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

Marking External Assessment (MEA) Pilot

 A modified marking system for some Level 1 standards will be piloted during the 2010 examinations.

NZQA has been researching a score-based marking system for external assessment which uses a nine-point assessment schedule to mark the criteria in the standard, as follows:

Candidates will continue to receive a Not Achieved (N), Achieved (A), Merit (M), or Excellence (E) grade on their result notices.

However, their examination booklet will show the scores used in assigning that grade, with the final score shown on the front cover. The judgement statement will show the cut-score for each grade and enable candidates to check their result.

Deputy Chief Executive, Qualifications, Bali Haque said the scores for each grade allow markers to indicate whether an answer was at the upper or lower range of the grade. “This allows for improved discrimination at grade boundaries,” Bali said.

Benefits expected from score-based marking are likely to include:

• closer alignment of marking to the standard
• greater accuracy at grade boundaries
• reduction in year-by-year variability
• increased transparency.

The methodology used in the pilot has been endorsed by NZQA’s external advisory group, the Technical Overview Group Assessment (TOGA). Members of this group include Professors Gary Hawke (Chair), Terry Crooks, Cedric Hall, John Hattie and Geoff Smith, and Associate Professor Alison Gilmore.