Trevor Mallard: Flexible assessment tailored to needs of all students

COMMENT

It is bizarre that the National Party is now trying to undermine the NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement), which it introduced.

The party's education spokesman, Bill English, is claiming widespread problems with the NCEA without producing any evidence, questioning the hard work of students and teachers and, in the case of one school, wrongly accusing them of cheating - and refusing to apologise.

Let me put some well-travelled myths to bed. The facts are that NCEA results show what a student can do in detail. This was not the case under the old system, where final scores were manipulated so about half the students automatically failed regardless of the knowledge they showed.

Another fact is that there is more external assessment than under the old system, and that there does not have to be as much internal assessment. It's flexible so students can skip NCEA levels if they are capable.

Under the NCEA, results from internal assessment are for the first time checked against national results to ensure national standards are consistent.

This was also not the case under the old system, where results could easily be manipulated but no one would know about it.

Now, schools are visited to make sure they are delivering quality assessment. This was not the case under the old system.

The NCEA is not a tool to compare or rank schools. Go to www.ero.govt.nz to see in detail how individual schools perform across a range of areas - the school culture, the education they deliver, how they manage their money.

The NCEA is a tool to deliver qualifications. It shows - in much more detail than the old system - what school-leavers know and what their skills are.

The NCEA is internationally recognised and welcomed by New Zealand universities because of its rich detail about student achievement.

The NCEA challenges top students; the new scholarship is set at a higher level than the scholarship examination it replaced. Capable students can jump levels if they want more of a challenge.

The NCEA, like the old system, relies on the professionalism and integrity of schools and teachers. Unlike Mr English, I believe schools and teachers act professionally. Because the NCEA is more transparent, when glitches do happen, they are discovered and can be fixed immediately.

There is no evidence that the issues identified at Cambridge High School - that is, the existence of an achievement recovery room without trained teachers and without a learning programme - are happening at other schools.

The NCEA is a forward-looking, flexible qualifications system that allows students to focus their work and attention on the skills and subjects they need to move on to work or to further education beyond school.

Schools help each student choose the subjects or unit standards that will lead to a qualification that is appropriate for the individual.

That means this system is as suitable for students going to university to become medical specialists and lawyers as it is for those wishing to work in the construction or tourism areas.

And why shouldn't it be?

Standards achieved at school can be used for post-school qualifications, which is a major improvement for individual students and means they leave school with something meaningful and worthwhile.

For example, standards achieved can contribute directly to a hairdressing qualification or to a builder's qualification as well as an NCEA. This was not the case in the past.

As a result of this flexibility, schools are also reporting that they are hanging on to students who otherwise would have dropped out of education; the range of subjects on offer is keeping them there, and keeping them enthused about and tuned in to learning.

Under the NCEA, instead of a single grade for an entire subject such as maths, parents and employers can see whether a student is good at measuring or good at geometry but perhaps not so good at arithmetic.

This sort of detail means that students are much more likely to be placed in courses and jobs to which they are suited and where they can succeed.

It also means that if students stay on at school, it is clear to teachers and parents where they might need to do more work or where they need more help.

Of course, we expect variations from year to year in the proportions of students achieving - there are different students sitting different exams. This is not new and similar variations happened under School Certificate.

The NCEA is all about students getting credit for what they know and what they can do.

Let's just get on with it and start supporting the hard work of the vast majority of individual students, teachers and schools who know how much better the NCEA is for education.

* Trevor Mallard is responding to the view of National education spokesman Bill English that a series of improvements are needed to put the NCEA back on track.