NCEA assessment system is robust - NZQA

NZQA is confident that its assessment of NCEA is credible and robust and that the increased agreement rates between teachers and moderators reflect credible and robust practices.

We have some very serious issues in regard to your front page item Journalist claims NCEA ‘fudging’ as corrupt in Issue #841, 20th June 2011.

Your item is based on the comments made by a journalist in relation to an interview she gave to TVNZ Breakfast and an article she wrote in the July issue of North & South magazine.

NZQA strongly refutes the accusations made in this article and we have filed a letter of complaint with the magazine.

The article includes several statements which relate to alleged comments made by an NZQA moderator at an NZQA run course. The moderator involved has stated that he did not make these claims and that these accusations are false. Other audience members present agree.

The article also contains many factual errors, several of which are substantial. For example the author clearly does not understand the requirements for University Entrance in New Zealand. The journalist also overlooks the fact that NCEA is both internally and externally assessed.

The journalist did not contact NZQA nor did the journalist offer anyone, including NZQA, the opportunity to offer an alternative viewpoint in response.

This item has unfortunately been used as the basis of further media coverage.

If North & South had sought to include some balance in their item they would have learned that there are many reasons for the increase in agreement rates between moderators and teachers about the grades awarded.

In 2010, NZQA held 173 Best Practice workshops involving over 2000 teachers around New Zealand. NZQA has also provided teachers with the opportunity to send in additional candidate evidence and has also allowed teachers to ask moderators specific questions about assessment judgements.

A variety of assessment resources have also been made available to teachers, this includes annotated exemplars providing examples of student’s work at each of the grade boundaries which helps teachers make more accurate assessments.

Agreement rates between moderators and teachers are high because of work done within the education sector to improve moderation and assessment, this cooperation is both ongoing and positive.