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National Standards

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The National party introduced a policy of National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics for primary-aged students when it became the government in 2008. Draft standards were released for consultation in May 2009 and the standards introduced at the beginning of the 2010 school year.

NZCER has been involved with the National Standards in a number of ways. For example, in November 2008, we wrote a position paper which set down the underlying principles we felt were important and outlined the international experience and the potential pitfalls of national standards.

Researchers acted as advisers to both the literacy and numeracy working groups developing the standards within the Ministry of Education; we were contracted by the Ministry to analyse the submissions on the draft standards; and we have been consulted on the script scrutiny exercise which aimed to align existing tests with the National Standards.

NZCER papers and material relevant to the National Standards are posted here.

Research projects for: National Standards

Project Project leader(s) Summary
Aligning PAT Maths to National Standards Charles Darr

This project involves a programme of work to investigate the links between performance levels on the PAT:Mathematics test and the performance required to meet the national standards. This involves running a standards setting exercise using a bookmarking methodology and a repeat of the script scrutiny methodology originally used by the Ministry to make these links.
Learning through moderation Rosemary Hipkins

This project aims to address broad questions about what happens as schools enact moderation and how moderation processes might be used to build teacher professional learning leading to changes in practice.

Research outputs for: National Standards

full-text
Moderation and Teacher Learning: What can research tell us about their interrelationships?
Rosemary Hipkins and Sally Robertson
2011
NZCER
Research report

This report investigates opportunities for professional learning when teachers work together to moderate their judgements of students’ work. It draws together key themes from previous research projects that have documented teacher interactions during moderation conversations. Teachers are required to report against National Standards and this is intended to be an effective lever to increase student achievement levels.

full-text
National Standards, moderation challenges and teacher learning
Rosemary Hipkins and Edith Hodgen
2011
NZCER
Research report

Moderation of student work can support teachers to reach a shared understanding of the meaning of a standard, and to more reliably judge a range of evidence in relation to that standard. In theory insights teachers gain via moderation activities could support changes in teaching, leading to improvements in outcomes for students.

full-text
Learning through moderation: Minding our language
Rosemary Hipkins
2010
NZCER Press
Journal article

Drawing on secondary teachers’ experience of standards-based assessment for NCEA, this short article discusses moderation challenges that will face primary teachers as they make overall professional judgments of each student's progress against the new National Standards. Moderation potentially offers rich professional learning possibilities—but only if teachers feel safe to learn, have the time needed, and are given access to robust examples to inform their debates.

not full-text
Reflections on being “labelled” by National Standards
Rosemary Hipkins
2010
NZCER Press
Journal article

"What are the conditions required for standards to not only be used to measure improvement but also to inform student learning and teaching for improvement purposes in the context of national curriculum and assessment reform?" (Klenowski & Wyatt Smith, 2010, p. 108)

Isn't this what you might call a "million dollar" question? Many New Zealand schools are currently facing this challenge and asking questions such as this with good reason.