English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:634;Page:5941] 
4.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
 to the  
Minister of Education 
: Does he stand by his statement in relation to the 2005 NCEA results that: “Standards are set each year and the standards this year were set in a way that people regard is fine and the variation is fine.”? 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I do not know whether you have noticed but there is a sign over on an Opposition desk that I do not think is within the Standing Orders or is acceptable. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would the member please withdraw the sign. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister for Economic Development) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Education 
: I meant to say that achievement standards are set. They are publicly available through the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website. Although some standards are reviewed periodically they are not changed every year. To ensure we keep variability within acceptable levels the qualifications authority has developed profiles of expected performance. That has allowed it to address problems of variability that occurred in the 2004 exam season and were highlighted by Bill English and we have no reason to expect that this will be any different in 2006. Variability does occur for good reasons—for example changes in the cohort of students sitting the standards or improvements in teaching—and that variation is perfectly acceptable. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that despite his reassurances to the House that the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) in 2005 was “fine” he has since then taken advice from a range of assessment experts and is now in the process of changing fundamentally the design of NCEA assessment; if so what problem is he trying to solve now that he hid last year? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: What is the Minister doing about the demotivating elements of NCEA uncovered by the Ministry of Education’s research into that issue? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: As I am acting for the Minister I am not briefed on that supplementary question. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that after the 2004 Scholarship debacle the basis of assessment for Scholarship was changed and that since then he is now using the same group of people to make extensive and fundamental changes to NCEA; and why did he give assurances to the House that the NCEA was “fine” in 2005 when he was already in the process of making fundamental changes to fix it? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No. 
Hon Bill English 
: Well if the Minister says “No” why did he answer a parliamentary question by saying “Yes”? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Because that is not the question in the written question. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that he is taking advice from the technical overview group comprising Professors Gary Hawke Terry Crooks John Hattie Cedric Hall and Jeff Smith to investigate the use of exemplification of standards written scoring rubrics and item analysis for external assessment; and can he also confirm that this is a fundamental shift in the way that external assessment is done and that he said that this is a similar approach to that used for Scholarship 2005? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Yes no and yes. 
Hon Bill English 
: What are New Zealand students teachers and parents to make of all the assurances given by the Government over the last 2 or 3 years about the validity of NCEA assessment when it has now become apparent that the Government is secretly changing fundamentally the way it runs external assessment in the NCEA? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It is not. 
Hon Bill English 
: Well if the Government is making no changes why is it using a collection of New Zealand’s only assessment experts to change the way the standards are communicated to teachers to change the way the exams are written to change the way the marking schedules are written and to bring in pre-testing—which every other country has used for years and years—yet the Minister does not think that that changes the basis of NCEA assessment? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Minor improvements are not fundamental changes.