Myths
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"Every piece of student work needs to be verified."
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"Not all standards need to be internally moderated."
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"The Internal Moderation Cover Sheet must be used to document internal moderation."
On this page
Facts
- Schools must undertake internal moderation each year to ensure that assessment materials meet the standard and that teacher judgements are consistent across tasks, classes, and years.
- A sample of student work from each teacher for each standard assessed must be internally moderated every year. This should be strategically selected.
- Schools must report only those internal assessment results which have been subject to an internal moderation process.
- Schools must have a documented internal moderation process to ensure reported results are consistent with the national standard.
- Schools can document their internal process in any way, including adopting or adapting the Internal Moderation Cover Sheet.
- Benchmark samples should be identified during the marking process and kept for future reference and decision making.
- Stored samples should be regularly updated.
- The subject leader is responsible for making sure that internal moderation occurs. Senior management is responsible for ensuring that all assessed standards are subject to internal moderation before results are reported.
- Evidence of grade verification can include:
- annotated student work
- records of discussions between teachers
- the Internal Moderation Cover Sheet.
More information
The assessment rules for schools are published on NZQA’s website every year from February:
NZQA Assessment Rules for Schools, TEOs assessing against Achievement Standards, and Candidates 2023
More points about internal moderation
You can get a better understanding of the national standard through:
- using standard-specific subject experts and colleagues in other schools to verify your grades
- holding an active membership of professional associations
- using material on the Subject Resources pages on NZQA's website, such as clarification documents and annotated exemplars
- participating in Best Practice Workshops
- completing online workshops and courses hosted on NZQA's Learning Management System (LMS), Pūtake
- using Te Kete Ipurangi or commercial material you can critique yourself
- referring to benchmark samples from previous years to maintain consistency
- using trade marked Quality Assured Assessment Materials (QAAM) and other NZQA-approved materials.