National Standards

This report looks at how National Standards are viewed and used in primary and intermediate schools in 2016, almost seven years since they were introduced.

This paper analyses  responses to questions about  National Standards in NZCER's 2013 National Survey of Primary and Intermediate Schools. NZCER chief researcher Cathy Wylie presented the findings to the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) conference in Dunedin on Thursday 28 November.

NZCER has begun a research project on the learning that can happen as teachers moderate student work. The project will explore what happens as schools enact moderation, and how moderation processes might be enhanced to support teacher professional learning that leads to changes in practice. Primary schools teachers now need to assess student work in relation to National Standard benchmarks. Moderation conversations that provide rich professional learning about possible avenues for lifting achievement in the classroom will be needed to support that work. Chief researcher Rosemary Hipkins and researcher Sally Robertson’s literature synthesis, Moderation and Teacher Learning, explores opportunities for professional learning that might occur when teachers work together to moderate their judgements about students’ work.