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discussion under TOR 1.6). NCEA provides for external and internal assessment at three
levels, as well as the externally assessed Scholarship at Level 4 (in 2004). In total this
amounts to more than 150,000 candidates and approximately 1.9 million individual
examination booklets, a massive undertaking. In short, the implementation of NCEA
required a major, complex change management process. This included three years of
professional learning and development managed by the Ministry, the instituting of
significant new business processes by NZQA, and extensive relationship management
with schools by NZQA.
13 Furthermore, the implementation of NCEA and Scholarship, commencing in 2002, has
been undertaken over a very short timeframe, necessary in order to provide a coherent
pathway for students through senior secondary school. The implementation of Level 1
NCEA was particularly difficult, with a major industrial dispute with secondary school
teachers complicating communication and discussion on Level 1 implementation in the
early months of 2002. In contrast, the implementation of Level 2 NCEA was relatively
smooth, although there were some technical difficulties with the posting of results on the
NZQA website.
14 When it came to implementing Level 3 NCEA and the 2004 Scholarship in the same
year, there was insufficient appreciation of the need to differentiate between the two
assessments. In the event, implementation of Level 3 NCEA, which has a much wider
impact on students than Scholarship, was the main focus of attention, with Scholarship
essentially being implemented in its slipstream. The strategic risks, both policy and
implementation, associated with Scholarship received insufficient attention.
15 It is important to appreciate that the implementation of NCEA is in its early stages and
will continue to evolve. The magnitude of the change is such that the transition to better
learning, teaching and assessment will continue over at least the next five years. The
focus of attention and debate should not merely be on approaches to assessment. The
Review Team notes that to this point the change has been implemented reasonably well
overall.
Overview of Findings
16 The overall finding is that the difficulties experienced with the 2004 Scholarship resulted
from inadequacies in both policy advice and implementation.
17 The Government received inadequate advice on the policy risks associated with the 2004
Scholarship. The principles on which Scholarship was to be based were established in
1998, with the more detailed aspects of policy being developed through consultation with
key stakeholders over the succeeding five years. This was a long process during which
officials failed to adequately take stock of the policy settings and provide the government
with an explicit analysis of the implications for the outcome of the 2004 Scholarship. A
stocktake and analysis might well have led to a further refinement in the policy settings
for the 2004 Scholarship, along the lines of those recently approved by the government.
Instead, there was a ‘drift’ into implementation without an adequate analysis of the
strategic policy risks.
18 The result was that the expectations of Ministers were not aligned with those of officials
in the Ministry of Education and NZQA, and the outcome of the 2004 Scholarships came
as a surprise to both Ministers and the wider public. For example, officials saw the
variability of results between subjects as a consequence of the approach to Scholarship,
rather than as a significant risk that could undermine the credibility of the examinations.
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