Towards Defining, Assessing and Reporting Against National Standards for Literacy and Numeracy in New Zealand

摘要

The Education (National Standards) Amendment Act 2008 sets in place thegovernment’s ten-step Crusade for Literacy and Numeracy (Hon. John Key, 13October, 2008). As part of that Crusade: (i) national standards will be set in literacyand numeracy; (ii) every primary and intermediate student will be assessed regularlyagainst the national standards; and (iii) every primary and intermediate school willreport to parents in plain English about how their child is doing compared to nationalstandards and compared to other children their age. Where it is indicated, targetedfunding will be provided to enable schools to give assistance to the students who donot meet national standards.This paper discusses these elements of the Amendment Act, (referred to as ‘nationalstandards’ in this paper for simplicity), proposes a number of principles that shouldunderlie the design of an assessment, analysis and reporting system based on them;and makes several suggestions for supporting their development and successfulimplementation.