Jury out on NCEA overhaul as principals await detail

Principals are seeking assurances a system proposed to replace the NCEA high school assessment framework won’t disadvantage vocational students, or leave teachers further overburdened.

The Government wants to remove NCEA Level 1, with all Year 11 students required to take English and Mathematics, alongside a foundation test in literacy and numeracy. In Year 12 and Year 13, NCEA would be replaced with two new qualifications - the New Zealand Certificate of Education and the New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said NCEA flexibility had gone too far, with students able to get credits for things like filling out a form, and the changes would ensure more comprehensive knowledge in subject.

Principals spoken to by the Nelson Mail said they had expected level 1 changes, with well-publicised problems, including over assessment. But they were surprised by the proposed change from standards-based assessment for years 12 and 13 to percentage-based assessment (marks out of 100 alongside letter grades A-E).

Motueka High School principal John Prestidge said a lot more detail was needed before he could work out if the system would likely improve outcomes for students, especially those not going to university. mSome students left part-way through year 12 to take up a job once they had enough credits for level 2 NCEA, and if they were required to stay the full year under the new system, it risked more students leaving without a school certificate, he said.

He hoped schools would still have the flexibility to “craft pathways and subjects” that suited the needs of their students and communities.

The government proposed new subjects and standards be co-designed with industry experts to strengthen vocational pathways in areas like construction, automotive, and hospitality.

“We really are interested in seeing ... who's going to be delivering those, whether they're going to be in the form of apprenticeships and cadetships and workplace-based learning, or whether it's going to be something the schools pick up,” Prestidge said.

Changing to a straight number score risked not showing employers which particular skills within a subject a student had, Prestidge said.

Nayland College principal Daniel Wilson was also surprised by the switch to “traditional” assessment, and agreed more details were needed about how trade-focused subjects would fit into the proposed framework.

His biggest concern was the “huge workload” the change would mean for teachers.

Garin College principal John Maguire said there was a lack of detail on the proposal, which brought further uncertainty for students and teachers

“They have just been through curriculum change, they have been through NCEA assessment change - and we’re still in the middle of that, now we’ve got on the horizon a whole new change again.

“The changes ... will require significant professional development and growth for our teachers.

“How is that going to be resourced and funded over the years to come?”

Golden Bay principal Jono Hay said there was a “reasonable level of support for the concept behind the changes” with systemic problems in NCEA including credit harvesting rather than focusing on learning.

The risk was that the changes wouldn’t be well-funded, and done too quickly without being carefully thought through - as experienced recently and historically, he said.

“With the curriculum refresh, documents that are pretty important are being dropped at the very last minute before they are expected to be implemented, with very, very little time or support for teachers to get their heads around them.”

Only about 30% of students across the country went on to university study, and he was interested to see the detail around how the new system would support preparation for vocational education, and what it meant for courses within schools, he said.

“It's all well and good to be able to pop down the road to a polytech if you're in the middle of a large town or city. It's a lot more challenging when you're a couple of hours away.”