6 Operation and Implementation

The key problem to be dealt with in teacher assessments is uneven quality of validity and reliability. While public debate tends to focus on issues of reliability, evaluation studies have questioned the validity of teachers' assessments. As the areas for teacher assessment call for holistic and complex judgements, some of the most complex expertise is called for in areas where teachers' experience is most weak.

With respect to teacher experience, the large numbers of teachers employed as markers in New Zealand for both School Certificate and Bursary may mean that there is a wider spread of experience than Professor Black imagines. Whether or not this is the case, it reinforces the need for the provision of appropriate support for the NCEA in introduction, through professional development and the provision of exemplars of assessment tasks together with richly annotated exemplars of student work. The response suggested by Professor Black - of regular use of moderation of teachers' assessments by meetings of local groups, is indeed being carried out in the current professional development programme, which began in 2000 and is to continue to at least 2003.