QA News June 2010 - Issue 68

• Chief Executive's foreword
• Leaders of the future
• Qualification design rules out for consultation
• University Entrance being reviewed
• Marking External Assessment (MEA) Pilot
• Annual Report on NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship
• Moderator-teacher agreement rates rising
• Excellence in unit standards
• Adult Education and Training Qualifications
• Check out National Qualifications Services
• Quality Assurance for Mātauranga Maori
• Feedback positive on kaiako and whānau workshops
• NZQA to contribute to OECD education review
• Top Art on tour

Excellence in unit standards

Standard setting bodies will be able to submit unit standards with Merit and Excellence grades for registration from July 2010.

“NZQA is not directing the sector to develop Merit and Excellence in unit standards, rather, it is enabling this so that standard setting bodies can introduce grades in their standards where they see fit,” says NZQA Deputy Chief Executive Qualifications Bali Haque.

In 2009 NZQA consulted the sector on the practicalities of developing further the criteria for Merit and Excellence grades in unit standards.  Merit grades have existed in a small number of unit standards since the early days of the National Qualifications Framework.  Since that time NZQA has been working on the system changes required to register and award unit standards with Merit and Excellence.  

Consultation with the sector on revised unit standard registration criteria, which include Merit and Excellence grades, has just ended.  New registration criteria were agreed by the NZQA Board in June with a view to enabling standard setting bodies to submit unit standards with a range of grades from July 2010.

“Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) have mixed views on the value of further grade distinctions in unit standards with strong support in some areas and reservations in others,” Bali says. 

One ITO has recently registered standards with Merit grades available for standards widely used in schools and some others are also planning to develop or review standards commonly used in schools to include Merit and Excellence grades in the later half of this year.

NZQA is also incorporating grades in some of the non-NZ Curriculum derived unit standards in readiness for use in 2011. One of the key benefits is that these standards will be able to contribute to certificate endorsement and course endorsement. However, NZQA will not introduce grades in its widely used generic standards.