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97 The way any implementation agency approaches communication about change is critical
to building confidence with key stakeholders. In terms of communicating this significant
change to the sector, as one stakeholder put it, “you need to understand what it is you are
trying to do. You need to agree key messages, which are simple and straightforward, and
you need to keep saying them.” The Review Team agrees.
1.6 Any other matter which the Review Team considers relevant to the
foregoing questions
98 There are three matters that the Review Team believes it is worth commenting on briefly.
They need to be seen in the spirit of moving forward and implementing the 2005
Scholarship successfully. They are:
• Continuous improvement - implementation needs to be a process whereby the
implementation team makes constant adjustments to the way it does things, to
ensure a successful outcome. Any rigid adherence to an ideal (if this did indeed
occur) will get in the way of a successful outcome.
• Feedback loops – sector representatives who participate in the Leaders’ Forum
need to be kept informed of policy and implementation decisions and issues in a
continuous way. The Ministry and NZQA need to dedicate resource specifically
to keeping the sector and its key stakeholders consistently well informed as well
as involved in its consultative forums.
• Building sector capacity in external assessment – the Scholarship and the wider
NCEA call constantly on the same and small number of experienced teachers in
the tertiary and secondary sectors. The Review Team believes that there is an
urgent need to build up this capacity and a related need to review the conditions
under which they are engaged to facilitate development.
99 A final word on the debate about assessment. Norm-referenced assessment is at one end
of the assessment spectrum and standards-based (or criterion-referenced) assessment lies
at the other. Norm-referencing usually applies norms at the stage of assessment results
and reporting, using an inherent understanding of standards to set the mean scores
appropriate for an age group or cohort. Standards-based approaches tend to apply norms
at an earlier, pre-assessment stage, e.g. when setting students’ achievement standards.
100 These positions are seen as opposing positions, though in fact it is more constructive to
see them as complementary, not exclusive, and differing largely at the point where the
norms are applied. Norms and standards in fact apply continuously throughout the whole
education and assessment process. When teachers use exemplars they apply both norms
and standards. So too do markers when they adjust schedules after assessing an initial
selection of student’s scripts. There has been an international movement to focus more
on standards-based assessment because of the balance of advantage it offers to teaching
and learning. The intention of standards-based assessment is that teachers have better
knowledge of a student’s success or failure before it is too late to do anything about it,
students have improved knowledge of their targets, teachers improve their professional
assessment skills, and deficiencies in the wider educational system are known.
101 While both assessment approaches belong to the same spectrum, the reality is that the
new 2004 Scholarship and NCEA were introduced in a climate of polarisation. This has
affected the way in which the sector and the public perceive this major transition in
secondary school education. These two approaches need not and should not be opposing
and it is incumbent on both agencies but notably the Ministry to provide leadership in
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