National Certificate Of Educational Achievement Research Articles

Changing Courses: A Study of the Responsiveness of Schools to the National Qualifications Framework

The purpose of this article is to present some findings from an investigation of the ways schools are adapting to the potential flexibility of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) for designing teaching and learning programmes or different pathways for students. Two studies were conducted. The preliminary investigation was based on information collected from 15 secondary schools about changes in course provision, courses students are taking, influences on course provision, and how students’ needs are being met. The second study was based on responses to an online survey about ways that schools are adapting their courses to provide different qualifications pathways for students. Overall, schools are working to create more flexible courses and a wider range of courses for students. Implications for further research are discussed.

Questions for a twenty-first century senior secondary curriculum

Abstract This article looks at the current organisation of senior secondary curriculum in New Zealand, and raises some key questions that will need to be considered as we seek to develop a senior secondary curriculum designed for life in the twenty-first century. It asks: Do our current structures, for senior secondary curriculum, support goals and aspirations that have been articulated for twenty-first century senior secondary education, and, if not, what might need to change? Introduction In 2005, the Ministry of Education commissioned a background paper to inform their thinking on future development in the area of the senior secondary (Years 11-13) curriculum (Bolstad, 2005). This followed nearly a decade and a half of significant national changes affecting curriculum, assessment, and qualifications in secondary schools. With the new assessment regime, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), fully implemented at Years 11, 12, and 13, and a first draft of the revised New Zealand Curriculum scheduled for circulation in 2006, it was a timely opportunity to step back and reflect on the current organisation and purpose of senior secondary curriculum in New Zealand. Most often, the senior secondary curriculum in New Zealand is thought about and discussed in terms of its constituent parts, i.e., as the individual and collective subjects that are taught in Years 11-13. As I will discuss in this article, two inter-related factors have contributed to, and perpetuated, this view of the senior secondary curriculum: the historical (and ongoing) need for the senior secondary years to prepare students for entrance into tertiary education; and the close coupling of the senior secondary curriculum with the structures and systems used to assess and qualify students. The difficulty with the subject-oriented view is that it may preclude broader questions about the overall shape and scope of learning in the senior secondary years. For example, what should students learn in their final few years of school? What kind of learning will school leavers need to equip them for life in the twenty-first century? What kind of people do we need, to build and support a twenty-first century society and economy? Do our current structures for senior secondary curriculum support our goals and aspirations for the future, and, if not, what might need to change? These are the sorts of questions that must be addressed by educators and curriculum policy makers alike. For the most part, the policy drivers shaping the senior secondary curriculum in New Zealand since the early 1990s centred on the development of new assessment and qualification frameworks. The senior secondary curriculum itself was not the main focus of review and attention, and there have been few opportunities to debate questions such as those raised above. With the long-awaited changeover to the NCEA, there has been a partial decoupling of the relationship between senior secondary assessment qualifications structures, and the senior secondary curriculum. Social and economic forces' have also changed the entire landscape of senior secondary education, leading to higher retention rates, and the need for much more flexible pathways through the senior secondary years. This article explores challenges to the existing senior secondary curriculum, as a consequence of these changes. While some see these as negative challenges, this article suggests that the changes have potentially opened up new opportunities to discuss, debate, and renegotiate, at a national level, the shape and scope of the senior secondary curriculum for young New Zealanders of the future. How was the senior secondary curriculum organised in the past? In order to understand how New Zealand's senior secondary curriculum works today, it is important to know how it worked in the past. Traditionally, one of the main purposes of senior secondary education was to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and entrance qualifications they would need to enter tertiary education. …

Drawing on Discourses: Policy Actors in the Debates over the National Certificate of Educational Achievement 1996-2000

This article summarises a doctoral research project based on a theory of discourses used to throw light on a complex period of New Zealand educational history (1996-2000) when the adoption of policy for the National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) was undergoing vigorous discussion. Many layers of debate accumulated from the interaction of various sector groups, government agencies and policy actors, often invoking a very vocal media response. The approach taken was to analyse interviews with key policy actors by applying a theory of qualifications and assessment discourses to identify the ideological underpinnings of the debates over the introduction of a standards-based assessment system.

Change and constancy: half a century of secondary schooling in New Zealand

This article examines how the three ‘mythic’ elements (public aspiration, flexible language and practical guidance) of these Labour government education policy texts were operationalised in the forms and structures of secondary schooling from 1939. The period of analysis is from the early 1940s to the mid 1990s. The decade since 1994 has seen the trial of various forms of standards based assessment (i.e. unit standards and achievement standards) in the senior secondary school. Moreover, from 2002, a timetable has existed for the replacement of the three terminal national examinations that prevailed for most of the second half of the twentieth century, with the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

Lessons from New Zealand's National Qualifications Framework

This article describes the development and implementation of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in New Zealand, regarded as the most comprehensive standards--based qualifications system in the world. The origins of the NQF, and the advantages that a unitary framework was seen to have for the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) as a new government-funded agency responsible for implementing qualifications reform in a market-driven environment, are explored. Key concepts borrowed from SCOTVEC and NCVQ were instrumental in the NQF's development. However, following opposition to the unitary framework by some schools and universities, and national consultation, the NQF was broadened. The development of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, a school-based qualification based on 'achievement standards'--an adaptation of the 'unit standard'--is used to exemplify the broadened framework. The conclusion focuses on some of the enduring issues associated with New Zealand's qualifications reforms.

The Qualifications Framework in New Zealand: reproducing existing inequalitiesor disrupting the positional conflict forcredentials

This article draws on neo-Weberian 'Positional Conflict Theory' to theorisethe recent introduction in New Zealand of a National Certificate of Educational Achievement(NCEA) as an attempt by the Labour-led coalition to change the way the competitionfor positional advantage is organised. It is argued that the NCEA is unlikely to significantlyalter the nature of positional competition. The NCEA is part of a Qualifications Frameworkchat seeks to provide ladders of opportunity for working-class students. The impact ofthe NCEA on positional competition is discussed in relation to the proposed MatriculationDiploma in the United Kingdom. The position of those who have traditionally fared poorlyin formal examinations is analysed through their involvement in a market-led trainingsystem developed by the State to replace traditional working class networks for gaining jobs.This system clearly works for some students but the question remains as to whether this isa selection mechanism for low-skill jobs rather than advantaging all young, working-classpeople.

Assessment in Change: Some Reflections on the Local and International Background to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)

This paper backgrounds a number of factors that have influenced proposed changes in New Zealand’s senior secondary assessment system. It documents various moves which have been made over the last 30 years, refers to international practices, reviews and developments, and notes the ongoing reluctance to shift from traditional systems in this country. Research about assessment, changing educational needs, and growing recognition of the pervasive influence of high stakes assessment and the opportunities offered by assessment aligned to learning, are seen as further influencing factors. The article emphasises the need for change, contrasts New Zealand and overseas practice, and observes that while the current NCEA design is an improvement over the old, compromises have led to a model with some deficiencies.

The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA): “Fragile – Handle With Care”

In April 2000, soon after taking office, the Labour-Alliance coalition government announced the establishment of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission (TEAC) with a brief to develop a strategic direction for tertiary education. After a decade of neoliberal policies of decentralisation and marketisation, this heralded a new policy direction that has been described as New Zealand’s version of the Third Way. The new direction was to take account of economic globalisation, technological change and the need for New Zealand to become a knowledge-based society. To this end, the TEAC produced four reports before completing its work at the end of 2001. This article reviews and critiques those reports and concludes that the TEAC’s proposals could produce a highly centralised and regulated system with the potential to destroy the independent role of the universities within a democratic society.

National Certificate of Educational Achievement: Issues of Reliability, Validity and Manageability

This paper examines the implications of the NCEA approach to standards-based assessment, in particular the reliability of assessment against separate achievement standards, and the pedagogical implications of the policy of non-aggregation. The paper argues that assessment against separate standards is unlikely to yield sufficiently reliable results to satisfy public credibility, and that the same focus is likely to foster a “bricks without mortar” approach to course design, delivery and assessment. The paper also argues that the NCEA involves manageability issues similar to that of unit standards. The recommendation is made that the designers of the NCEA rethink the basis by which internal and external assessments could be blended within a standards-based system so that the strengths of each approach to assessment are emphasised.