Curriculum and Standards Review

Update: 8 May, 2009

The Ministry of Education (MoE) and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) are currently conducting a review of standards to align them with the revised New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). The alignment process, or standards review, started in the middle of 2008 and will result in a phased implementation of Level 1 in 2011, Level 2 in 2012 and Level 3 in 2013. As well as aligning curriculum-based standards with the revised curriculum, the process will address issues of duplication, credit parity, fairness, consistency, and the coherence of standards in four stages:

• Establish principles by which the standards will be reviewed (completed).
• Review the curriculum-related standards at Levels 1, 2 and 3. Subject associations have been contracted to do this review using experienced teachers. They are developing a subject matrix for consultation and drafting changes to revised standards and/or developing new standards ( underway ).
• A concurrent review of all other non-curriculum based standards (underway).
• A review of the NCEA qualifications considering any impacts resulting from the Standards Review (has just begun).

Resources being developed

• Teaching and Learning Guidelines are being developed to help secondary schools design learning programmes that align with The New Zealand Curriculum.
• The Ministry is working with experienced secondary teachers, support services advisors, representatives of subject associations, other curriculum, teaching and learning experts, and interested sector organisations to develop guidelines in a range of subject areas that are not fully described in the new curriculum. The guidelines will provide assistance for teachers in developing learning outcomes, possible learning progressions, effective pedagogy, and possible content and contexts for learning.
• Assessment resources to support the implementation of revised standards.
• Quality assured exemplars of student evidence at the grade boundaries.

Guidelines

The following guidelines have been provided to the subject associations contracted by the Ministry of Education undertaking the standards review. These guidelines are in response to concerns expressed by principals, teachers and others, in 2008, in the initial consultation phase.

Place of content and context in standards

Note: Content is defined here as the concepts, skills and knowledge required to achieve a standard, and context as the vehicle that might be used to deliver the content.

• The set of standards for a subject level should encapsulate the key content (concepts/skills/knowledge) for that subject level, and reflect what is documented in the Teaching and Learning Guidelines (if one is being developed).
• Guidance on which contexts may be suitable will be provided, where necessary.

Format of NZ Curriculum-derived standards

• All standards derived directly from the NZC learning areas will be written as achievement standards.
• While achievement standards may be written with A, A and M, or A, M, and E grades, it is expected that, in general, all curriculum-based achievement standards will have three grades.

Note: Unit standards will be reserved for non-NZC based standards (and may have M or E grades as appropriate).

Balance of internal and external assessment

The expert advice to have no more than three standards assessed in a three-hour written examination resulted in initial draft matrices for several subjects appearing to have less external and more internal assessment than in the past. This consequence has been perceived by some stakeholders as change in policy in terms of the ratio of internal to external assessment for NZC-based standards.

• There has been NO change in policy.
• The decision about whether a standard should be externally or internally assessed must reflect the advice in the Standards Review Principles paper [ref Principle 3: A standard must allow valid and reliable assessment]. However, a general swing towards a greater proportion of internal assessment across levels 1, 2 and 3 for student programmes is not intended.
• When the balance of internal and external assessment includes consideration of available unit standards, the proportion of internally assessed standards is reduced in most subject areas.
• In general, 6 credits for an externally-assessed standard assessed in a three-hour written examination will be regarded as the maximum.
• It may be appropriate to have a heavier external assessment load at level 3.

Impact of standards review on student programmes

A likely effect of the standards review is that the range of NZC-derived standards available for some students will become more limited, particularly at NQF level 1. Significant work is underway to develop mechanisms to address the needs of the students in question. This could involve:

• Alternative literacy and numeracy standards. These might be developed in the context of work underway in the primary, intermediate and adult sectors;
• Advice to schools to encourage a greater use of the range of qualifications on the NQF; and
• Advice to schools to encourage some students to achieve the required level for a qualification over a period of time (for example taking two years to achieve NCEA Level 1).

Note: The structure and content of the NCEA qualifications are being reviewed as part of stage 4 of Standards Review.

Writing grade criteria

The Standards Review Principles paper advised that qualitative differences in achievement must be used to differentiate between grades.

• The requirements for each grade should be articulated in as much detail as possible, including the key competencies where appropriate and viable.

Note: Assessment resources will be produced to test the standards and further improvement of achievement criteria will result from this. Quality checked exemplar material of student work will be published for each grade boundary.

For further information on this alignment project please refer to:

• Education Gazette, Number 3 - 23 February 2009 or
• Guidelines to the Alignment of Standards with the New Zealand Curriculum
• Further updates and information that will be published in the Education Gazette, sent by NZQA SecQual circulars or sent to schools.

Last updated: 17 March 2009