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Assessment Matters

Assessment and Moderation update
A2019/16 - 1 Nov 2019

To:

Principal/Tumuaki
Principal's Nominee
All teachers

Assessment and Moderation update

This update contains information about:

Best Practice Workshops;
National Moderator Report; and
Supply of Courier Bags

Best Practice Workshops

The Best Practice Workshops offered by the Assessment and Moderation Team continue to be viewed by the sector as significantly contributing to improved assessor practice:

“The workshop helped to review my own knowledge, and great to share ideas."

“It was great having time to challenge my thinking in assessment."

“It was great to talk to teachers from other subject areas. Lots of exciting new ideas and learning came from this. It gave reassurance that I am on the right track, as well as renewed enthusiasm to try new things."

Based on the success of the ‘on request’ model and the ability to have targeted support, the Assessment and Moderation Team will continue delivering this support model in 2020.

Workshops or presentation slots can be requested to provide targeted support to regional or national audiences.

There are a range of subject-specific support options aimed at raising assessor confidence in the assessment of internally-assessed standards. The options that can be requested are:

workshop or presentation slot – a facilitator attends a regional or national meeting;
cluster meeting – a number of facilitators attend a regional cluster meeting, organised on a specific date or over a series of dates; and
making Assessor Judgements Workshop – aimed at increasing assessor confidence in making assessor judgements.

We will also continue to run the generic Transforming Assessment Praxis Programme, an online programme which helps assessors learn about re-contextualising assessment resources and collecting evidence in different ways to better meet the needs of their learners.

More detailed information, including how to request or register for a workshop, can be found on our Best Practice Workshop pages or by emailing workshops@nzqa.govt.nz.

Best Practice Workshop

National Moderator Report

Assessment and Moderation has reinstated the National Moderator Report. The purpose of this report is to advise assessors on general issues and trends identified during external moderation. These reports will be published annually in February.

The reports will be available for assessors on the NCEA Subject Resources pages found on the NZQA website. The Report will be able to be downloaded as a PDF document.

Reports will be available for achievement standard based subjects which have a significant number of student entries.

NCEA Subject Resources

Courier bags

In keeping with current Government priorities, NZQA is committed to making sustainable and responsible decisions for the environment by reducing the use of plastics and decreasing our global footprint.

From 2020, NZQA will not be supplying courier bags for external moderation. Schools are encouraged to support this initiative by sending all submissions online. Physical submissions will still be accepted by NZQA but schools will have to provide their own courier bags.

After national consultation in 2016, the External Moderation Application was developed and implemented in 2017 to make digital submissions for external moderation online. This idea was well supported. The External Moderation Application is now being used effectively by all schools. It has also significantly reduced the time taken to get feedback from moderators and it has enabled schools to submit early when they are ready. Since then the use of courier bags has only been available on request and the use has significantly decreased.

Enquiries

Please refer any enquiries relating to this circular to your NZQA School Relationship Manager.

School Relationship Manager
School Quality Assurance and Liaison
Telephone: 04 463 3000
Fax: 04 463 3115
Email: firstname.lastname@nzqa.govt.nz