ncea… the facts

NCEA… The Facts

NZQA New Zealand Qualifications Authority Mana Tohu Matauranga O Aotearoa

NCEA: The Facts

1. The development of NCEA 2. NCEA and education in New Zealand

3. How does NCEA’s standards-‐based system challenge, motivate and reward

students?

4. Credits and the NCEA

5. New Zealand Scholarship challenges and rewards Level 3 students

6. NCEA provides flexibility so that the needs of all students can be met

7. Internal and external assessment in NCEA

8. Why are some achievement standards externally assessed, and some internally assessed

9. Are there gender differences in achievement rates?

10. How does NZQA make sure internal assessment is fair and consistent across the

country?

11. How well does NCEA prepare students for university study

12. How are NCEA results recognized overseas?

UNDERSTANDINGUNDERSTANDING

NCEAThe development of NCEA1#

Introduction National Certifi cates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) were introduced as New Zealand’s main secondary school qualifi cations between 2002 and 2004. They grew out of a long-term intention to establish standards for national qualifi cations and recognise a wider range of skills and knowledge. A new set of qualifi cations was needed to refl ect the more fl exible learning environments in our schools.

NCEA was designed to challenge all students, including the most able and highly motivated. It was also designed to give schools the fl exibility to develop a range of programmes to suit the specifi c needs of their students.

NCEA has been reviewed and refi ned since its initial implementation in 2002. NCEA results now show a rich and accurate picture of a students’ skills and knowledge.

Transparency In NCEA, New Zealand has one of the most open and transparent school qualifi cations systems in the world:

• Students, teachers, parents, employers and tertiary providers have access to all NCEA assessment information.

• New Zealand is the only country in the world that returns all marked examination papers to candidates. Candidates can review their marked work and, if they wish, apply for a review or reconsideration of their results.

• National statistics from internal and external assessments, including qualifi cations completed and school by school comparisons, are published annually on the NZQA website and analysed in an annual report (view Annual Report on NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship Data and Statistics (2010)).

• Reports on the quality of internal assessment at every school are published on the NZQA website. These are called ‘Managing National Assessment’ reports.

The learning experience

NCEA is hugely challenging for students. To achieve Excellence is far more demanding than a high mark was in the previous exam system. But the good thing is NCEA is utterly transparent – everyone knows what you have to do to get good grades.

Julia Davidson, Principal of Wellington Girls’ Collegeand Chair of New Zealand Principals’ Council

Less able students who would lack motivation if they were only assessed in a one off external exam, such as School Certifi cate, are engaged with NCEA as it provides opportunities to be assessed throughout the year.

Principal, Lincoln High School

The NCEA has been designed as a unique New Zealand Qualifi cation System which meets well the diverse learning needs of students.

It is academically robust, internationally recognised and equips students for tertiary study and the world of work.

Patrick Walsh, President of the Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SPANZ)

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NCEATransparency CONT.

• The standards that teachers and examination markers use to assess student work are publicly available on the NZQA website (search NCEA standards). Additional material is published for each achievement standard to help everyone understand the standards and the levels of student performance required to meet them.

• For internally assessed standards, examples of student work that meet the standards,

for all grades along with commentary from moderators are available on the NZQA website. Pre-approved assessment tasks are also available online.

• For externally assessed standards, examination papers, marking schedules and samples of marked examination scripts from previous years are available on the NZQA website.

(View NCEA subject resource page to access all internal and external resources for each subject).

Comments from the sector

One of the more exciting developments in New Zealand has been the introduction of the NCEA.This method, despite its many hiccups in implementation, is fundamentally sound and a model for many other countries.

Notwithstanding all the details, the major reform related to identifying many standards within a subject, asking students and teachers to make or choose a mix of internal and external assessments, grading on a criterion or standards-based scoring rubric, and accumulating successes over a variety of experiences during the last three years of high school.

This is contrary to the former method which was studying for the last years, and then having a one-shot on one-day at one-examination and accumulating results across subjects (with or without “scaling”).

Professor John Hattie, 2009, The Black Box of Tertiary Assessment: An Impending Revolution, University of Auckland.

Learners are entitled to know in advance what they have to achieve to gain a qualifi cation.That is absolutely basic, but that’s not how it works in traditional course-based qualifi cations systems that produce a single mark or grade. In a standards based system, learners can see exactly what they have to do to succeed. The transparency of NCEA is central to its positive impact on teaching and learning.

Emeritus Professor Gary Hawke. Senior Fellow, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Formerly Head of the School of Government and Professor of Economic History, Victoria University of Wellington.

One of the major features of the implementation of the new (NCEA) system has been the transparency in the results, such that many of the problems of comparability, measurement, equivalence, and especially performance of sub-groups of students are well-known and debated. While this has led to the use of this transparency to criticise the new system, it has also led to healthy debates about social equity, and there is no doubt that the problem will not go away by ignoring the problem (as was so often the case in less transparent systems).

Shulruf, Hattie & Tumen, 2009 New Zealand’s standard-based assessment for secondary schools (NCEA): Implications for policy makers. University of Auckland.

It’s a chance for a young person to show their competency in whatever they are competent at.

Business New Zealand Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly, Dominion Post, 17 January 2011.

UNDERSTANDING

NCEANCEA and education in New Zealand 2

IntroductionThe New Zealand education system is acknowledged internationally as a high performing system. The New Zealand Curriculum is recognised overseas as a broad and enabling framework - and the NCEA is recognised as a flexible qualification designed to acknowledge diverse student achievement across a wide range of contexts and for a wide range of purposes.

The New Zealand Curriculum The New Zealand Curriculum focuses on learning by inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving and processing information. Rote learning is no longer sufficient. School leavers should be able to transfer and adapt their knowledge and skills in international settings.

International benchmarking tells us that the New Zealand Curriculum and our approaches to teaching, learning and educational assessment are working:

Of the 65 countries and economies participating in the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), New Zealand’s 15-year-old students were ranked fourth out of 34 OECD countries on the overall reading scale. New Zealand also performed well above average on mathematics and science scales (view 2009 PISA results).

In 2006, 77% of adults (between 25 and 64) had secondary or tertiary qualifications, well above the OECD average of 67%.

The New Zealand education system and NCEA• NCEA is integrated with New Zealand’s education system.

The NCEA achievement standards assess learning goals derived from the New Zealand Curriculum, while unit standards provide a link with technical and vocational training.


We need to remember that NCEA grew out of a determination to encourage and provide life-long learning for all. The old examination-based system was focused on selecting the elite for entry to university. But education is really about equipping people for life-long learning – encouraging them to continue learning beyond the programmes they are in now. One of the important qualities of NCEA is that it gives schools the flexibility to do that for all students. A focus on life-long learning is just as important for young people who are heading for an academic career as it is for those who will transition more directly into the workplace. Emeritus Professor Gary Hawke Senior Fellow, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Formerly Head of the School of Government and Professor of Economic History, Victoria University of Wellington.

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UNDERSTANDING

NCEAThe New Zealand education system and NCEA CONT.

• Both Achievement and Unit standards can contribute to NCEA.

• The New Zealand Curriculum and NCEA are key elements of New Zealand’s student-centred education system. They equip schools to provide for the diverse needs of learners and enable all students to gain qualifications that prepare them for a full range of learning pathways and employment beyond school.

• Achievement objectives take curriculum objectives and express them as standards that can be formally assessed.

• Unit standards are developed by national experts mainly in vocational areas. Most of them are connected with polytechnics or government-recognised industry training organisations (ITOs). From 2014 there will be no unit standards based on the New Zealand Curriculum.

• The NCEA system enables students to prepare for the full range of academic or vocational pathways. They can start to specialise while they are at school, or they can keep their options open.

• NCEA assessments require students to process information and demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving. In particular, internal assessment for NCEA encourages learning by inquiry.

• The Curriculum connection gives NCEA a built-in alignment with the education students receive before they enter senior secondary school (Years 11-13). There is a progression across the year levels in all subjects.


Since national standards for secondary school pupils were introduced in 2002, the system has been a work in progress. Flaws related to internal-assessment marking inconsistencies, the potential for smaller, lower-decile schools in particular to skew results and the lack of incentive for the brightest students to push themselves have all been addressed. Understanding among parents and employers of how the National Certificate of Educational Achievement works has also, naturally, increased over the past decade.Nelson Mail editorial, 18 January 2011


NCEAHow does NCEA’s standards-based system challenge, motivate and reward students?3

IntroductionNCEA is a standards-based system. Assessment standards describe what students have to achieve to gain credits.

Separate standards are used to assess different areas of knowledge and skills so students get a separate result for each aspect of each subject. Their results describe their strengths and weaknessesin detail.

For example, in 2011 there are sixteen achievement standards inLevel 1 Mathematics (view Level 1 Mathematics standards). This includes algebra, geometry, measurement, number, probability statistics and trigonometry. A student who, for example, is a high achiever in algebra and statistics but just average in trigonometry will get results that refl ect that mix.

Each student leaves school with a unique Record of Achievement- a full profi le of their achievements, and potentially an important part of their Curriculum Vitae.

Standards-basedgrading system In achievement standards students can gain one of four grades– Not Achieved, Achievement, Achievement with Merit and Achievement with Excellence (Merit and Excellence grades are not available for most unit standards.)

Each achievement standard describes what students have to do to receive Achievement, Merit or Excellence. The standard, or the level of work required, is demonstrated in materials provided by NZQA, so all students, parents and teachers can see what is required to succeed in NCEA assessments.

Merit and Excellence require a signifi cant step up from what is needed for an Achievement grade.


Right across the academic spectrum we fi nd standards to be more motivating, more rewarding and capable of producing more achievement than School Certifi cate, Sixth Form Certifi cate or Bursary did. We do fi nd ourselves teaching less content partly because there is more assessment but mainly because we are teaching with more precision and we are teaching skills to a greater depth and to a greater degree of usefulness than before. NCEA has encouraged the development of a more signifi cant and more explicit metacognitive approach to teaching. The greater range of content material means that we can and do tailor courses more closely to student need. This in combination with the above two factors means more focussed challenges for students and thus better motivation. John Grant, Principal, Kaipara College

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NCEAStandards-based grading system CONT.

The following is an achievement standard for Level 2 Biology that involves describing biological concepts and processes that relate to genetic variation and change. Criteria for each grade are given below:

• For Achievement – Describe biological concepts and processes that relate to genetic variation and change.

• For Achievement with Merit – Explain biological concepts and processes that relate to genetic variation and change.

• For Achievement with Excellence – Discuss biological concepts and processes that relate to genetic variation and change.

The achievement standard further defi nes the terms used to indicate the level of work required:

• Describe requires the student to defi ne, give characteristics of,or an account of.

• Explain requires the student to provide a reason as to how orwhy something occurs.

• Discuss requires the student to show understanding by linking biological ideas. It may involve justifying, relating, evaluating, comparing and contrasting, or analysing.

(View achievement standard on NZQA website)

Only those students who meet the criteria for Merit or Excellence Level get those grades. Therefore proportions gaining Merit and Excellence grades change a little from year to year. In 2010:

• Fewer than a quarter of all results were Merit grades (23.24%).

• About one in seven were Excellence grades (13.8%).

This sets NCEA apart from qualifi cations systems that use a predetermined distribution of grades – where a limited number of high grades is allocated to candidates who do better than the rest, regardless of the standard of their work. In these systems, grades carry little information about the actual skills and knowledge achieved by students.

Certifi cate endorsementCertifi cate endorsements were introduced in 2007 to encourage students to achieve as many Merit and Excellence results as they can. Certifi cate endorsements can be gained at Levels 1, 2 and 3. There are two grades of endorsement:

NCEA with Excellence – a completed NCEA qualifi cation that includes 50 credits at Excellence level.

Commentsfrom the sector

In a standards-based system the credit you get for your effort depends on your ability to demonstrate what you can achieve. It’s not about attendance or what else you do around the school or how you get on with the teacher. The national standards and the moderation system mean results refl ect at least similar minimum levels of ability, regardless of which school yougo to. Professor Jeff Smith, University of OtagoFormerly Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

(Parents) were positive about their understanding that the NCEA offered individual students opportunity to demonstrate their own strengths rather than being marked in comparison to other students.

The research confi rmed that students at all levels value gaining Merit and Excellence grades. Students who are generally more motivated at school do strive for Merit and Excellence grades. Meyer, Weir, McClure, Walkey, McKenzie, 2009. Motivation and Achievement at Secondary School.

The relationship between NCEA design and student motivation and achievement Three-Year Follow-Up. Victoria University of Wellington

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NCEACertifi cate Endorsement CONT.

NCEA with Merit - a completed NCEA qualifi cation that includes 50 credits at Merit or better (can be a mix of Merit and Excellence).

A certifi cate endorsement appears in a student’s Record of Achievement and School Results Summary, and indicates overall commitment and success, generally across a full school year or more. There is no ‘cap’ on the number of students who can get Excellence or Merit certifi cate endorsements, so the proportion of students who gain endorsements can change over the years.

In 2007 and 2008 the percentage of certifi cates gaining endorsements was roughly stable. In 2009, there was a slight increase in the percentage of students gaining endorsed certifi cates:

Merit endorsements (2009)

Excellence endorsements (2009)

Level 1 23% 6%

Level 2 17% 5%

Level 3 21% 5%

In 2010, the picture changed signifi cantly. A higher percentage of students at all levels gained endorsements, especially at Levels 1 and 2:

Merit endorsements (2010)

Excellence endorsements (2010)

Level 1 29% 9%

Level 2 20% 7%

Level 3 23% 6%

It appears that schools are making the most of the incentive offered by certifi cate endorsements, and students see them as worth striving for.

Researchers from Victoria University of Wellington interviewed students and parents after certifi cate endorsements had been in place for a year:

Both students and parents were overwhelmingly supportive of the introduction of the certifi cate endorsements for Merit and Excellence… regardless of gender, school decile, or ethnicity.

(Students) stressed that whereas previously there was less incentive to continue working past the 80 credits needed for each level, the endorsements motivated them to continue trying for credits towards an endorsement.


We fi nd that the students who go on and get the Excellences, and with the system where you can now have Excellence Endorsed Certifi cates, there’s a major, major push from those students to really optimise their learning. And when we then follow those students who get Excellence in the NCEA into the university system they still do the very best in their tertiary qualifi cations. Professor John Hattie, University of Auckland

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NCEACertifi cate Endorsement CONT.

Students felt that employers had an understanding of the NCEA and also valued the endorsements, so that having an endorsement for Merit or Excellence would enhance one’s employment credentials as well and may make the difference between getting or not getting a particular job.

Some students had already gained certifi cate endorsements.

Of those attaining NCEA Level 1 with Merit, 80% had said the endorsements mattered to them mostly or defi nitely, and of those attaining endorsement with Excellence an overwhelming 98% said they mattered either mostly or defi nitely.

Meyer, Weir, McClure, Walkey, McKenzie. 2009. Motivation and Achievement at Secondary School. The relationship between NCEA design and student motivation and achievement: A Three-Year Follow-Up. Victoria University of Wellington.

Course endorsementCourse endorsement was introduced in 2011 to recognise exceptional achievement in an individual course.

To gain a course endorsement:

• Students must gain 14 or more credits at Merit and/or Excellence within a school course.

• There must be a mix of internally and externally assessed credits – at least 3 credits from each (except in Physical Education, Religious Studies and Level 3 Visual Arts where there is no external assessment).

Course endorsements will be shown on students’ Record of Achievement and School Results Summary, and will indicate consistently high levels of performance in a particular area of learning.

Researchers from Victoria University of Wellington interviewed students and parents when course endorsements were about to be introduced:

Students supported the development of subject (course) endorsements, feeling that this would be highly motivating to both those who otherwise would not get the overall Certifi cate with an endorsement as well as those who could strive for Excellence in gaining subject endorsements as well as the certifi cate endorsement.

Meyer, Weir, McClure, Walkey & McKenzie. 2009. Motivation and Achievement at Secondary School. The relationship between NCEA design and student motivation and achievement:A Three-Year Follow-Up. Victoria University of Wellington.


What should be much more vigorously communicated is that an NCEA endorsement at Excellence at level 3 is signifi cantly more exclusive than a presentation of grade As at A level, for example.

Our highest achieving students are able to demonstrate their capabilities in NCEA more clearly than in other systems. If you are a top NCEA achiever, you are a top calibre student on the world stage without question. Simon Leese, Headmaster, Christ’s College

The more able students value the challenge [of certifi cate endorsement]. Working to achieve a Certifi cate endorsement is one of the goals many of the more able students set themselves through the year. John Grant, Principal, Kaipara College

Students are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of certifi cate endorsement especially at Year 12 and 13. For example, a Year 12 student can obtain Level 2 Excellence Endorsement that can lead to university scholarships. Principal Nominee, Lincoln High School

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NCEAComments from the sector

The introduction of course endorsement has encouraged some schools to create innovative courses to enhance student learning.

Alfriston College, Manurewa, has developed combined subject courses. These include courses such as ‘People, Places and Events’, a combination of Level 1 History, Geography and Social Studies and ‘Environmental Sustainability’ which is an integrated course operating as a combined Level 2 and 3 subject.

Deputy Principal, Steve Saville says the school has intentionally named the courses to refl ect what is actually being taught. These courses help students make links between and within their subjects and they are relevant to their world.

Mr Saville expects course endorsement to enhance the school’s non-traditional educational features. He says the new endorsement will encourage their Merit and Excellence student group to raise their own expectations of achievement.

NZQA QA News December 2010 Issue 70

Tertiary Institutions and employers use NCEA results

Tertiary institutions and employers fi nd the detailed results useful in selecting school leavers for tertiary programmes and jobs.

Universities use NCEA’s detailed results to help them select applicants for restricted degree programmes. Some courses might require a Merit or Excellence result in a specifi c achievement standard. Some universities have also developed ways to rank students on the basis of their NCEA results. Soon universities will be able to look at course endorsements in relevant subject areas.

At Auckland University, a minimum of 18 credits in each of Mathematics with Calculus and Physics is needed for entry to Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at University of Auckland. Students are then selected on the basis of their rank score generated from NCEA results.

Employers use the Record of Achievement to see whether an applicant has the mix of skills and knowledge needed for a role. They also get some idea of how persistent and committed the applicant was at school.

Comments from the sector Researchers at the University of Auckland studied the performance of

fi rst-year university students. The study found that if NCEA candidates aspire to succeed in university, they could be better off aiming at higher achievement (Merit and Excellence grades) even if that meant gaining fewer credits.


The certifi cate and course endorsements have been an important development for NCEA as they become signifi cant motivators for more able students. Often the more able students thrive on being able to set themselves goals to achieve and the endorsements provide an important target to strive for. Michael Williams, Principal, Pakuranga College

I am amazed by how many students in my Year 13 class are aiming for course endorsement. They are really focussed. I am very impressed. Year 13 teacher, Lincoln High School

With the introduction of course endorsement, students have become more focussed on studying harder in greater depth to achieve high quality results. This is leading to higher levels of attainment for many students. Principal Nominee, Hamilton Girls High Schooll

Shulruf, Hattie and Tumen. 2008. The predictability of enrolment and fi rst-year university results from secondary school performance: the New Zealand National Certifi cate of Educational Achievement. Victoria University of Wellington


NCEACredits and the NCEA4

Introduction Credits are the currency of the NCEA qualifi cation. Generally speaking one credit represents ten hours of learning and assessment. This includes teaching time, homework and assessment time.

Students need a total of 80 credits for each NCEA qualifi cation:

• NCEA Level 1 – 80 credits at any Level, including credits in literacy and numeracy.

• NCEA Level 2 – 60 credits at Level 2 or above, plus 20 credits from Level 1 or above.

• NCEA Level 3 – 60 credits at Level 3 or above, plus 20 credits from Level 2 or above.

How many credits do students achieve? Now that NCEA has been in place for some years we have evidence about how many credits students gain and their attitudes to completing NCEA qualifi cations.

The chart below shows the distribution of credits gained during 2010 by year 11, 12 and 13 students.

In 2010:

• More than half of all students completed at least 80 credits.

• The median number of credits gained was 82.

• About 9.5% of students gaining between 80 and 90 credits.

• One third of students gained at least 100 credits.

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Increasingly due to rank score systems at universities, year 13 students are very focused on their top 80 credits. I see this as a good thing as it’s shifting the focus towards quality rather than quantity. Richard Dykes, Associate Principal,Pakuranga College

Note – Students do not have to complete NCEA qualifi cations within a single school year - they can accumulate credits towards qualifi cations over any number of years. A typical course generates between 18 and 24 credits – so over fi ve subjects, a typical student could aim for up to 120 credits. But schools can and do run courses that assess standards totalling as few as 12 credits, with others assessing 30 credits or more.

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Number of credits gained in 2010

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NCEA


Students (and their teachers and parents) need to focus on quality, not quantity. They should be aiming at Excellence and Merit grades, not just accumulating more and more credits. Otherwise, there’s a danger of over-assessing.

The 80 credit milestone isn’t an issue in our school. In fact, it can be quite the opposite – we actively discourage students from just going for more and more credits. We want them to look at the quality of their results, the Excellence and Merit grades. Students do get quite strategic, especially in year 13 but they are looking at the full picture of their results and what they want to do with them beyond school, not just numbers of credits.Julia Davidson, Principal of Wellington Girls’ College and Chair of New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council

Students regularly compare their results with each other and compete on both the number of credits, number of Excellence grades and a grade point average. Course and career advice is given to ensure students are doing the right subjects at the right level. Motivation in NCEA does have to be more intrinsic and this does require a more subtle approach by teachers than by simply using fear of failure. Teachers are working with students to encourage them to set their own personal goals.

David Hodge, Principal, Rangitoto College. Open letter to parents, 2011

Are there “easy” credits? The alignments of achievement standards to the new New Zealand curriculum has meant that all achievement standards are linked to the correct curriculum benchmark.

In 2009, the Ministry of Education published fi ndings from the Competent Children Competent Learners project. A longitudinal study was undertaken by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER).

Researchers found little evidence to suggest students were making minimal effort with NCEA:

Only a handful of students — 2 percent — said they chose a subject because it would yield easy NCEA credits. Similarly, only 5 percent said they chose a subject because it would be easy.

We found little evidence that students were taking the easy route to NCEA by doing the minimum amount of work necessary. In fact, the more academically inclined students gained far more than the 80 credits they need to achieve NCEA Level 1, with many gaining 138 credits or more.Nor was there any evidence that students were opting for unit standards over achievement standards.

Parents who were happy with the new system saw it as a good way to chart progress and accumulate credits across the year. They also said it gave students more chance to succeed, and helped improve their work and study habits.”

Note – The writers acknowledge this research had a higher proportion of young people from high-income families and lower portions of Maori and Pasifi ka students, and students from low decile schools, compared to the national average. Full report can be accessed on the Education Counts website.

UNDERSTANDING

NCEANew Zealand Scholarship challenges and rewards Level 3 students5

Introduction New Zealand Scholarship is designed to challenge, motivate and reward the most able students – assessments are demanding, even for the top students in each subject. Candidates are expected to demonstrate high-level critical thinking and the ability to generalise, and to apply knowledge, skills and understanding to complex situations.

For most subjects, assessment is by a three-hour written examination at the end of the school year. In some subjects students submit recorded performances or portfolios for assessment by external assessors.

The number of Level 3 students entering for Scholarship examinations has been rising, particularly over the last three years. There were nearly 18,000 subject entries in 2009 and nearly 19,000 in 2010.

Scholarship is competitive – there are a limited number of awards available Approximately 3% of students studying each subject get Scholarships, and about 0.3% receive Outstanding Scholarships. (Percentages are based on the number of students entering at least 14 credits at Level 3.)

• ThetopfivetotencandidatesinthecountryreceivePremier Awards. To be considered for a Premier Award, candidates must achieve at least three subject Scholarships at Outstanding Level. The number of awards is limited to the top students who meet this criterion.

• Thenext40to60candidatesreceiveOutstanding Scholar Awards. To be considered for this award, candidates must achieve at least three subject Scholarships, including some at Outstanding level.

As well as the prestige attached to winning a Scholarship award, there arefinancialincentives–from$2,000to$10,000peryeartosupportfurther study. All awards are received for up to three years, but only as long as candidates maintain a ‘B’ grade average in tertiary study at a New Zealand university.

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The Scholarship examination encourages our best and brightest to go above and beyond what they need to do in high school. They study very hard at a very high level. So as our young people approach the end of their schooling we have a system that very effectively enhances the intellectual capital of New Zealand. It does a brilliant job for the whole country.

Professor Jeff Smith, University of Otago Formerly Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

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UNDERSTANDING

NCEAScholarship is competitive – there are a limited number of awards available CONT.

Most Scholarship candidates are Year 13 students who are also studying towards NCEA Level 3. Students select the subjects they want to enter – most enter one, two or three subjects.

In recent years, more students have been reaching the minimum level for Premier Awards – a sign that levels of performance are increasing among top students, and the very best students often enter in four or fivesubjects.In2009,allstudentswhoreceivedPremierAwardsgainedatleastfourScholarshipsubjectsatOutstandinglevel,oratotaloffiveScholarships with three at Outstanding level.


The actual performance of the best Scholarship students each year is just staggering. Their work is extraordinarily impressive – their creative problem-solving is of the very highest order. And many of these students come from schools where we know there are small numbers of Scholarship candidates and few teachers with the expertise to work at this level. One of the great successes of Scholarship is that it motivates students to reach such high levels of cognitive thinking – and it has helped teachers to respond to the demands of highly able students.

Emeritus Professor Gary Hawke. Senior Fellow, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Formerly Head of the School of Government and Professor of Economic History, Victoria University of Wellington.


NCEANCEA provides fl exibility so that the needs of all students can be met6

Introduction Schools can use the fl exibility of NCEA to engage and motivate all students. Together, the achievement standards and unit standards used by schools cover all curriculum subjects as well as many vocational areas – but as they are all separate standards, they can be used in any combination.

Schools are fi nding many ways to use the fl exibility of NCEA.Of course, a lot depends on a school’s resources, the number of students it has and how fl exible it can make its timetable.

• Schools can offer whole ‘subjects’ in the traditional way – or they can develop courses to suit the needs of their students. In either case they can select relevant standards for assessing their courses.

• Schools can vary the amount of content covered by a course, and adjust the assessment load accordingly. There are no centrally prescribed constraints.

• At each level in each curriculum subject, a course will be assessed using a mix of standards that total between 18 to 24 credits – but schools can and do run courses that cover any number of credits.

• Completion of an NCEA qualifi cation is not constrained by a one-year timeframe. More able students can complete an NCEA qualifi cation in less than a year, while other students may need more than a year to obtain a qualifi cation.

Multi-levelingMore able students can be assessed against higher level standards.In English, for example, the teacher could set a writing task and assess students against Level 1, or 2 standards, depending on their ability. More able students who work at a faster pace can earn credits at higher levels. In mathematics, for example, students can complete their study (and internal assessments) for Level 1 standards, and then make a start on some Level 2 standards.

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Kaitaia College has introduced two different approaches – one has grouped standards across subject areas; the other uses an historical context to assess students against standards from several subject areas. For example, if Apartheid is being studied in History there are standards available in Social Studies, Information Management and English that could be assessed as a “bundle.”

Head of History and Year 11 Dean, Michael Withiel says the courses emerged when he identifi ed some overlap with assessment in different subjects. Mr Withiel says the combined courses are making a very big impact on the students. “All together, these factors will make a very big difference to the success that students will want to achieve and will dovetail to give impetus to aspire to higher attainment. This will give students more chance of gaining entrance to the tertiary courses of their choice. NZQA QA News December 2010 Issue 70

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NCEAMulti-leveling CONT.

There is no need for students to study at the same level in each of their subjects. A student who is very good at mathematics but not so good at English could be in courses that offer Level 2 credits in mathematics and Level 1 credits in English.

Many schools also provide opportunities for able students to complete university papers alongside their NCEA assessments while still at school.

Breadth and style of learningExploring new subjects can help students make connections between disciplines – this can be especially benefi cial for highly able students. Learning skills in different contexts can stimulate learning, and breadth of learning can open pathways beyond school.

Students who work quickly and successfully in history, for example, could extend their studies to aspects of art history or classical studies and earn credits in those areas.

Schools can be even more innovative. They can integrate content across subjects – for example, fi lm with literature, history with geography. They can teach and assess some skills in relevant contexts – writing in the context of history, or statistics in economics, or some aspects of mathematics in technology.

In 2007, the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) asked 194 schools about course innovation in the senior secondary curriculum. 94% gave examples of some sort of innovation.For example, using achievement standards from different levels in the same subject, or mixing standards across traditional subject boundaries.

• 67% used achievement standards from the same learning area but from different NCEA levels within courses. Examples covered every curriculum learning area.

• 11% mixed achievement standards from different learning areas for assessment within courses.

• 75% of schools ran at least one course assessed by standards (some including unit standards) from more than one level, most commonly English and Level 1 and 2 mathematics.

The NZCER report stressed that innovative course design is important for students at all ability levels:

It is important not to assume that such course innovation is only for “less able” students. This snapshot provides evidence that the needs of high achievers are also being catered for in many instances of course innovation…


Our family absolutely loved theNCEA approach. The workload in regular classes wasn’t unreasonable and our son was challenged appropriately. He likes to show up as being smart so he had to work hard - but his results really do refl ect his actual achievements, not a whole lot of other factors. The whole NCEA experience prepared my son for what came next in a way that a foreign examination would not have done.I’m a big proponent of NCEA - it makes happier adults.

Jonny Newbre, mother of Alex Hayashi -left Rangitoto College in 2007 and, later acceptedat University of California, Berkeley

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NCEABreadth and style of learning CONT.

Designing context-rich courses often means a degree of curriculum integration because the real world does not conform neatly to historical subject divisions. For example, a course called “Writing for Publication”… models the integration of achievement standards from different learning areas to combine aspects of traditional subjects that logically come together in a highly relevant context with strong links to real-world settings.

Course innovation in the senior secondary curriculum: A snapshot taken in July 2007.Rose Hipkins, New Zealand Council for Educational Research

The learning experience NCEA enables our more able students to multi-level, which allows them to be challenged at a higher level in

subjects that they have signifi cant ability in. One of the benefi ts of students being able to multi-level is that by the end of year 13 they can have studied seven or eight subjects to Level 3 and in some cases to Scholarship level. Recently one student was able to achieve outstanding Level 3 results in two subjects, plus gain two Scholarships in year 12, and then in year 13 was very successful in fi ve more subjects and gained six further Scholarships.

Michael Williams, Principal, Pakuranga College

There could well be no two kids doing the same thing at any time throughout a year. It’s much closer to that concept of individualised learning.

Tony Guilliland, Principal, Westland High School

I got to know that Bridget was a singer when she was in the school production… and then she and Tessa approached me and talked about doing maybe some of the performance parts of Level 1 Music in year 10. Instead of having the whole of year 11 music she can just do the bits of it that fi t in with her timetable – and she can do the other parts next year when she does Music as a subject.

Keri Spence, Music teacher, Westland High School

Girls at Diocesan are predominantly entered into the NCEA and most make a conscious decision to enter for that based on the wide subject choice, the ability to multi-level across their senior years, even combining with University papers in year 13, and the mix of the internal and external assessments.

Margaret van Meeuwen, Assistant Principal, Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland

When I was in form three I found classes really boring and not interesting at all… I was quite naughty back then… I was put in a higher level class and I was allowed to discuss deeper concepts that I’d always wanted to discuss when I was at a younger age. When I was in form 5 (year 11) I actually did subjects at three levels. And I also did a Scholarship for Stats.

Joe Tsai, former Pakuranga College student

Otahuhu College is totally committed to NCEA because of its fl exibility which enables students to build qualifi cations over more than one year. Credits gained can be carried forward and added to which is far better than in the past where failure just meant more of the same. This has been refl ected in a signifi cant rise in our retention levels in the senior school where now about 90% of our students are now staying until the end of year 13.

Gil Laurenson, Principal Otahuhu College


NCEAInternal and external assessment in NCEA7#

Introduction The mix of internal and external assessment varies across subjects and NCEA Levels, so the mix of assessment varies for each student.It depends on the courses the school offers and the subjects the student chooses to study.

For example at Level 3:

• Student A studies mainly mathematics and sciences – about one third of credits are likely to be internally assessed, and two thirds by external examinations.

• Student B studies mainly English and the social sciences (geography, history, economics) – typically about half of the credits will be internally assessed, and half by external examinations.

• Student C studies mainly the arts – about 60% of credits are likely to be internally assessed, and 40% externally assessed.

Almost all schools use a mix of achievement standards (some internally assessed, others externally assessed) and unit standards (all internally assessed). Students being assessed through a mix of achievement standards and unit standards will have a higher proportion of internal assessment than those assessed using achievement standards alone.

Impact of standards alignmentAchievement standards and unit standards are being reviewed. The review will affect Level 1 in 2011, Level 2 in 2012, and Level 3 in 2013.

Some of the changes will impact on the mix of internal and external assessment.

• Achievement standards only will be used to assess curriculum linked knowledge and skills.

• Unit standards will cover other skills and knowledge.

• Unit standards derived from the New Zealand Curriculum will be phased out, starting in 2011, and replaced with Achievement standards which are internally assessed. CONTINUED OVER PAGE


In recent years we have been asking more of our teachers – they have been asked to make more judgements than before. Compared with the ‘90s and the one-off examination system, there’s been an immense change in the need to explain to students what is required of them. Most teachers have welcomed that shift. Emeritus Professor Gary HawkeSenior Fellow, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Formerly Head of the School of Government and Professor of Economic History, Victoria University of Wellington


NCEAImpact of standards alignment CONT.

• In each subject there will be a maximum of three externally assessed standards. This will change the ratio of internally and externally assessed standards that are available in some subjects.

There will be an examination for each externally assessed standard. Three externally assessed standards will be examined in a three hour examination. This will give students suffi cient time to complete the examination and ensure assessment is reliable.

Previously, in some subjects up to six standards were assessed in a three hour examination. This often resulted in students running out of time and leaving out important parts of the examination.

Mix of internal andexternal assessmentAcross the country in recent years, there has been an almost equal mix of internal and external assessment for achievement standards. This is an average across the country – the mix for any one student will be different.

In 2010:

• 48.5% of results from achievement standards were from external assessments (out of 1,514,355 results).

• 51.5% of results from achievement standards were from internal assessments (out of 1,606,804 results).

• There were also 1,801,193 results for unit standards, all internally assessed.

• There was more external assessment at Level 3 than at other levels.

Details are provided in NZQA’s Annual Report on NCEA and Scholarship. The Report analyses internal and external results by variables including gender, ethnicity and school decile.

Researchers from Victoria University of Wellington interviewed students and parents between 2006 and 2008 and explored how parents and students felt about the mix of internal and external assessment:

Parents thought the system enhanced self-esteem and liked the fact that there were different assessments (internal and external), particularly the fact that internal assessment allowed them opportunity to monitor their children’s progress for those students who would otherwise not stay on task.

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NCEA provides fl exibility with course structure to allow for students’ needs and strengths. NCEA also enables authentic assessment of skills that can’t be assessed in external exams only i.e. practical experiments and speeches. Head of Department, Lincoln High School

The mix of internal and external assessment means students become skilled time managers leading up to an assessment deadline and juggling a mix of assessments, as well as being able to perform under the pressures of an end of year examination. Margaret van Meeuwen, Assistant Principal, Diocesan School for Girls


NCEAMix of internal and external assessment CONT.

Students, parents and teachers are particularly positive about the mix of internal and external assessment. Internal assessment has provided students with the ability to spread their effort and workload across the entire school year, as well as providing better preparation for the future in comparison to a single assessment period following a year of study.

Meyer, L. H., Weir, K. F., McClure, J., Walkey, F., McKenzie, L. 2009. Motivation and Achievement at Secondary School. The relationship between NCEA design and student motivation and achievement: A Three-Year Follow-Up. Victoria University of Wellington.


At the general level, not all students cope with the pressures of external examinations. The major benefi t of internal assessment is assessment when students are ready, used in conjunction with a judicious approach to resubmission and reassessment. There are many aspects of learning that simply cannot be assessed adequately by external examination. Many of these could, of course, be externally assessed by having outsiders in to look at performance, examine things being produced or to watch demonstrations.

This approach carries considerable cost and disruption to programmes without adding a signifi cant increase in confi dence in the accuracy of the assessment. We are happy to have our internal assessment moderated and fi nd it reassuring and useful. We expect our staff to reach a 90% agreement rate. Working to maintain this is not only an appropriate element of accountability but is setting high levels of professional expectation while it ensures regular and effective external review of our work.

John Grant, Principal, Kaipara College

I liked the internal assessment side of NCEA. I like to have time to put some thought into my work and it also helped with university. NCEA helped a lot with time management – I’m doing Environmental Sciences so there are lots of labs and tutorials. At one stage I had 24 university assignments due over 12 weeks, so NCEA prepared me well for all of that.

Jamie Rodriguez left Diocesan School for Girls in 2009


NCEAWhy are some achievement standards externally assessed, and some internally assessed?8#


Standards based assessment places the emphasis on student outcomes – what people need to learn in order to move on. That’s really what the huge transformation in education since the late 1980s has been all about. Teachers and learners now know in advance what students need to learn, and their results describe what they have learned.It’s quite fundamental. It’s recognising what people can actually do, what they know and their cognitive abilities. Learning is not about setting a test and seeing whether people pass or not. This change in thinking has impacted on all education and training – secondary schooling, industry training, polytechnic programmes and throughout our universities. Emeritus Professor Gary HawkeSenior Fellow, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. Formerly Head of the School of Government and Professor of Economic History, Victoria University of Wellington

Introduction Subject and assessment experts decide the most appropriate way to assess the knowledge and skills in the various achievement standards.

A number of factors are considered:

• With internal assessment schools can assess the actual skills and knowledge described in a standard. They can make sure the assessment situation itself does not interfere too much with the validity of the assessment (as in the English writing example below).

• Often internal assessment is the only valid way to assess particular skills and knowledge – for example, where students are required to create a sculpture, make a speech, perform a dance, carry out a historical investigation, or conduct a science experiment.

• Internal assessment provides an authentic way to assess – schools can assess a full range of skills in fairly realistic situations (as in the statistics example below).

• Internal assessment provides a fair way to assess students – schools can make sure everyone has the opportunity to show what they can achieve. Students work in familiar surroundings and usually have ample time to show what they can achieve. Teachers are given guidance by NZQA (by providing assessment schedules and examples of student work) to help them design and conduct the assessment.

Of course, internal assessment that is truly valid and authentic can be time-consuming. This is just one of the reasons there is external assessment in NCEA. Other advantages in having some external assessment in NCEA include:

• External assessment ensures we get a nationally consistent snapshot of student achievement in a subject – everyone does the same task at the same time under very similar conditions. This also provides one basis for checking the consistency of internal assessment.

• Students can show their ability to work under pressure and recall important concepts and facts.

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NCEA

A learning perspective

One of the key strengths of NCEA has always been the ability to use the appropriate assessment method for a particular skill or piece of learning. A simple example is in English where the ability to deliver a speech is an important skill that students learn.In exam based systems you can assess students’ ability to write a speech, you can even assess knowledge of the characteristics of a good speech, but you can’t assess the ability to deliver a speech. Likewise in practical subjects, like the sciences, you need to have an internal aspect of the assessment to assess the critical practical skills that havebeen taught. Michael Williams, Principal, Pakuranaga College

Internal and external assessment in summary:• Internal assessment is fl exible. Schools can design fair, valid and

authentic assessment tasks that suit actual teaching programmes. Assessment takes place closer to teaching and learning, and schools can take into account other activities in the school when deciding when to assess. Internal assessment also provides the sort of assessment students will face in tertiary study.

• External assessment examinations are held on fi xed dates at the end of the year, and students work within a given time frame. Results from external assessments provide a consistent snapshot of student achievement nationally and allow students to show how well they can work under pressure to recall important concepts and facts. External assessment results also provide NZQA with a measure of student ability that is used to monitor the quality of each school’s internal assessment processes and judgements.

Is it harder to get Merit and Excellence grades in external assessment than in internal assessment?Regardless of whether an achievement standard is assessed internally or externally, the criteria for Achievement with Merit and Achievement with Excellence are set down in the standard. Examination questions and internal assessment activities must be designed so that Achievement, Merit and Excellence grades are available for all students.

Only those students who meet the criteria for Merit or Excellence get those grades. There is no predetermined distribution of grades.

The table below shows distribution of internal and external results nationally in 2010.

NotAchieved

Achievement Merit Excellence

Externally assessedAchievementStandards

29% 41% 22% 8%

Internally assessedAchievementStandards

20% 38% 25% 17%

Figures aggregate results across all levels and are rounded to whole numbers. Results for unit standards not included. Internal results as reported by schools, external results for candidates who sat examinations or submitted work for assessment. The numbers of results from external and internal assessments were about the same: 49.5% assessed externally and 51.5% internally. The differences for Achievement and Merit are statistically signifi cant but not large.

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NCEAIs it harder to get Merit and Excellence grades in external assessment than in internal assessment? CONT.

The difference in the result profi les from internal and external assessment is largely because of the different assessmentconditions.

• External examinations are almost all held on fi xed dates at the end of the year. Students have limited time to show what they know and can do in a pressured and stressful environment.

• For internal assessment, schools can design or adapt assessment tasks to suit their teaching programmes. Assessment takes place closer in time to the teaching and learning itself, and schools can take into account other activities in the school in deciding when to assess. Students work in familiar surroundings and usually have more time to show what they can achieve.

Internal and external assessment are both important and are used as appropriate in NCEA.

Internal assessment –some examples:• A Level 2 mathematics standard requires students to “simulate

probability situations and apply the normal distribution”– so students need to design a simulation method, carry it out and then analyse the data. Being given data to analyse in an examination would not assess all the skills and knowledge described in the standard, so internal assessment is needed. (View this standard on the NZQA website).

• A Level 2 writing standard in English requires “drafting, reworking, and presenting writing” – so students must show they can work through each of these stages. This takes time – a one-off examination would not provide valid assessment of the standard. (View this standard on the NZQA website).

In both of these examples, a well-designed internal assessment task will be fair, valid and authentic. All students will have the opportunity to demonstrate all of the skills and knowledge described in the standard. Students can be assessed a situation that is similar to what they would face in the real world.

A learning perspective

We think that the achievement expectations for Merit and Excellence are pitched correctly. We regard the expectations for Excellence as correctly requiring a demanding level of accomplishment in a standard. The level of diffi culty, the standard expected for the grade, is the same across internally and externally assessed standards. There are more Merit and Excellence grades awarded in internal assessment because the conditions of assessment are different. External assessment is generally a once only, at a specifi c date, assessment. Internally assessed standards can offer the chance for resubmission and reassessment.John Grant, Principal, Kaipara College

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NCEAExternal assessment –some examples:• A Level 3 accounting standard requires students to “process fi nancial information for partnerships and companies”. The examination paper provides relevant information about an invented partnership and company. Students have to use this information to answer questions about concepts like goodwill and prepare a range of accounting records. (View this standard on the NZQA website).

• A Level 3 history standard requires students to “analyse and evaluate evidence in historical sources”. The examination paper includes a resource booklet, and students have to use evidence from the resources provided along with their own knowledge to explain historical ideas. (View this standard on the NZQA website).

In both of these examples, students are given a set amount of time to process a set of information, drawing on their own knowledge of underlying principles. This is a fair assessment because students are all given the same initial resources and similar examination conditions.It is valid in that it does test what the standard requires: the ability to process, analyse and evaluate.


NCEAAre there gender differences in achievement rates?9#

IntroductionIn New Zealand, as in most countries, girls perform better than boys in national school qualifi cations. NCEA results at each level refl ect gender-related differences that run right through schooling in New Zealand.

Gender differences in favour of girls existed long before NCEA was introduced in 2002. There were similar patterns in School Certifi cate and Bursary results. For example, in School Certifi cate girls earned greater percentages of passing grades across all subjects than boys.Gender differences in reading tend to decrease during secondary schooling. Gender differences are also smaller for high achieving students.

• Overall, girls perform better than boys in NCEA. Girls generally outperform boys both in external and internal assessment and at all three Levels of NCEA, and in University Entrance. Girls attain more Merit and Excellence certifi cate endorsement at all levels, although the gap narrows at higher NCEA levels.

• This trend is also consistent with international data: New Zealand takes part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Girls had higher reading levels than boys in all 57 countries that took part in PISA – the difference in New Zealand was very close to the difference across all OECD countries.

• The situation is similar in the United Kingdom: “Recent GCSE (General Certifi cate of Secondary Education) results show girls doing better than boys in nearly all subjects. Even in a traditionally male area like resistant materials, girls have overtaken the boys at GCSE. Now, it is only in mathematics and science that boys achieve broadly as well as girls.” Boys’ achievement in secondary schools

• Girls and boys perform almost equally in New Zealand Scholarship. In recent years girls have performed slightly better than boys in gaining Scholarship awards, but girls and boys performed roughly equally at Scholarship level in the 2010 assessments. At the Outstanding Scholarship level, boys tend to outperform girls very slightly, though the performance gap in favour of boys was larger in 2010 than in previous years.

For further details, see Annual Report on NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship Data and Statistics (2010), currently available on the NZQA website.

A learning experience

The NCEA system is world class - other countries would do well to emulate it. Well qualifi ed candidates are welcomed across the world. The unique strength of the system is its inclusivity; in a boys’ school such as mine, every individual is on the same programme - and can explore it to the limit of his capability and determination. Simon Leese, Headmaster, Christ’s College

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NCEA

A learning experience

Our current Level 1 gender gap, which some still consider news, was well established by 1993. All that’s been changed since then is the method of reporting.

NCEA made little difference, especially to top grades. Individual subject pass rates across the two systems of School Certifi cate and NCEA also show remarkable consistency.

Why then was NCEA believed to have increased the gender gap? Because School Certifi cate did not have an overall pass rate, and NCEA does, apples were compared with lemons. The reported jump was from a 5-6 point School Certifi cate gap (taken from all individual subject passes) to a 10 point NCEA gap (taken from overall level completion passes). Level completion is harder than passing one subject, girls work more consistently across subjects, and enter more papers, so the level completion gap will be greater than the subject completion gender gap. Dr Paul Baker Rector of Waitaki Boys’High School

Does internalassessment favour girls?

There is a common belief that internal assessment favours girls relative to boys, but to date no statistical analysis has been published that supports this view.

People who believe that boys do better in examinations than in internal assessment often base their views on what they see as the ‘nature’ of boys. It is claimed that boys enjoy the challenge of an end-of-year examination and internal assessment impinges on their activities outside the classroom.

But others point to the ‘nature’ of boys as a reason for offering them more, rather than less, internal assessment:

NCEA’s internal assessment (is) better suited to the immediate natureof boys. They do a piece of work, it gets assessed, they get some credits and they’re not waiting until the end of the year to get some qualifi cations.Their goals are much more immediate than girls. They don’t look past the current teacher to a career.

Nelson College headmaster Gary O’Shea quoted in Nelson Mail January 2011


Comments in a United Kingdom report suggest that boys should be well suited to internal assessment.

Boys in particular responded well to carefully structured work in lessons. Their responses were strongest when the work had clear objectives, when it was set in real-life contexts, and when it involved well-focused short-term tasks on which there was quick feedback. They also reacted very favourably when the work had an element of fun and competition.

Boys’ achievement in secondary schools, Offi ce for Standards in Education, 2003

In 2011, NZQA has completed a study of the relative performanceof boys and girls in internal and external assessments. The studyfound that: • Both boys and girls perform better in internal assessments than

in external assessments.

• With a few exceptions, girls perform better than boys regardless of the assessment method.

• Boys and girls show about the same difference in performance between internal and external assessment.

In summary, there is no evidence to support the claim that internal assessment systematically favours girls relative to boys at any levelof NCEA.

A report on this research will be published later in 2011.


NCEAHow does NZQA make sure internal assessment is fair and consistent across the country?10#

IntroductionNew Zealand is an optimum size to achieve nationally consistent internal assessment. We are large enough to have a complete system and a very sound pool of expertise – but we are small enough for all teachers in a subject to be in touch with the national system. We have a professional community of understanding about NCEA standards and processes.

Compared with teachers in many other countries, New Zealand teachers are assessment experts. A large proportion of teachers have had experience in setting and marking examinations, in writing national standards, and as moderators or as members of moderation clusters.

An important part of the quality assurance system for NCEA is called external moderation – making sure teachers are making consistent internal assessment decisions across the country. The aim is to equip teachers to make accurate and consistent judgements, by providing feedback and professional development.

How are teachers’ assessment decisions checked for national consistency?

NZQA uses a number of methods to monitor the consistency and accuracy of internal assessment:

• NZQA employs over 34 full-time equivalent moderators and 235 part-time moderators. Most moderators are current or recent teachers and all are assessment experts in particular subjects.

• Moderators run best practice workshops, develop resources to guide schools and speak to meetings of subject associations. Moderators also check each school’s assessment tasks andactivities, and the judgements schools are making when theyassess student work.


All teachers are part of the moderation system. It’s a process of being explicit about what we expect from students. It helps us – teachers, students, parents, the whole community – to better defi ne what we want students to learn in our schools.Professor Jeff Smith, University of Otago.Formerly Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

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NCEAHow are teachers assessment decisions checked for national consistency? CONT.

Moderators currently check a sample of about 10% of each school’s internally assessed work. This is ample to show whether or not teacher judgements are consistent across the country.

• NZQA calculates agreement rates – measures of the extent to which moderators and teachers agree on whether samples of student work meet the standards (explained in more detail below).

• Each school receives a report on the quality of its internal assessment. These are called Managing National Assessment reports and they are published on the NZQA website. Moderation reports are quite specifi c. For example, for a particular achievement standard a school could be making entirely accurate decisions about Achievement and Merit, but getting it wrong in awarding Excellence.

• NZQA compares each school’s results from internally-assessed and externally-assessed standards in each subject. Internal and external achievement rates differ nationally and it is expected that each school will broadly refl ect national patterns. If a school’s internal results are greatly different from what is expected on the basis of their external results (and if the teacher-moderator agreement rates are poor) NZQA works with the school to improve its internal assessment processes.

• As an ultimate sanction, NZQA can withdraw a school’s right to assess for national qualifi cations; this is most likely to apply to particular subjects within a school. In that case, provisions would be made for students to be assessed through another school’s quality systems.

Moderation is aprofessional interaction Moderators run assessment workshops for teachers in individual subjects, all around the country. In 2010, 173 workshops were held with 2180 attendees. In 2011, moderators will run assessment workshops for teachers in 27 subjects at 28 centres across the country.

Moderators work hard to provide teachers with “clarifi cation statements” where there appears to be some diffi culty or confusion about some aspect of the required standard.

Schools can ask for clarifi cation or appeal a moderator’s decision.In 2009 and 2010, fewer than one in 1,000 moderator judgements were successfully appealed.

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NCEAModeration is a professional interaction CONT.

In many regions, schools voluntarily form clusters to enable teachers to compare notes with others teaching their subject. This is especially valuable where there are only one or two teachers of a particular subject in a school. In addition to enhancing NCEA assessment, clusters provide professional development for teachers.

Agreement ratesFor each achievement standard, students receive a set number of credits if their work reaches the Achievement level. If they exceed the Achievement level, they can gain Merit or Excellence grades. So in effect, teachers make two decisions when they assess student work:

• Does the work meet the level described for Achievement? Should the student gain credits for that standard?

• Has the student done well enough to get a grade beyond Achievement? If so, will it be Merit or Excellence?

NZQA calculates two agreement rates – how well moderators and teachers agree on awarding credit for the standard, and how well they agree on the specifi c grade for that standard.

• Agreement rates for awarding credit are always higher than agreement rates for grades, as statistically, fewer decisions are involved in deciding on credit.

• In many standards there’s a fi ne distinction between the grades of Achievement and Merit, and between Merit and Excellence.

In 2010, 97% of assessment materials were deemed to be suitable, either unmodifi ed or with only minor modifi cation. This high fi gure refl ects the fact that most schools now use downloaded assessment materials that have been pre-approved.

Across all standards at all levels, moderators agreed with 91% of teachers’ assessment judgements in awarding credit. This was up from 83% in 2009, and was higher than in any previous year.

2010 moderator/teacher agreement rates across all subjects:

Agreement rates for individual subjects canbe found in the Annual Report on NCEA andNew Zealand Scholarship Data and Statistics (2010) available on the NZQA website.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Across all Levels

Agreementon credit 94% 93% 91% 91%

Agreementon grades 86% 85% 82% 84%


NCEAHow well does NCEA preparestudents for university study?11#

IntroductionUniversities had signifi cant input into the design of the NCEA, and they are fully involved in the system’s ongoing review and development. NZQA’s Technical Overview Group Assessment Committee includes university experts in assessment. In 2011 the Committee consists of Emeritus Professor Gary Hawke (Chair), Professor Terry Crooks, Emeritus Professor Cedric Hall, Honorary Professor John Hattie, Professor Jim Smith and Associate Professor Alison Gilmore.

The most formal benchmark is University Entrance. The Education Act 1989 requires NZQA to consult with the Council of each university and the Universities New Zealand Committee (NZVCC) in setting the standard for entrance to university.

University EntranceUniversity Entrance is the minimum standard students need to reach to apply for entry to university courses. Universities have additional requirements for entry to many degree programmes. They will specify NCEA courses that students should complete and, for some degrees, NCEA results are used to generate entry scores.

For some degree programmes, students need NCEA results that are well in advance of University Entrance. Universities publish these entry requirements in advance. For example:

• Entry to Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at University of Auckland in 2011 requires a minimum of 18 credits in each of Mathematics with Calculus and Physics. Students are selected on the basis of their rank score generated from NCEA results. Also recommended: Chemistry, Biology and language-rich subjects (Classics, English, Geography, History, History of Art, Te Reo Maori, Te Reo Rangatira).


Long ago, the single fi nal university examination (with or without “terms”) disappeared. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that the NCEA rather than the single fi nal high school examination is immeasurably superior at predicting the results of fi rst year.

Professor John Hattie, University of AucklandThe Black Box of Tertiary Assessment:An Impending Revolution

At both university and polytechnic, students with University Entrance have higher performance, in terms of fi ve-year qualifi cation completion rates, than those who don’t have University Entrance.

Engler, R., & Smyth, R., 2011, Doing a Bachelor’s Degree: Comparing University Entrance and NCEA Levels. Ministry of Education

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NCEAPreparation for universityThe fi rst group of students to leave school with Level 3 NCEA results started tertiary study from 2005 and many have now completed university degrees. In recent years researchers have been studying how achievement in NCEA predicts performance at university and polytechnic.

In 2010, the Ministry of Education published results from three studies looking at the performance of fi rst-year students at university who had completed NCEA Level 3 and/or University Entrance.

• NCEA performance was a stronger predictor of fi rst-year university performance than University Entrance.

• Students with higher levels of success in NCEA were more likely to go on to bachelors-level study.

• Males and females with comparable NCEA scores are equally likely to go to university, and their likelihood of university success is similar.

• For students with above-average academic success at school, other factors make almost no difference to their tertiary performance (e.g. gender, ethnicity, secondary school attended, university course, direct transition to university or following a year off).

• Not all higher-achieving school students perform equally well at university – and some with lower school achievement out-performed students with higher school achievement.

Engler, R. (2010) Academic performance of fi rst-year bachelors students at university.Ministry of Education

In 2011, the Ministry of Education also looked at the tertiary progress of students leaving school with University Entrance:

• Students with NCEA Level 3 and University Entrance do better than those with University Entrance alone.

• Students with University Entrance alone do better than those with lower levels of NCEA achievement.

• Of all school leavers with NCEA Level 3 and University Entrance:

• 82% of students commenced bachelors degrees.

• Only 9% were not involved in further study.

Engler, R., & Smyth, R. (2011) Doing a Bachelor’s Degree: Comparing University Entrance and NCEA Levels. Ministry of Education


NCEA assessment is consistent with much of what we see in assessment at university. Most university assessment is not a simple ‘multi-choice’ approach and it’s not all exams – there’s a lot of essay work, problem solving and so on. Kids who do well in NCEA have shown they can process information and develop ideas. NCEA is a performance-based approach, using authentic, contextualised assessment. So is university assessment.

Professor Jeff Smith, University of Otago. Formerly Associate Dean of Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.

The learningexperience

The style of assessment at university now closely resembles that of NCEA. Students are working on major assessments throughout the year with some courses having fi nal examinations and some being fully internally assessed. Little wonder the Auckland University research found that NCEA was the best predictor of success at university.

Michael Williams, Principal, Pakuranga College

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NCEAHow well do NCEA students perform at university?

University of Auckland researchers have shown that students who do well in NCEA also do well at university:

What we looked at was the relationship between the success in the NCEA and the success at the fi rst year university. Typically we expect a relationship in my number system of about 0.3 on a scale of zero to one. The NCEA is more like 0.5 or 0.6, which says it’s a dramatically better predictor. Students who do well in the NCEA also do well in university.

…(At university) we expect students now to work quite hard all throughout the whole year, staying in a lot more control of their learning – so what we’re doing in the NCEA is mimicking what happens both in the workplace and in the university. It teaches them to listen to feedback. It teaches them to actually seek the feedback about what they can and can’t do. It teaches them to know what their strengths are and know what their gaps are – and to go about fi nding ways to fi ll those gaps, either by themselves, with their peers or with their teachers. Which is exactly what the university demands of our students.

Professor John Hattie

The researchers compared the performance of students during their fi rst year at university who gained university entrance through NCEA and Cambridge International examination systems. It was found that NCEA is almost fi ve times more effective in predicting fi rst-year performance at university.

• The outcome predictability of fi rst-year university results from the NCEA is up to fi ve times stronger than all of the other secondary school assessment systems in New Zealand and worldwide.This outstanding predictive power suggests that the NCEA can provide high quality information for tertiary education admission purposes.

• This pattern of lower correlation between secondary school performance on norm-based examination and university success has long been documented, with little progress made in improving the relationships.


Graduates of Diocesan School for Girls have remarked that NCEA prepares them well for tertiary study, particularly in research, essay writing and problem solving. Because NCEA is standards based they are well used to recognizing the hierarchy of a question or an assignment and can respond in a way that shows their higher level thinking.

Margaret van Meeuwen,Assistant Principal, Diocesan School for Girls

We have had positive feedback from our former students at University that they have felt well prepared for University study. Aspects that they have commented on include: a. Learning the skills of self management of their own learning. b. Meeting deadlines.c. The emphasis on literacy skills and thinking skills. d. The mix of internal and external assessment means that they have had experience with managing deadlines, workfl ow and different types of assessment. They feel better able to manage a University workload.

John Grant, Principal, Kaipara College

When I got to university I found I had already covered a lot of the content. In Geography, for example I didn’t need to go on a fi eld trip because I had done that work within NCEA. And I knew about geographical information systems because we used them at school – some university students hadn’t even heard of them.

Jamie Rodriguez left Diocesan Schoolfor Girls in 2009

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NCEAHow well do NCEA studentsperform at university? CONT.

• The higher correlation between the NCEA and university success may be due to the similarities in the assessment and the subsequent wash-back on the teaching systems. Both require ongoing assessments involving a variety of tasks (projects, essays, portfolios) throughout the year, together with a fi nal examination.

Researchers suggested that students who aspire to succeed in university could benefi t by aiming for more Merit and Excellence grades, even if that meant gaining fewer credits.

(Note: Since this study was conducted, course and certifi cate endorsements have been introduced – both require numbers of Merit and Excellence grades).

Shulruf, Hattie and Tumen. 2008. The predictability of enrolment and fi rst-year university results from secondary school performance: the New Zealand National Certifi cate of Educational Achievement. Victoria University of Wellington


Having assessment throughout the year for NCEA refl ects the way university is run better than an end of year exam – we have essays, tests and semester exams during the year. NCEA did prepare us better in terms of a consistent level of assessments.

Through the Merit and Excellence questions, NCEA required a level of thinking beyond knowledge recall. There was lots of knowledge recall in the fi rst year of my university programme. High school required a lot more thinking and there was more inspiring teaching.

Some people say NCEA lacks stratifi cation – that the three grades don’t separate students as well as a percentage mark. But that’s wrong. You do 30 to 40 standards in a year so putting those results together gives an accurate picture of each student’s abilities. You get more discrimination than a percentage score. Exam scores give a false sense of accuracy – the difference between 91% and 93% is not greatly signifi cant compared with the mix of three NCEA grades over a whole year’s work. And they now have a way to generate grade point averages so that helps as well.

The fact is that after the fi rst year of university it didn’t particularly matter what school qualifi cations you did.

Andrew MacDonald, Medical Student, Auckland University

[Andrew MacDonald left Rangitoto College in 2006 and is now studying medicine at the University of Auckland.Andrew was a Premier Scholar in New Zealand Scholarship and top scholar in Science. At the University of Auckland he won the Eric Hector Goodfellow Memorial Prize as the top pre-clinical student and the Leukemia and Blood Foundation prize for the highest grades in immunology, haematology and microbiology. Andrew has had research published by Oxford University Press and presented at conferences on his immunological research.]

The transition from school to uni was very smooth. Under NCEA you’re working hard all through the year… you’re always aware of the assessments you’ve got at the moment… you’ve got a plan and you know there’s more coming, and so you’re always looking forward. Which is quite similar to uni where everything’s mapped out for you and you know when your assessments are…

Olivia Burt, University of Auckland student, formerly Pakuranga College


NCEAHow are NCEA results recognised overseas?12#

IntroductionNew Zealand’s education system is world-leading as recognised by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

A number of international agreements ensure NCEA results are understood and accepted overseas.

NZQA is part of the National Academic Recognition Information Centres (NARIC) network. NARIC is consulted by tertiary providers and deals with academic recognition of diplomas and periods of study in the member states of the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Central and Eastern Europe.

NCEA results are used to calculate the International Tertiary Admission Ranking System (ITARS). This ensures a unifi ed approach when New Zealand school leavers apply for entry to foreign universities.

Equivalency arrangementsNZQA has equivalency arrangements with many countries. Including:

Australia

• NCEA Level 3 is recognised as broadly equivalent to Senior Secondary Certifi cates of Education.

• NCEA Level 3 results are used in the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank for entrance to all Australian universities.

• When an application is received from a New Zealand school leaver, the Australian Tertiary Admission Centres contact NZQA directly. Results are sent from early January each year.

Britain

• NCEA Level 3 is recognised as broadly equivalent to General Certifi cate of Education (GCE) A-Level.


If you look good here, you can look good in the United States, but you need to be able to make your case. You need to understand that Merit and Excellence results are not A and B grades in American terms – in effect they are both A grades.You need to be able to show how high you come in national rankings and there are ways to do that. NZQA can help and of course Scholarship results are brilliant for this purpose – you can easily prove you are in the top few percent in New Zealand.

Professor Jeff Smith, University of Otago Formerly Associate Dean of Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

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NCEA


Almost 100% of our students enter tertiary education, many are awarded national scholarships and many are accepted for competitive courses such as law and health sciences. A growing number are travelling overseas to university and have no trouble gaining entry. NCEA is an excellent qualifi cation and offers a seamless transition to tertiary education.

Margaret van Meeuwen, Assistant Principal, Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland

Students from St Cuthbert’s College have been accepted at leading international universities such as Yale, Duke, Brown, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Melbourne. Larissa Eruera (Y12) has won a full scholarship to Arizona University. Sarah Henderson to Pennsylvania State University. Abigail Guthrie to the University of Mississippi.

“Girls leaving St Cuthbert’s College in 2010 were accepted at Aston University, Birmingham; King’s College London; University of Melbourne; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; University of Sydney; Griffi th University, Brisbane; Maharishi University of Management, Iowa; New York Film Academy; and Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts.

Website of St Cuthbert’s College

Equivalency arrangements CONT.

• NCEA is listed in the International Qualifi cations for Entry to Higher Education published annually by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). This reference guide is used by UK tertiary providers to evaluate school leaving qualifi cations. It is also used by other countries as an authoritative guide.

Germany

• Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the German states have recommended that German universities accept NCEA results.

• German entry requirements are similar to New Zealand’s but require results in at least fi ve subjects.

Europe

• NARIC recognises that University Entrance and NCEA Level 3(with Merits/Excellences in subjects to be studied at higher education institutions) is comparable to those with the overallGCE Advanced standard.

Thailand

• Students completing high school qualifi cations outside Thailand need a Matthayom 6 equivalence certifi cate, issued by Thailand’s Bureau of Educational Testing (BET).

• NZQA and BET have agreed on equivalence criteria for NCEA (largely based on NCEA Level 2).

India

• The Association of Indian Universities recognises NCEA Level 3 as equivalent to its university entrance requirement.

New Zealand’s international connections have been reinforced in recent years.

• In 2008 NZQA joined the network established by UNESCO and the Council of Europe to improve the international recognition of qualifi cations.

• NZQA is now New Zealand’s National Education Information Centre, providing information and advice on the New Zealand education system, secondary and tertiary qualifi cations, and recognition of overseas qualifi cations.

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NCEA


It’s a complete nonsense to say that our national qualifi cations system does not give school leavers access to overseas universities. The reality is that a combination of Level 3 NCEA and Scholarship is getting students into top universities.

We have a steady stream of boys going straight from year 13 to top universities around the world,and many go overseas after an undergraduate degree in New Zealand.

• Louis Bollard (year 13 in 2004) went direct to Harvard and later delivered the graduationaddress for his year.

• Tom McCarthy (2004) went direct to Melbourne University.

• Peter Clark (2005) went to Victoria University of Wellington and in 2010 receiveda Woolf Fisher Scholarship for post-graduate study at Oxford.

• James Dawson (2006) and Thang Tran (2009) went direct to the Australian National University.

• Alex Ross (2007) received the Doug Myer Scholarship and entered Cambridge.

• Sebastian Wilkins (2007) and Jacob Diggle (2008) went direct to Oxford.

• Victor Torghitescu (2008) went direct to Sydney University.

• Hunter Douglas (2008) was a Robertson Scholar and gained entry to Duke Universityin the United States.

Roger Moses, Headmaster, Wellington College

I chose to stay at Dio for a number of reasons, but probably the most relevant is that I felt NCEA actually provided more intellectual stimulation… the NCEA excellence type questions are a lot more interesting and thought-provoking…

I have found NCEA to be perfectly adequate preparation for university. I’m reading physics and philosophy at Oxford, so my peers all sat the A Levels, and I certainly haven’t found that I struggle in comparison with them. In fact, I think that if anything the NCEA Excellence questions, and particularly the further extension provided by scholarship, have made me better prepared than some of the others in terms of dealing with more challenging sorts of questions.

Emily Adlam left Diocesan School for Girls in 2008. Emily made the conscious decision to stay on at Diocesan for year 13 because she felt the NCEA would challenge her. She is studying Physics and Philosophy at Oxford.

Phway Aye (Head Girl 2010) has accepted a scholarship to Princeton University, New Jersey.She is studying Law and Political Science and travels to USA in August.

Sophie Zang spoke to students about making the transition from Palmerston North Girls’ High School to Auckland University; of applying for and being offered a full fee scholarship to both Columbia,New York, and MIT, Boston. Sophie went on to study at Columbia.

Website of Palmerston North Girls’ High School, June 2011

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NCEA


I’ve been to the University of Auckland in the past semester, but tomorrow I’m fl ying all the way to America to study at UC Berkeley in California. I’ll be studying Chemistry and Physics… that’s always been my ambition.

Joe Tsai, former Pakuranga College student

In 2007 Phillippa Draper was awarded the Dickinson College (Pennsylvania) scholarship and has been majoring in Political Science and minoring in Chemistry and Chinese. She spent the second half of 2010 furthering her Chinese studies at Peking University in Beijing.

Website of Papanui High School, June 2011

Two former Columba College pupils have won prestigious high-paying scholarships which have lured them to study at Australia National University in Canberra this year.

Miss Atkinson-Barclay has won an Australian National Undergraduate scholarship worth more than $NZ16,000 each year, for up to fi ve years of study. … The 2010 Columba College proxime accessit won the scholarship after receiving NCEA Level 3 endorsed with excellence last year. When staff at Australia National University translated her NCEA results into the Australian format, she was placed in the top bracket of applicants with 99.95 points out of a possible 99.95.

Miss Ooi’s Australian National Undergraduate scholarship is worth about $NZ8,500 each year, for up to four years of study at Australia National University in Canberra. She too received NCEA Level 3 endorsed with excellence and her marks translated to 99.7 points out of the possible 99.95. She plans to study a Bachelor of Science majoring in immunology and microbiology, with the possible addition of computer science, statistics or chemistry. Eventually, she hopes to go into post-graduate medicine.

Otago Daily Times, 11 February 2011

When our son started at university in California, professors would ask ‘Why do you know thisso well?’ He found he was way ahead in many things. Much of what he was doing he’d already covered in NCEA Level 2.

Our son did exceptionally well in the standardised admission test in the US, despite not doing the concentrated preparation American kids now go through. He is smart but not a genius – he did that well simply on the basis of what he had learned through NCEA at Rangitito College.

NCEA prepared our son very well for assessments in US universities. They don’t have one-off end-of-year exams – the NCEA assessments that happen during the year better refl ect whathappens there.

Jonny Newbre, mother of Alex Hayashi – left Rangitoto College in 2007 and, later accepted atUniversity of California, Berkeley

ncea… the facts

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