No NCEA problems – yeah right

The Herald on Sunday has a copy of the annual review of NCEA by the NZQA moderators. It’s a somewhat terrifying litany of problems:

* Te reo teachers were reminded they had to mark and tally student work before handing out a grade and they were also reminded that students should not be relying on cue cards in their spoken-language tests

* Physics and chemistry teachers used assessment tasks straight from the Ministry of Education’s website, which also provided model answers:

* In all levels of history some markers simply ignored the marking schedule and gave out grades that were not deserved.

* Many graphics teachers marked too generously and the review demanded “major changes” and graphics students at levels two and three were often drawing at a level one standard.

* Biology students had “a lack of basic knowledge” of DNA and genes; they were often allowed to work in groups when the test was meant to be individual.

* Students in calculus often did not know how to use their calculators and made a large number of basic errors.

* English students avoided Shakespeare and wrote best about films, some studied Shakespeare through films rather than plays, others regurgitated film guides in their answers.Some did not know what an adjective was.

* Science teachers gave too much direction to students during internal assessment, making many marks invalid.

* In virtually all subjects, many teachers gave students outdated tests for their internal work and others used marking schedules that only vaguely related to the tasks set.

And people wonder why so many students, parents and employers regard it as useless.