NCEA shake-up: Mixed feelings over external assessments

<h2>Changes to exams aimed at reducing workload for teachers and over-assessment of students have received mixed reactions from school principals&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The government&&num;8217&semi;s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;news&sol;national&sol;389070&sol;ncea-overhaul-fees-scrapped-literacy-and-numeracy-benchmarks-brought-in" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">new structure<&sol;a> for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement &lpar;NCEA&rpar; will increase the proportion of externally assessed learning units from 30 per cent to 50 per cent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The government says the changes will reduce pressure on students and teachers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The new system reduces the number of learning units available to around 20 credits in four &&num;8220&semi;chunks&&num;8221&semi; per subject&comma; or a maximum of 100 or 120 credits for five or six subjects&comma; at each level&period; It also &&num;8220&semi;rebalances&&num;8221&semi; the number of credits available for internally and externally-assessed achievement standards to a 50&colon;50 split&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The proportion of internally-assessed credits had increased to 70 per cent over the past 17 years&period; The move will will increase external assessments such as exams&comma; while lowering the need for internal assessment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mangere College principal Tom Webb told <i>Morning Report <&sol;i>the shift was welcome&comma; as it reduced unnecessary overload&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We think overall&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re really positive changes&period; Reducing the over-assessment of students and workload for teachers is really important&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;rnz&period;co&period;nz&sol;national&sol;programmes&sol;morningreport&sol;audio&sol;2018694938&sol;ncea-shake-up-mixed-feelings-over-external-assessments" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">&&num;8220&semi;I actually think we are losing the opportunity for more creative&comma; integrated courses&period;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8211&semi; principal of Albany Senior High School&comma; Claire Amos duration 4&colon;55 <&sol;a><br &sol;>&NewLine;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;rnz&period;co&period;nz&sol;national&sol;programmes&sol;morningreport" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">from Morning Report<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><center><audio controls&equals;"controls" data-mce-fragment&equals;"1"><&sol;audio><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"article-left-box-wrapper"> <&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Click a link to play audio &lpar;or right-click to download&rpar; in either<br &sol;>&NewLine;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;scoop&period;co&period;nz&sol;media&sol;audio&sol;1905&sol;mnr&lowbar;20190514&lowbar;0754&lowbar;ncea&lowbar;changes&lowbar;principals&lowbar;discuss&lowbar;impacts&lowbar;128&period;mp3" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">MP3 format<&sol;a> or in <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;scoop&period;co&period;nz&sol;media&sol;audio&sol;1905&sol;mnr&lowbar;20190514&lowbar;0754&lowbar;ncea&lowbar;changes&lowbar;principals&lowbar;discuss&lowbar;impacts&lowbar;128&period;ogg" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">OGG format<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&sol;center><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos said the potential for reducing over-assessment and workloads was being over-estimated and that the move reduced options for students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I actually think we are losing the opportunity for more creative&comma; integrated courses&comma; which meant that we were assessing students in more meaningful and contextualised ways&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she told <i>Morning Report<&sol;i>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;As much as it sounds like a simple solution to push half of the assessments to external to deal with teacher workloads&comma; I think we&&num;8217&semi;ve got to be mindful of the fact that teachers do a whole lot of work to prepare those young people for external assessment&&num;8230&semi; So I don&&num;8217&semi;t think it&&num;8217&semi;s as simple as it looks&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Webb said external assessment didn&&num;8217&semi;t have to be through examinations and could take the form of student portfolios&comma; as was already the case within the subject of art&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms Amos said there was also a danger teachers could end up marking external examination papers and portfolios when they had free time to do so&period; Regarding the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;radionz&period;co&period;nz&sol;news&sol;national&sol;388022&sol;ncea-pass-rates-fall-for-year-11-12-maori-and-pasifika" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">underachievement of Maori and Pasifika students<&sol;a>&comma; she said the plans wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t address the issue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The plan also includes NCEA fees being scrapped&comma; and a renewed emphasis on literacy and numeracy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;