NZCER comments on National Standards aggregated data

11 June 2013

Media release

NZCER comments on National Standards aggregated data

The aggregated National Standards data released today provides some indicative information about student achievement but it is far too early to be definitive about national trends.

Nor can we use this aggregated data to draw any conclusions about how standards are working at the individual student and individual school level. The experience of NCEA suggests that it will take years to build collective knowledge about the standards in schools and in the meantime local variation in the way standards are understood and applied is to be expected.

National Standards data is a relatively coarse and imprecise measure of system performance. NZCER director Robyn Baker cautions that the aggregated data must be read alongside other system-level information such as the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement.

NZCER argued for a trial of National Standards before they were introduced. Given that this did not happen, the first few years of data need to be treated as if they are a trial. It will be important to continue to learn and be prepared to make changes to the policy as required.

Drawing on research and what we know from our own assessment data, NZCER thinks there now needs to be:

• Open debate about why the standards are set at the level they are and the process for reviewing the levels. For example, the aggregated data shows a dip in achievement at Year 7. It would be worthwhile probing further to see if this is an actual dip and if so, why it is occurring, or whether the difficulty of the standards themselves needs to be better aligned across year levels. NZCER's own data suggests that the demands of the mathematics standards increase at each year level relative to national norms. At Year 7 and 8 students have to make accelerated progress relative to national norms to meet the standard.

• Better support for teachers to build their knowledge about using assessment data to improve student learning. Again, we can learn from the NCEA experience about the degree of professional development needed to build capacity.

• Greater understanding and debate in schools and the wider community about the purposes and the benefits and limitations of the National Standards policy at the student, school and education system-wide level.

The data does appear to highlight issues with the learning progress of Maori and Pasifica students and the need for a continued emphasis on support for their learning. However, overall a lot more work is needed to explore the apparent trends and tease out what they mean for teaching and learning.

NZCER is a research and development organisation with long experience and deep expertise in assessment. We develop and sell tests to New Zealand schools, such as the Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs).

ENDS

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