Using a range of information | Confirming dependability | Student participation | Above, at, below, or well below?
An overall teacher judgment 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.
No single source of information can accurately summarise a student’s achievement or progress. A range of approaches is necessary in order to compile a comprehensive picture of the areas of progress, areas requiring attention, and what a student’s unique progress looks like. Using a range of approaches also allows the student to participate throughout the assessment process, building their assessment capability. Because of this, to assess a student in relation to National Standards, teachers need to bring together a range of evidence in order to form an overall teacher judgment.
Validity: the appropriateness of the inferences, uses, and consequences that come from assessment.
Reliability: The extent to which an assessment is consistent in measuring what it sets out to measure.
Dependability: A dependable assessment has both high validity and reliability.
Overall teacher judgments of achievement and progress involve combining information from a variety of sources, using a range of approaches. Evidence may be gathered through the following three ways:
This 'triangulation' of information increases the dependability of the overall teacher judgment. See diagram 1 for more detail:
Any point of the triangle provides an approach to gathering evidence of learning. The triangulation of a range of evidence accumulated over the year builds dependability in progress and achievement decisions. An overall teacher judgment can be made when the teacher reviews all of the evidence in relation to a National Standard, rather than simply summarising the information.
When using assessment tools teachers should understand:
Confirming the dependability of evidence from all sources is fundamental to reaching a valid and defensible overall teacher judgment.
Students' performances will vary from day to day depending on:
When teachers experience some degree of inconsistency with assessment information, they should inquire into this further. If the inconsistency cannot be explained by normal variation in students’ performance, then there may be a need to collect further information in order to reach robust judgments.
Moderation can help to improve the dependability of an overall teacher judgment as well as the evidence that informs and supports it. Teachers should moderate both their assessments and their overall judgments in relation to National Standards. This process is discussed in more detail in the Moderation section .
Students should actively participate throughout the assessment process and in determining their overall teacher judgment. They may be encouraged to comment on or even question the overall teacher judgment if they believe evidence of their learning supports a different judgment.
This is a vitally important characteristic of effective assessment for learning . It benefits the student’s assessment capability by clarifying what they know, understand, and can do, and what they need to learn next. All students can participate in the assessment process to some degree. As their assessment capability grows and develops, they can become more and more actively involved.
By including the student in the judgment-making process, they will also feel confident in talking about their achievement and progress with their parents, family, whānau, and communities.
In each National Standard in reading, writing, and mathematics there is a description identifying the complexity and challenge of the learning required to meet the demands of The New Zealand Curriculum at that point in schooling. In making overall teacher judgments in relation to the National Standards the teacher will consider the evidence from multiple sources to determine which standard describes the best fit for that student’s achievement.
If the balance of evidence shows the student’s achievement is:
Overall teacher judgments in relation to National Standards can help teachers to identify students who are ‘at risk’. Students may be identified as being at risk if they are achieving 'well below' a standard or are improving at considerably less than the expected rate of progress. Students who are identified as at risk may need additional support beyond a classroom programme.
English language learners (ELL) progress and achievement will be reported in relation to the National Standards. It is recommended that schools also assess and report the progress and achievement of English language learners in relation to the English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP), as the Progressions provide a guide to typical language learning pathways for students learning English as an additional language.
A very small number of students have very significant learning disabilities. This group of students is likely to (or expected to) learn long-term within Level 1 of the New Zealand Curriculum and will be receiving support through the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) or accessing Supplementary Learning Support (SLS) support. The progress these children make will be assessed in relation to the standards as part of the regular review of their learning that takes place through their Individual Education Programmes (IEPs) and processes, which are agreed in consultation with parents, families, whānau, and communities, teachers and the Ministry.
Updated on: 07 Sep 2011
