National Standards have been developed for all students. For children who have special education needs, as with all students, showing progress in relation to the standards will be as much a focus as showing achievement.
IEPs will continue to be the basis for planning learning programmes for most students with special education needs.
Those who know the student best, including parents, family and whānau, will continue to work together to support students through an individual education programme (IEP) process. Including goals relating to the National Standards will become part of the IEP process.
A very small group of students have very significant learning disabilities and are likely to learn within level one of The New Zealand Curriculum for most of their years at school. The IEP process helps teachers and parents to assess the fine-grained progress of students with the highest learning disabilities against the National Standards. For this group of students, teachers may choose to use assessment approaches that better help them to identify, broaden and deepen their understanding of what the students can do as the basis for developing the student’s teaching and learning programmes.
Teachers will continue to use a range of valid assessment and individualised education programme (IEP) approaches to ensure they are supporting all students to learn within The New Zealand Curriculum. Narrative assessment is one such approach. A recent project Assessment for Learners with Special Education Needs, has developed Narrative assessment: A guide for teachers and an accompanying series of Curriculum Exemplars for Learners with Special Education Needs. These resources can be used by teachers to focus on what students’ learning looks like when opportunities are maximised, and possible learning pathways within The New Zealand Curriculum. These materials are available on the dedicated website – www.throughdifferenteyes.org.nz.
Boards will report school-level progress and achievement for all students in relation to the National Standards, including students who have special education needs.
However, boards can report the progress and achievement of students with very significant learning disabilities separately. The small number of students who have very significant learning disabilities and are funded through the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) or receiving Supplementary Learning Support (SLS) and are likely to learn long term within level one of The New Zealand Curriculum can be reported separately in the board's report of school-level data. For this group of students, progress will be assessed against the standards as part of their Individual Education Programme (IEP) processes and boards of trustees will report on these students’ progress separately in their charters and annual reports.
Published on: 10 Nov 2009
