Literacy tests flatter students

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-529" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;03&sol;Literacy&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Literacy" width&equals;"200" height&equals;"150" &sol;>The Ministry of Education is reviewing a key test for primary and intermediate school pupils because of concerns it is producing unusually high results and misrepresents students&&num;8217&semi; true abilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A Listener investigation has found that reading and writing tests used by 1&comma;200 schools and about 80&comma;000 students had created confusion because students appeared to be achieving at far higher levels than expected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The e-asTTle writing test and the STAR reading test helped teachers identify students&&num;8217&semi; strengths and weaknesses and were used to decide their National Standards ranking&period; New versions of the tests were rolled out in the second half of last year and the discrepancies had occurred since this change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A Ministry of Education spokesman said the writing test had been revised to make sure it was aligned with the curriculum&period; He said feedback from its users had indicated that the marks had been &&num;8220&semi;mostly in keeping with the national norm&period; The ministry is considering what&comma; if any further&comma; action needs to be taken to respond to the results of the review&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Listener reported that some principals were concerned that less scrupulous schools might not question the higher results or even understand that the results had changed&period; This could boost their National Standards results and their standing in publicly available league tables&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The writing test was run by the ministry&comma; and the reading test was developed and run by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research&period; Its general manager products and services Graeme Cosslett said his organisation stood by its revamped test&period; It had been trialled on 16&comma;000 students in pilot programmes and national trials over two years&period; However&comma; he acknowledged that NZCER could have improved its communication with schools over the reading test&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;