Alignment of Standards

As part of an ongoing programme to improve the NCEA, the Ministry of Education (MoE) and NZQA are carrying out a standards review. This will ensure that curriculum based standards are aligned to the New Zealand Curriculum, address issues of duplication, credit parity, consistency, fairness and coherence for all standards on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). 

At the PPTA conference in September former Prime Minister Rt. Hon Helen Clark announced that the standards aligned to the New Zealand Curriculum would be progressively rolled out from 2010. Level One standards will be introduced in 2010, Level Two in 2011 and Level Three in 2012.

The standards review is aimed at:

• improving programme and pathway coherence for learners
• improving the design of all standards
• better aligning standards with the New Zealand Curriculum
• building capability in effective assessment practice
• addressing issues of duplication, credit parity on the NQF.

For curriculum-based standards, the ministry and NZQA have asked subject associations to contribute to the review process. The associations are working to produce draft standards at level 1, 2 and 3, by mid 2009.

The decision to phase the roll out of the revised standards has been taken to allow good communication about their implementation. To ensure the standards are used effectively, the Ministry of Education is developing appropriate assessment resources and exemplar materials, which will be made available on-line to schools as they are produced.

There are four stages to the Review Process

Stage 1

Stage one of the review has been completed by an Expert Group appointed by the MoE and NZQA. This stage identified a set of principles that all standards must reflect. The principles addresses the broad issue of what constitutes a fit-for-purpose standard and will underpin future standards development and review across the entire NQF. Principals have been sent a copy of the principles and the relevant papers are available on the NZQA web site. 

Stage 2

The alignment of achievement and curriculum-related unit standards with the New Zealand Curriculum.

Stage two is now in progress in conjunction with subject associations.

Stage 3

Concurrent with stage 2, a review of unit standards not derived from the New Zealand Curriculum will take place.  The unified nature of the NQF means that achievement and curriculum-related unit standards cannot meaningfully be reviewed without consideration of the implications for the remaining standards on the NQF.   Industry Training Organisations will be encouraged to use their review cycles to apply the principles developed during Stage 1 to this work. NZQA and the MoE are currently working with the ITF to ensure that the “principles” developed as part of stage 1 of the review, can be applied to all unit standards.

Stage 4

This stage will consider the development of standards for any new and emerging studies that may be appropriate.  This stage will also provide the opportunity to review aspects of the NCEA such as core requirements. Stage 4 has yet to begin.