Alignment of NCEA Standards with The New Zealand Curriculum

SCALEs update (8 June 2009)

Adèle Scott & Gunhild Litwin, project managers for the above contract with the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority would like to acknowledge the work of the whole writing team. This project has been full-on for the best part of twelve months. The writing group has completed all draft standards for all levels for Languages and Latin.

However, at this point we have been required to hand over the consultation to an external group responsible for gathering all the feedback across all subjects. In this round of consultation they will seek feedback on the matrices, the draft level one standards only and on the Conditions of Assessment. You will be able to download all relevant documents (including a rationale) from the Research NZ NCEA consultation website once you have registered with them.

If you are in a school you should have received the following notification via your principal's nominee. Please be aware that ALL feedback must go via the external consultation group and NOT through us this time. Please direct all questions/queries about the consultation in the first instance to the emails given below and NOT to us.

Copies of the consultation documents are available to read and print at http://www.tki.org.nz/e/community/ncea/alignment-standards.php. However, to reply to the questionnaire you will need to go to the link in the box below.

Below is the notification from NZQA, which has come to your school:

All the best for the rest of term and do keep an eye on the deadline.

Adèle Scott   a.j.scott@massey.ac.nzGunhild Litwin   g.litwin@massey.ac.nz
NZALT – SCALEs Project Managers

Background to the project

Parameters for design of standards

These are the parameters as required by MoE and NZQA. Please read these carefully before you consider the proposed matrices and Draft Assessment Standards.

• The achievement standards and curriculum-related unit standards are to be aligned with the new curriculum achievement objectives ensuring consistency, fairness and coherence.
• A maximum of 24 credits from achievement standards are available at each level, although a limited number of unit standards may be included if required to cover the key curriculum outcomes. Unit standards can have merit and excellence if relevant to the outcome being assessed.
  NOTE : This maximum of 24 credits was lifted earlier this year, hence the 27 credits available in the Latin matrix. Common sense must still prevail, however, and it is not expected that students would be offered all 27 credits in their learning programme.
• There will be no more than 3 external standards in a 3 hour exam period.
• One credit represents 10 "notional" hours of learning. This time includes timetabled teaching, out of class learning, and assessment time. This has implications for the appropriate number of credits that should be offered in a year-long course. For the average student this will be less than 24.
• The aligned standards are being rolled out, one Level per year. Level 1 in 2010, Level 2 in 2011 and Level 3 in 2012.
  As of December 2008, Level 1 is now to be implemented in 2011, Level 2 in 2012, and Level 3 in 2013 (for more information see http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/for-schools/curric-stds-review/update-080509.html).
• All Standards must also address the following six principles. They must:
  1. Be derived from a curriculum or established body of knowledge.
  2. Have a clear purpose.
  3. Allow valid and reliable assessment
  4. Base grade distinctions on qualitative differences in achievement
  (where more than one credit-bearing grade is available)
  5. Account for credit parity (i.e. reflect the 'notional learning time')
  6. Not duplicate one another
  

For more background: http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/news/releases/2008/170608.html