Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What are print concepts?
What is a percentile rank?
What is a stanine?
What is Reading Recovery?
What should I expect my child's teacher to tell me about my child's performance?
What is the National Curriculum?
What are the levels of the National Curriculum?
What curriculum level should my child be at?
Where do I go to get help for my child?
How do I know when my child has to sit tests and exams?
How can I find out my child's results?
What happens if my child thinks they're not being assessed fairly?
Do students sit exams for NCEA?
Is internal assessment for NCEA consistent across all schools?
What's the difference between achievement standards and unit standards?
How do I know that my child is achieving at the right level?
What is school entry assessment?
What is the 6-year old net?
What are PATs?
Am I allowed to seek the results of these tests from schools?
What is Reading Recovery?
Can a student repeat year 6 or year 8?
How can I find out if my child is gifted?
What are print concepts?
These are concepts that show how much a child knows about how books, text, and pictures work. For example, reading from left to right and top to bottom, and making connections between the text and illustrations.
What is a percentile rank?
A percentile rank shows a student's position compared to the norm for their age and their year. A percentile rank of 99 shows that 99 percent of all students of the same age or year had lower scores. A student with a percentile rank of 99 is in the top 1 percent of students of that age or year for that particular assessment – and 99 percent have a lower score. In contrast a percentile rank of 10 indicates that only 10 percent of students have lower scores. It is possible for some students to have different percentile ranks – one for their age and one for their year – particularly if they are older or younger than their peers.
What is a stanine?
A stanine indicates a student's rank in comparison with other students who took the same test. Stanines are expressed as a scale of nine units with a low of one and a high of nine. The scale follows a bell-shaped curve, where 20 percent of the students fit in stanine 5, four percent in stanine 9, and four percent in stanine 1. In contrast to percentile ranks, a stanine allows student's achievements to be reported in broad and general terms – reducing the chance of misinterpreting small differences in scores.
What is Reading Recovery?
Reading Recovery is a one-to-one teaching programme for students who have made slow progress learning to read and write in their first year at school. It is a 12 to 20 week programme undertaken for half an hour daily. Most New Zealand schools provide this catch-up opportunity. Each student's reading and writing is assessed close to their sixth birthday and the lowest scoring students take part in the Reading Recovery programme at school as soon as a space is available.
What should I expect my child's teacher to tell me about my child's performance?
Expect more than a score. Your child's teacher should be able to tell you:
- what particular strengths or weaknesses your child has in different subjects
- how your child compares with the rest of their class and peers in the same year
- how your child interacts and work with their peers.
They should also be able to tell you what your child needs to do next to continue learning and what you can do to help them.
What is the National Curriculum?
The National Curriculum (often referred to as the New Zealand Curriculum) is published by the Ministry of Education and it applies to all state and state-integrated schools. At the moment, it has two parts:
The New Zealand Curriculum Framework (1993)
This sets out the policy direction for the curriculum, including: principles, essential learning areas, essential skills, attitudes and values, and assessment.
The National Curriculum Statements
These set out the knowledge and skills that students are expected to achieve across seven different learning areas - progressing across eight levels. The seven areas are: English and languages, maths, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, and health and physical well-being.
Both parts are provided in te reo Māori for kura.
What are the levels of the National Curriculum?
The National Curriculum is divided in 8 levels. Children spend approximately two years in each level up until the end of year 8, and work through the remaining levels at secondary school. Each student is constantly assessed during that time using various methods, including ARBs, NEMP, NumPa, asTTle, Running Records, and PATs until year 10. The student then moves on to the NCEA.
What curriculum level should my child be at?
Click on this link and scroll down to view a diagram that shows the approximate relationship between curriculum levels and school years. Students progress at different rates. Not all students in the same year will achieve at the same curriculum level at the same time.
Where do I go to get help for my child?
If you are worried about your child and how well they are progressing, call the school secretary to make an appointment to talk with the teacher or the school principal. Make sure you prepare for the meeting so that you come away with answers to all your questions. You may find it useful to write down your questions first, or to take information such as school reports or homework with you. If you would like your child to be at the meeting, make sure you tell the school secretary when you set up the appointment so they can arrange for the meeting to take place outside of class time.
How do I know when my child has to sit tests and exams?
Assessment is a normal part of school life: sometimes students will be asked to prepare for assessment, other times they may be assessed without any preparation. Using a combination of assessment helps teachers to understand how well your child is doing. Talk to your child about school and what they're learning – they're likely to tell you if they have assessment coming up. You can also ask their teacher about assessment – a good time to do this is at parent–teacher interviews. Or you could refer to the school's website, if they have one.
When students are studying for NCEA, they get assessment guidelines at the start of each year. This gives the key dates for assessment. Ask your son or daughter for a copy of this so that you can help them to prepare.
How can I find out my child's results?
You can find out about your child's results by talking to your child or their teacher. The results of significant assessments are likely to be included in school reports or may be discussed at parent–teacher interviews. NCEA results are published on the Internet in late January. Students are given a code so that they can see their results. They will also get an Interim Results Notice in the mail at around the same time. This shows their results for the previous year. In April, they get a Record of Learning that shows all the NCEA standards they've achieved, credits gained, and qualifications completed so far. If they have completed the credits required for level 1, 2, or 3 they will get a certificate for that level.
What happens if my child thinks they're not being assessed fairly?
You should make an appointment to talk to their teacher, the school's NCEA coordinator, year level dean, or the school principal. Make sure you do this sooner rather than later so that any misunderstandings can be sorted out as soon as possible. For NCEA, schools have an appeals process for internally assessed work, which is explained to students at the start of the year. If a student believes the grade they receive is not a true indication of their performance they can use this process. There is a different process for externally assessed work. Students go through their school to request a review by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). This must be done by 14 February for work completed in the preceding year. There is no charge.
Requests for a review should be sent to:
Logistics
New Zealand Qualifications Authority
PO Box 160
Wellington
Students can also apply for a reconsideration if they think their work has not been assessed correctly. This involves reassessing the work and checking processes around transferring results. There is a fee associated with this. For more information about reviews and reconsiderations, go to the NZQA web page.
Do students sit exams for NCEA?
Yes. Skills and knowledge that are best assessed by exams are still assessed with external exams run by NZQA. In contrast, internal assessment is used to assess performance-based work such as giving a speech, making a product, or laboratory and research work. A timetable for external exams is available from New Zealand Qualifications Authority's secondary school examinations timetable.
Is internal assessment for NCEA consistent across all schools?
Yes. There are processes in place to ensure schools assess at the same standard, across New Zealand.
For instance:
- Teachers have online access to samples of student work that meet the standards and assessment activities that they can use.
- Moderators check a sample of internally assessed work in every subject in every school.
- NZQA has a team of staff that monitors the schools and provides advice on internal assessment.
- The standards explaining what students have to do to earn credits are publicly available New Zealand Qualifications Authority, NCEA: Standards and assessment, see the NCEA page on New Zealand Qualifications Authority website.
What's the difference between achievement standards and unit standards?
A student can earn each of their three NCEA certificates by being assessed against any combination of achievement standards and unit standards.
Curriculum-based subjects like English, maths and French usually get achievement standards; whereas industry-based studies like horticulture, woodwork and technical drawing are generally rated with unit standards.
Achievement standards can be gained with one of three possible grades – achieved, merit, or excellence. Unit standards that are achieved have one possible grade – achieved. This is consistent with the approach taken by many industry training organisations.
How do I know my child is achieving at the right level?
Talk to your child's teachers. Have a look at the New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars on the Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) website.
What is school entry assessment?
Schools use a range of assessment. Some they develop themselves and sometimes there is a national tool. School entry assessment enables teachers of new entrants to gather information about their literacy and numeracy skills, as individuals and within groups, so that they can make informed decisions when planning the student's learning programme. Go to the Assessment section of this website.
What is the 6-year old net?
The 6-year old net is a literacy test carried out with each student when they turn six years old. It measures a student's knowledge and understanding of letter identification, how much they know about how books, text and pictures work, basic word recognition and how many words the students can write in 10 minutes dictation.
What are PATs?
PATs are Progressive Achievement Tests. Teachers use PATs to assess listening comprehension in years 3 to 9 and reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and maths in years 4 to 9.
Am I allowed to seek the results of these tests from schools?
You can ask your school to see your children's test results.
Annual NCEA results are published on the Internet. The results for schools are publicly posted at www.nzqa.govt.nz whereas individual students' results are confidential – students access their own results using a password and pin number.
What is Reading Recovery?
Reading Recovery provides a second chance to children with literacy learning difficulties. If a student's reading and writing has been slow to get underway in their first year of school, their teachers may identify the need for extra tuition and the student will get daily individual lessons for between 12 and 20 weeks. Speak to your child's teacher to see whether this system is used at your child's school.
Can a student repeat year 6 or year 8?
Yes they can, but research shows that in many cases there is little benefit in terms of achievement if this is done. Schools plan their curriculum delivery so that every student's needs are met across more than one level. It may better to stay with the support of their peers and have extra support than to be 'held back'.
How can I find out if my child is gifted?
There are many ways to assess giftedness. Go to the Gifted and Talented: Support for Parents and Whānau website on TKI.