SCHOOL ENTRY ASSESSMENT TASKS: Why do teachers use them – or not?

In 1997 the Ministry of Education launched the School Entry Assessment (SEA) kit, a non-mandatory set of standardised assessment tasks for new entrants. Teachers at 75 Auckland primary schools were asked about which SEA tasks they were using, and why – or why not. Teachers’ judgments about SEA were influenced by each school’s approach to the delivery of the curriculum, and by the nature of the school’s population. Only one of the tasks seems likely to have a secure mid- to long-term future.