Linden School Policies a nd P rocedures – N AG 2 a NATIONAL S TANDARDS The National Administration Guidelines for school administration set out statements of desirable principles of conduct or administration for specified personal or bodies. The NAGs are amended by the Board of Trustees as set out in the review cycle.
Updated 2015 1
Table of Contents NATIONAL STANDARDS POLICY (NAG 2A) ................................................................ 3 2a.1 Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJ).........................................................................5 2a.2 Moderation ............................................................................................................... 6
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NATIONAL STANDARDS POLICY (NAG 2A) POLICY Linden School Board of Trustees will take all practicable steps to ensure all its obligations under NAG 2A concerning National Standards are met. EXPLANATION The National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics provides the official policy about what students should know and be able to do in order to meet the demands of the New Zealand Curriculum at each year level. NAG 2A Where a school has students enrolled in years 1-8, the board of trustees, with the principal and teaching staff, is required to, in alignment with requirements set in NAG 1, use National Standards to: (a) report to students and their parents on the student’s progress and achievement in relation to National Standards. Reporting to parents in plain language in writing must be at least twice a year; (b) report to the Secretary of Education by 1 March school-level data on National Standards under four headings: a. school strengths and identified areas for improvement, b. the basis for identifying areas for improvement, c. planned actions for lifting achievement and d. how students are progressing in relation to National Standards. (c) report to the Secretary for Education by 1 March on: a. the numbers and proportions of students achieving at, above, below or well below the standards, including by Māori, Pasifika, European/Pākehā, Asian, gender and by year level. (d) report the NAG 2A (b) and NAG 2A (c) National Standards information in the format prescribed by the Secretary for Education from time to time. The school will prepare procedures that comply with this policy. These procedures enable the following guidelines are met: • Regular monitoring and moderation meetings will be held to provide/promote/develop consistency and understanding of the National Standards. • Teachers will make a strong Overall Teacher Judgement (OTJ) by using multiple samplings from multiple sources of information. 3
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Targets will be set using analysis of the assessment information. Close monitoring of progress to enhance experiences of success for all students.
We accept that not all children will reach age expected levels at the same time for a number of reasons as every child learns and develops at different rates and in different ways. REPORTING •
An annual report on student achievement as outlined in NAG 1.
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Report to the Ministry against National Standards.
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Written reporting to parents in plain language must be at least twice a year.
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Reporting will be done in such a way that it is honest but does not damage children’s selfesteem and willingness to learn.
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Teachers will report accurately to parents
CONCLUSION Assessment is an important part of the self-review process which will help identify student, teacher and school next steps. While the basics of Literacy and Mathematics are highly important our students will have a balanced curriculum and follow the direction of both the New Zealand Curriculum document and Linden School Curriculum document.
Date Effective: July 2015 Revision Date: Term 1, 2018
........................................ Chairperson, BOT
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2a.1 Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJ) At Linden School we believe that: “the primary purpose of assessment is to improve students’ learning and teachers’ teaching as both student and teacher respond to the information that it provides” (NZC, 2007 p.39). As part of the assessment process we support children to become self-regulatory learners. “The curriculum encourages all students to reflect on their own learning processes and to learn how to learn” (NZC, 2007 p. 9). An overall teacher judgment (OTJ) involves drawing on and applying the evidence gathered up to a particular point in time, in order to make an overall judgment about a student’s progress and achievement. Overall teacher judgments of achievement and progress involve combining information from a variety of sources, using a range of approaches. Evidence can be gathered in the following three ways: Observing the process a student uses to complete a learning task. Conversing with the student to find out what they know, understand and can do. Gathering results from formal assessments, including standardised tools. We can make an OTJ to monitor general and specific progress as well as making decisions on achievement in relation to the National Standards. At Linden School we gather information using the following: • • • • • • • • • • • •
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Literacy learning progressions asTTle writing Exemplar writing Modelling books Instructional group teaching ELLP Classroom observation, discussions, students books Student self-assessment PATs Jam/Gloss/Ikan Spelling lists Daniels and Diaks Running Records
Date Effective: July 2015 Revision Date: Term 1, 2018
The Healthy Assessment Pyramid is used to ensure teachers use “multiple samplings from multiple sources” (Flockton, 2009)
........................................ Chairperson, BoT
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2a.2 Moderation Moderation Overall teacher judgments (OTJs) involve many forms of assessment evidence. When teachers draw together evidence to form an overall teacher judgment there is a need to ensure consistency of those judgments between teachers. The moderation process begins with the planning of teaching, learning and assessment. Moderation involves a group of teachers discussing evidence of student learning. Assessments of the evidence are made using specific shared criteria. The criteria may be exemplified through annotated examples and other national resources (for example, the Running Record DVD/booklet, the Diagnostic Interview and Getting Started Numeracy Development Project Books and New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars). Moderation Process Prior to moderation: Teachers follow OTJ process to reach overall teacher judgements for a range of students in their classes. Teachers should not make these judgements for all students yet, as the moderation process may inform teachers’ decision making. As a school: •
Each teacher brings the range of evidence from one student. This could be for a student’s work which seems to clearly fit into a curriculum level, or work for which there is a level of uncertainty about the overall teacher judgement (e.g., should this student be ‘at’ standard for that year or ‘below’?)
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The evidence for that student is examined independently by each teacher in the team and an independent OTJ made (using the NZC, the NS and curriculum resources such as LLP/Numeracy progressions to guide their thinking).
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Having made independent OTJs for each student, the team then discusses or debates any discrepancies, and comes to an agreed OTJ for each student (using the evidence from the students and evidence of the standard from the NZC, the NS and curriculum resources such as LLP/Numeracy progressions). As in moderating assessments, teachers will need to come to OTJ moderation meetings with minds open to the possibility of adjusting their opinions and their way of making judgements in the future.
Process adapted from Ministry of Education. http://assessment.tki.org.nz
Date Effective: July 2015 Revision Date: Term 1, 2018
........................................ Chairperson, BoT
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