Moderator's Newsletter - Chemistry

Clarification documents for Level 1, 2 and 3 internally assessed achievement standards have been updated to assist with interpretations.

These workshops repeat the material covered in the highly successful workshops held in 2009.
The workshop will cover requirements of the internally assessed standards and the assessment of student work.
The focus will be on the current internally assessed standards and not on the revised standards.
Best Practice Workshops will be offered during term time and include lunch in the registration cost.
The Schedule for the Chemistry workshops is now available.

Annotated exemplars are now available for level 1, level 2 and level 3 achievement standards.
These exemplars show boundary decisions at A, M and E for activities typically used for levels 1, 2 and 3 achievement standards.
The exemplars show how appropriate judgements are made on student evidence.

The number of samples of student work for optional teacher-selected evidence has been increased. Teachers may now send up to ten samples per standard per year.
The samples for optional evidence feedback can relate to any standard, not just the standard selected for external moderation.
The samples can be sent at any time throughout the year, not just at the time of the school submission date.
The samples do not have to be accompanied by other assessment materials unless the teacher believes they would assist the moderator in understanding their questions.
There is no specific turnaround time for samples sent outside the school submission date as this will depend on moderator capacity.
Specific questions can be asked about the samples to help further define the grade boundaries and clarify issues in the assessment of that work. The feedback provided from the moderator does not form part of the official moderation report and is designed to be more developmental in nature. Teachers are encouraged to take this opportunity to engage in professional dialogue to further define the grade boundaries. For example, a question that could be asked is; "I believe this is almost a Merit, what else would the student have to complete to clearly see this as Merit?"
It is not expected that schools will submit extra samples of student work simply for grade verification.

Te Kete Ipurangi's (TKI) web page supporting the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) includes timeline for the writing of standards and assessment resources.
The Sciences matrix, draft level 1 standards and the rationale can also be accessed from that site.
All level 1 to level 3 existing standards remain in use for 2010.
The new level 1 Achievement Standards will be available for use from 2011.
The current internal level 1 Achievement Standards will be able to be used in 2011 but not in 2012.

The 2009 Chemistry National Moderator's Report will be found shortly through the Chemistry page. This report contains comments on:

sources of activities
the subject-specific section of the NZQA website
standards assessing investigations AS 90169 (Carry out a practical chemistry investigation with direction) and AS90694 (Carry out an extended practical investigation involving quantitative analysis).

Last updated: 16 March 2010