S2009/002 - 16 January 2009

2008 National Qualifications Framework Results Release

The release of NQF results has been completed with over 150,000 students now able to access their results online and paper results notices largely delivered.

Schools are now able to download results files and gain access to other candidate results data via secure log-in.

It is anticipated that national secondary statistics for National Qualifications Framework (NQF) results will be made available from the week beginning 19 January 2009 for schools to check. Similarly, Scholarship statistics will be available in February.

Verification of 2008 NQF statistics must be completed no later than 20 February 2009. For more information please refer to the December 2008 circular S2008/035 at www.nzqa.govt.nz/publications/circulars.

Schools should complete checking of scholarship results by the end of February.

Preview of New Statistics

It should be noted that the January release of school and national statistics will be in exactly the same format and provide the same information as in previous years, so for example "Not Achieved" results for internally assessed standards will not be included.

In late February 2009 NZQA will be releasing its redesign of the secondary school statistics web pages to schools for viewing and comparing NQF data. As with the initial release of statistics in January, schools will have access to only their own data for checking purposes. NZQA is aware that many schools put a great deal of effort into a full analysis of these results as soon as they become available. The information contained in the redesigned statistics may be an important resource to schools in carrying out their analyses.

The purpose of this circular is to provide schools with further information about key features of the new design.

Following is a brief summary of the changes and how the new system will help schools to interpret and compare data.

The overall design of the website will be simplified, and will comprise three categories of redesigned reports: Achievement rates for qualifications, results distributions for individual standards, and results distributions for New Zealand Scholarship. The new design differs from the old one significantly and there have been many changes to provide more accurate results and improve the user experience. These include:

• A simplified design that improves the running of comparison reports in a single screen rather than across multiple screens.
  
• An enhanced and visually clearer facility for comparing performance in assessments and qualifications at one school or group of schools against another school or group of schools. Comparisons involving schools in the same geographical region will be available for the first time.
  
• Results for unit standards, internally assessed achievement standards, and externally assessed achievement standards will be reported separately. It will be possible to aggregate data for each of these kinds of standards into subjects, rather than learning areas as has been the case in the past.
  
• It will be possible to view data for a school over two years on the same page. This will facilitate longitudinal analyses of achievement data; that is, comparisons of performance over successive years.
  
• Improved capability to extract the data in different formats - PDF, Word and csv files - for use in a range of applications; for example, Excel or other statistical tools.
  
• Greater functionality for comparisons involving student demographics; for example, it will be possible to perform breakdowns by gender and ethnicity simultaneously.
  
• A modified denominator for percentages. In response to feedback from schools, percentages of students achieving qualifications will be calculated over the number of potential candidates (see next bullet point) for each level of NCEA, and for University Entrance. To ensure transparency, and to provide comparability with past data, an option to view the statistics using the existing 1 July roll denominator will also be provided.
  
• Potential candidates for a qualification are students who are eligible to achieve the credit requirements for that qualification in a given year, on the basis of their previous results and present entries. Measurement and comparison of qualification achievement rates will be based only on these students. NZQA will also provide information on the proportions of students on the 1 July roll at each school who are potential candidates for qualifications.
  
• Not Achieved rates for internally assessed standards will be presented by standard and by subject. In addition a new report category for internally assessed standards will be introduced - Result not Reported (RNR) - where NZQA has received an entry for an internally assessed standard, but no result reported by the school. Schools will be provided with an option of viewing their internally assessed statistics with and without the inclusion of the RNR category.
  

The release of the new look statistics will be accompanied by a user guide and contextual help, with more information available at the Principal's Nominee February-March road show.

Indicative design of the NCEA Endorsement report showing the parameters for selecting either a single report or comparative reports ( Click image to see a larger version )

Timeline for Statistics 

Week beginning 19 January (accessible only to schools)

• release of school statistics in the current format
• release of national statistics in the current format

Late February (accessible only to schools)

• NZQA informed of any required corrections no later than 20 February (end of February for scholarship)
• re-release of school and national statistics in the new format
• release of scholarship statistics in the new format
• visibility of inter-school statistics in the new format

April

• statistics published in the new format, accessible to the public.

Enquiries

Circulars are available from the Qualifications authority website (www.nzqa.govt.nz/publications/circulars).

A PDF copy of this Circular is available for download.

Please refer any enquiries relating to this circular to:

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Previous circulars

• 001 - 9 January 2009 - 2009 Examination Timetable

archive of previous circulars