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NZCER Assessment

NZCER National Survey of schools - 30 years on

NZCER National Survey of schools - 30 years on

Dr. Linda Bonne reflects on 30 years of the NZCER National Survey of schools, as the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce’s review report is soon to be released.

Dr. Linda Bonne reflects on 30 years of the NZCER National Survey of schools, as the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce’s review report is soon to be released.

A big thank you to everyone who completed a National Survey this year. We really appreciate the time principals, teachers, trustees, and parents spend responding to the surveys to share their views.

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PATs - doing what you've always done in term four?

Blog post: testing questions for term four

Cathie Johnson's blog posts poses some questions about testing in term four.

At this time of year I’m remembering the questions we used to have in our school about the PATs - ‘Term 4 is coming up  - what week shall we do the PATs  in?’  ‘Have we got enough Test 3s for the Year 5s?’  ‘When’s the BOT report due - we need to have it sorted by then?’.  You know those conversations I’m sure.

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School-wide inquiry: how can leaders decide on a focus?

Education adviser Cathie Johnson reflects on how leaders can best use the focus of school-wide inquiry.

Focussed school-wide inquiry is a powerful way for school leaders to engage staff and make a difference for students’ learning outcomes.

 

By Cathie Johnson

Focussed school-wide inquiry is a powerful way for school leaders to engage staff and make a difference for students’ learning outcomes.

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PATs - doing what you've always done in term four?

Blog post: testing questions for term four

This blog posts poses some questions about testing in term four.

At this time of year I’m remembering the questions we used to have in our school about the PATs - ‘Term 4 is coming up  - what week shall we do the PATs  in?’  ‘Have we got enough Test 3s for the Year 5s?’  ‘When’s the BOT report due - we need to have it sorted by then?’.  You know those conversations I’m sure.

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What improves learning?

How can subject data be used to develop new pedagogies to improve learning?

This blog post from our education adviser explores gathering data for teacher inquiry to improve learning.

Improving learning means improving teaching - how can you use the data you gather for a teaching inquiry to improve teaching?  After all, even though you may have a lot of teaching going on in your school, education is about learning and if there is no learning going on then there is no education.

Over the past two months I’ve begun my workshops with schools by asking three questions.

1:  What improves learning?

Everyone has a different list - principals, AP/DPs, teachers.

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Using data as the basis for your focused inquiry

Using data as the basis for your focused inquiry

What  tools should you use to collect the data that is relevant to the problem?

As Term 3 starts, you are probably getting ready to start gathering student achievement data. Not only will you want to use this data to measure the impact of the changes to teaching and learning you’ve made this year, but you may also want it to become the basis for your next focused inquiry.  

The big question is: what  tools should you use to collect the data that is relevant to the problem?

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New, improved ways to use the PATs

New, improved ways to use the PATs

This blog posting analyses an individual student report to discuss how to choose the right PAT for your students.

When I was a principal I confess we only ever assessed using the recommended test for each year group and we measured progress by the stanine. We had no idea the tests were designed to give teachers rich, descriptive information about the level of the curriculum each student is working in, and, what their next steps should be. The other thing we didn’t know was that the main consideration when selecting a test is to ensure the level of difficulty is appropriate to the students concerned.  What?    You can choose?   Yes you can!

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Education adviser on ways to use STAR

Education adviser on ways to use STAR

NZCER's Education adviser Cathie Johnson has been working with schools on ways to use the STAR test.

I was working with a school recently and left them feeling good about using STAR because they had found out about a whole lot of new ways to use the data. As one teacher said, ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’.  They suggested I get this information out there, so here goes.

Question #1: Did you know you can choose any test for any child?

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More about scale scores

More about scale scores

The PAT scale score is very useful when describing achievement and progress. This blog posting shows how.

The PAT scale score is very useful when describing achievement and progress.

The same scale applies across all of the PAT tests in a given subject. This means that you use the PAT scale score to track student progress through the years. The PAT scale score can also be used to compare the progress of your students with the average progress of their year group.   It sits right next to the raw score on the Score Conversion Table in the Manual when you do your marking.

How can you use  the PAT scale score to describe progress?

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Real progress from the PATS

Blog post: using scale scores

This blog posting looks at how to use scale scores to chart progress in PATs.

You’ve tested with the PATs. You have the results.  Exactly how much progress have your students made over the year and is this average, below average or accelerated for their year group?

Some questions for you:

- how well have they done since the last assessment?

- is their progress average, below average, or accelerated?

If you use the Stanine to show progress, you may find they’ve gone from Stanine 5 to Stanine 5. You know they’ve made average progress for the year but you want to know how much.  It’s time to look at the scale score.

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