or change, which can require significant reworking of draft or even of trialled material within very tight timeframes.”

External Assessment Resources

For the 83 externally assessed standards, sample examination papers, resource material, and assessment schedules have been developed and subsequently trialled by students in a range of secondary schools across New Zealand.

These assessment resources, accompanied by a suite of marked, annotated booklets that show a range of performance levels, are now published on the NZQA website. All level 2 sample examination papers and schedules have been developed using a grade score marking (GSM) rubric. GSM is gradually being introduced across all NZQA levels, starting with level 1 in 2011.

Judith Catton, project manager for the External Assessment Resources project says, “We’ve tried to ensure that best practice assessment procedures are followed at all stages of resource production.

“A strength of both projects, for internal and external, has been the direct involvement of experienced practicing classroom teachers and subject specialists across a range of New Zealand schools.”

Parallel projects for the development of sample resources for NCEA level 3 are now underway. Anyone who wishes to be involved in trialling these resources should contact Lynne Gill or Judith Catton at NZQA: Internal – lynne.gill@nzqa.govt.nz; External – Judith.catton@nzqa.govt.nz

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