Deputy principals concerned over new SMART tool, union says
The SMART tool is modelled on Australian schools and creates additional work for New Zealand's teachers, deputy principals tell union
The Post Primary Teachers’ Association Te Wehengarua (PPTA) says that the initial response from secondary teachers to the new Student, Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting Tool (SMART) indicates there are a range of issues that need to be resolved.
Deputy principals of Years 7 to 10 students from around the motu took part in a survey and interviews about the tool with PPTA last week.
Read the latest print edition of School News online HERE.
Deputy and Assistant principals are largely responsible for the implementation and monitoring of assessment systems in secondary schools. The first testing period for the SMART tool ended last Friday.
“It raises serious concerns about the quality of assessment and whether students and the public are getting a fair deal.”
Teachers say the process demands substantial additional resourcing, including extra teaching sessions, administrative time, professional learning, and staff backfilling to supervise assessments, with setup, logins, and multiple test sittings adding further burden.
Related School News article: Educators’ collective shares concerns over uptake of new SMART Tool
“It is simply not going to work in its current form.”
“When the Minister of Education announced the tool, she claimed that it would reduce teachers’ workloads. However, the amount of reviewing that is required to ensure fairness and that students have been assessed accurately, probably adds to teachers’ workloads overall.
“SMART is a multimillion-dollar investment by the Minister for Education – who was warned by Treasury not to try and bring it in, in 2026 but went ahead anyway.
“Teacher feedback is that the tool was certainly not ready for implementation this year and that they would be unlikely to be using the data from it to report to parents.
