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Literacy Assessment New Zealand Style University of Kentucky UKnowledge Educational, School, and Counseling Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications Psychology 10-2006 Literacy Assessment New Zealand Style Thomas R. Guskey University of Kentucky, [email protected] Jeffrey K. Smith University of Otago, New Zealand Lisa F. Smith Educational Assessment Research Unit, New Zealand Terry Crooks University of Otago, New Zealand Lester Flockton Educational Assessment Research Unit, New Zealand Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edp_facpub Part of the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Repository Citation Guskey, Thomas R.; Smith, Jeffrey K.; Smith, Lisa F.; Crooks, Terry; and Flockton, Lester, "Literacy Assessment New Zealand Style" (2006). Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications. 12. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edp_facpub/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Literacy Assessment New Zealand Style Notes/Citation Information Published in Educational Leadership, v. 64, issue 2, p. 74-79. © 2006 by ASCD Republished for research purposes only. No further duplication or transmission of this article is allowed without the written permission of ASCD. Please contact the Permissions Unit at [email protected]. This article is available at UKnowledge: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edp_facpub/12 Published in Educational Leadership, v. 64, issue 2, p. 74-79. © 2006 by ASCD Republished for research purposes only. No further duplication or transmission of this article is allowed without the written permission of ASCD. Please contact the Permissions Unit at [email protected]. Literacy Assessment Ws mostly performance based. It assesses students in teams as well as individually. Whats more, students like it. Thomas R. Guskey, Jeffrey K. Smith, Lisa F. Smith, Terry Crooks, and Lester Flockton magine students or Year 13, depending on striving to do well on the students postsecondary literacy assessments aspirations. Students because the tasks are leaving after Year 12 usually interesting and enter the workforce, engagingI , not because of the whereas those leaving after consequences that might Year 13 typically go on to follow poor performance. higher education. New Consider the advantages of Zealand schools have no having data that issue from equivalent for a U.S. High authentic literacy tasks, c school diploma or gradua- rather than from items that l tion certificate. High school require students to simply I students earn "qualifica- fill tn the hianks or read a t tions" and even scholarships passage and answer a few lor university study through related questions. Picture a I a system of assessments literacy assessment program ^ controlled hy the New driven by teachers' need for Zealand Qualifications formative information about student standing student achievement in Authority All New Zealand universities learning instead of by high-stakes language arts. have open admission policies and accountability demands. admit any student who has earned the U.S. educators, struggling under the Education in New Zealand: necessary qualifications. The country accountability requirements of No A Quick Overview has no private universities. Child Left Behind, might consider such New Zealand has roughly 4 million an assessment program the stuff of inhabitants, with a student population The National Educational education fantasies. But for New of approximately three quarters of a Monitoring Project Zealand educators, it is an integral part million- For most children, school Teachers in New Zealand schools have of a comprehensive assessment begins on the day that they turn 5, a variety of assessment resources avail- program designed to help teachers regardless of whether that takes place able to them, ranging from standard- enhance students' literacy skills. New in March or November. On that day, ized tests and national exemplars of Zealand assesses the learning progress the child joins an existing Year 1 class student work to the reports and of elementary and middle-level in the school of the parents' choice. The samples of assessment tasks offered by students through the National Educa- vasl majority of New Zealand children the National Educational Monitoring tional Monitoring Project, which offers attend the school nearest their home. Project (NEMP). NEMP is a national an innovative approach to under- Schooling t)-picaliy ends after Year 12 formative evaluation effort that 74 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/OCTOBER 2006 New Zealand Style provides New Zealand educators with randomly selected from each school number of tasks that the assessment an accurate picture of students' educa- (12 from Year 4 and 12 from Year 8), can include. The 2004 Reading and tion progress at Year 4 and Year 8, unless fewer tban 12 students are Speaking assessment included 52 tasks, which are roughly comparable to enrolled in either oi the two grades. In the 2002 Listening and Viewing assess- grades 3 and 7 in the United Slates. tbat event, the school is paired with a ment included 37 tasks, and tbe 2002 Each year, the project tests a random neighboring small school to get a group Wnting assessment included 36 tasks. sample of 1,440 Year 4 students and of 12. Although school and student Because students are di\'ided mto three 1,440 Year 8 students (Crooks &r participation in NEMP is voluntary, groups, each student is involved in Flockton, 2003; Elockton & Crooks, participation rates consistently exceed approximately one-third of the tasks in 2003a. 2003b). The sampling proceeds 95 percent. eacb topic area. in two stages. First, participating The selected 1,440 students at eacb Unlike the National Assessment of schools are randomly selected on a of the two grade levels are randomly Educational Progress (NAEP) or various stratified basis, witb the region of tbe assigned to one of three groups. Each statewide assessment programs in the country, the district withm the region, group of 480 students receives a sepa- United States, the NEMP assesses and the school size as the basis for rate set of tasks for the subject area nearly all areas of the New Zealand stratification. Second, 12 students are tested, thereby increasing the range and curriculum on a four-year, rotating ASSOCIATION FOR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT 75 cycle. Since its inception in 1995, NEMP has assessed the following: • In 2003. 1999, and 1995: science, visual arts, and information skills (working with graphs, tables, maps, charts, and diagrams). • In 2004, 2000, and 1996: language (reading and speaking), aspects of tech- nology, and music- • In 2005, 2001. and 1997: mathe- matics, social studies, and information skills (library research). • In 2006, 2002. and 1998: language (writing, listening, viewing) and health/physical education. The NEMP approach begins vAih a one-page assessment framework for each assessed area that describes the specific skills, knowledge, understand- ings, and attitudes of enduring impor- tance that the project will assess. For example, the central organizing theme New Zealand educators see literacy as of the 2004 Reading Framework was constructing meaning from a range of comprising skills in reading, speaking, texts for a variety of purposes: reading for enjoyment, reading to fallow instruc- writing, listening, viewing, and presenting. tions, reading to search for information, reading to assimilate knowledge, and tasks, which involve four different reading to analyze critically. aspect of the assessment framework; (2) presentation approaches: they are relevant to the student's world; The framework lists 15 characteris- • One-to-one interviews, in which (3) they are engaging to students; and tics of reading—such as "reading is students work individually with the (4) they generate enough useful infor- both a social and a personal activity" teacher and student responses are mation to merit the time spent on the and "reading in one language can recorded on videotape. task. enrich and support reading in another • Stations, where four students work New Zealand educators receive the language"—as well as 16 skills and independently rotating among a set of results for each task scored separately, processes that the assessment tasks, some of which are computer with a complete description of the task involves—such as "making use of based. provided. Reports include the total semantic, syntactic, and visual cues in • Teams, in which groups of four score for each task but do not provide text" and "making self-corrections." students work collaboratively on tasks an overall score for the assessed area, Three motivation items are also listed supervised by the teacher, with their which would encourage a simplistic that focus on enthusiasm, voluntary interactions videotaped. reading of the results rather than the engagement, and commitment. Each • Independent, in which students more in-depth reading required to go year, national panels of content area work individually, completing paper- through task results individually. experts, including practicing teachers and-pencil tasks, creating works of art, A novel aspect of the NEMP and curriculum specialists,
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