KEY POINTS:
The NZQA is actively pushing pass rates up - ordering schools to let students resit tests as often as they like and telling teachers to add up marks from failed tests to make a pass.
Students, meanwhile, are picking up even more easy credits by exploiting the NCEA system, which lets them take two types of test for each topic.
These latest revelations come after sustained criticism of the NCEA, triggered by Avondale College's announcement that it may introduce alternative exams. Flagship NCEA school St Cuthbert's is also considering alternatives.
Last week, Peter Gall, the new head of the Secondary Principal's Association, called for another independent review of the NCEA.
The NCEA is heading for its sixth year, with many of the loopholes that were pointed out before it was introduced.
NZQA audits schools' assessment practices at least every three years. The Herald on Sunday obtained copies of these reports for 19 schools under the Official Information Act. All but two told schools to relax their policies on resits or to make sure their policies were outlined more clearly.
Rongotai College was praised for its system, where "in Languages, students can 'tweak' or amend small aspects of their work in response to teacher feedback... These positive strategies allow for recognition of optimum student achievement."
But Tawa College, which the report said did not offer resits and instead had a motto of "do it once and do it well", was ordered to review its policy. "This stance is out of step with national practice and with the good practice of some Tawa College teachers," the report said.
Karamu High School was also told to loosen up its policy of only letting students take a test twice.
This was "contrary to national practice..."
"Teachers should be encouraged to explore a range of strategies to enable the recognition of a student's best effort, whether they have achieved at the first opportunity or not."
The Herald on Sunday has also obtained emails from NZQA to a teacher, saying it was fine to add up "evidence" across two or more similar tests, so that the student would pass.
Students on the official NZQA study forums say the system lets them enter unit standards, as well as their equivalent achievement standards, in many subjects. "I have the potential to get a ridiculously large amount of credits this year," one student said. "Quite cool really, I'll be able to get Level Three in only two subjects." Another student's school used the internally assessed unit standards as a safety net in case students didn't do well in exams. "So like me, if you passed all your externals, you end up with almost double the number of credits that you would normally have." An NZQA memo to a decile 7 principal said that entering both achievement and unit standards was "a win/win situation". However, NZQA states that if two standards measure the same knowledge, students can't use both results to count towards a national certificate.
