Pilot tests get bad reaction

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School principals have warned new literacy and numeracy standards could ‘‘provoke a crisis’’ and ‘‘undermine the credibility’’ of the NCEA assessment system.

The pilot of the new standards took place in 200 schools earlier in the year, with one-third of students passing the writing assessment. By contrast 64% passed in reading and half of students passed in numeracy.

The updated, more difficult standards were a response to low literacy levels among school children.

During the pilot, principals spoke out about their concerns the tests would leave behind Māori and Pasifika students, worsening ‘‘institutional racism’’ in the education sector. Months on, correspondence has been released under the Official Information Act showing the extent of the concerns.

Leanne Webb, principal of Aorere College in Manukau, wrote to Education Minister Chris Hipkins expressing her ‘‘grave concerns’’ about the pilot and the lower levels of achievement from Māori and Pasifika students at the school.

‘‘If a literacy and numeracy qualification is introduced in this form in 2024 it will provoke a crisis of real magnitude in education and undermine the credibility and purpose of the NCEA assessment system,’’ she wrote. A plan was needed to ‘‘get us out of our moribund achievement’’ – but it could not begin with a test in high school. It needed to start at primary school and flow through, she said. ‘‘Merely introducing an aspirational test will not turn around achievement, it will merely increase collateral damage.’’

Nic Richards, principal of Naenae College in Lower Hutt, wrote that his staff were ‘‘highly concerned’’ the literacy and numeracy standards would ‘‘exacerbate institutional racism in the education sector’’.

The tests ‘‘potentially exclude our most vulnerable students from equitable access to educational credentials’’, he said.

The co-requisites meant students would not achieve certification at NCEA level 1, 2, 3 despite performing well in other subject areas. ‘‘You are effectively saying here is a hurdle you have got to get over. If you can’t get over it, you are never going to have a school-leaver qualification.’’ It was especially ‘‘unfair’’ to change the goal posts so ‘‘substantially’’ for the current cohort of students coming.

Richards said it ignored the ‘‘significant disruption’’ of the past three years and felt like the wrong time, especially with the data showing the new standards were ‘‘not fit for purpose’’. As an ex-English teacher, Richards supported improving literacy, however, this could not be achieved overnight. Reading intervention required ‘‘diligent effort over time’’, he said. If it was going ahead, it had to be at the appropriate level and had to involve appropriate sector support. Community and inhome support was also required to avoid further inequities, especially in low socio-economic communities, or where there were large numbers of migrant families or where English was a second language.

Rebecca West, at Tararua College in Pahıātua, said the trial ‘‘has shown a real lack of understanding not only of our education system but also the realities of where our students are at’’.

The mana of students was not being respected because ‘‘they are ill prepared, they do not receive feedback to improve, and the assessment schedule has them completing one assessment across the curriculum a week’’, she wrote. The school was also concerned that with the number of assessments scheduled, teachers would be spending more time supervising assessments than actually teaching students.

At Dilworth School, head of English Kary Boudreau wrote that the school had decided not to do the second round of trial assessments.

The students did not receive feedback and were simply given a result of achieved or not achieved.

‘‘Even if we did know why [they did not achieve], three weeks is not enough time to raise student confidence levels to a point where they would be able to attack this test again,’’ Boudreau wrote.

‘‘An aspirational test will merely increase collateral damage.’’ Leanne Webb Aorere College in Manukau