Provisions made for evaluation
As part of the MoE’s implementation of NS a framework has been devised for ‘generating good information about the implementation and outcomes of National Standards’ (See figure 4) This includes:
- Education Review Office reports in 2010, 2011, and 2012
- a monitoring and evaluation project with a sample of schools (school sample project) – The National Standards: School Sample Monitoring and Evaluation Project 2009 – 2013
- surveys and probe studies involving schools in the above sample to collect more in-depth or targeted information, guided by findings from the school sample project and including a more detailed study looking at changes in professional practice
- periodic surveys of, for example, parents, Boards of Trustees, and professional development providers
- national monitoring studies such as the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP), and information from international studies such as Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study(TIMMS).[1]
The only new development under this evaluative framework is the introduction of The National Standards: School Sample Monitoring and Evaluation Project 2009 – 2013. This project released its first report in October 2010 from a sample of 82 principals in August 2010. Principals were chosen from a demographic of schools proportionately similar to the national distribution of schools based on decile, region and school type (age levels of students in school). Some of the results of this first report do not bode well for the ongoing implementation of NS.
The report finds that there is generally a good understanding of the purposes of NS i.e. lifting achievement, being clear about what students need to achieve and providing shared expectations for student progress, also most principals thought NS would be useful for reporting information to families (64%). Simultaneously, the report finds that there is less understanding about the purpose of overall teacher judgments and how to effectively make and moderate the summative assessment judgments required by NS.[2] Also, principals in the sample continued to be concerned about the unintended consequences of NS (discussed in section Challenges to implementation 3.5) and almost half did not feel well supported in their role to lead the implementation of NS (48%).
[1] The New Zealand Curriculum Online. ‘Fact sheet 16: Overview of monitoring and evaluation framework’ http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards/Key-information/Fact-sheets/Monitoring
[2] Maths Technology Ltd, ‘National Standards: School Sample Monitoring & Evaluation Project- Mid Year Report Survey of Principals and Analysis of Report Formats’ Ministry of Education: Wellington (October 2010): 21
[3] The New Zealand Curriculum Online. ‘Fact sheet 16: Overview of monitoring and evaluation framework’ http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards/Key-information/Fact-sheets/Monitoring