Martin Tracey: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 29 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10491. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First) to theMinister of Education: What reports if any has she received on the 2012 STAR test and the 2012 e-asTTle tests as markers for achievement against National Standards?Hon NIKKI KAYE (Associate Minister of Education) on behalf of theMinister of Education: Talofa lava. I have not received any formal reports from the Ministry of Education as neither the Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource nor e-asTTle aredesigned to be markers for achievement against national standards. They are simply two tools that are available to assist teachers with exercising their overall professional judgment about student progress and achievement. I am aware that my office has received information about these two tools following other interest.Tracey Martin: Can the Minister confirm or deny that the e-asTTle tests used to inform national standards writing levels for 2012 have been identified as flawed and that the inflationary effect on student achievement scores is across schools but is up to 30 percent within lower-decile schools therefore making any national standards data not just ropey but irrelevant?Hon NIKKI KAYE: No e-asTTle is not flawed. There has been a review of the tool that was undertaken with the education profession. As a result of that there has been realignment but the tool is not flawed.Tracey Martin: In light of her answer just given can she confirm that she was consulted by officials prior to the ministry amending downward all existing test results without consulting the schools affected?Hon NIKKI KAYE: Obviously I am answering on behalf of the Minister of Education so I cannot confirm any consultation but what I can say is that I think the member needs to be very clear about what the process has been. As a result of a review of the e-asTTle tool—this is one tool in overall teacher judgments which is a really important point. There was significant consultation with the sector in December and January. As a result of that the changes were uploaded on the Ministry of Education’s website which is publicly available. They were made over the holidays because we thought that was the best process to ensure minimal disruption to teachers. They have been publicly available on the Ministry of Education website.Tracey Martin: I seek leave to table an email from a school principal incorporating a message from the Ministry of Education informing them retrospectively that changes have been made to student achievement e-asTTle scale scores by lowering them.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that email. Is there any objection? There is none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Tracey Martin: Will the Minister intervene to stop the ministry from publishing reading and writing national standards results for the 2012 year in light of the fact that they have been identified by numerous educational professionals as being utterly incorrect; if not why not?Hon NIKKI KAYE: As I have already explained e-asTTle is one tool in overall teacher judgments so there are a range of other things that are taken into account in what are overall professional teacher judgments. From our perspective we have been really clear when we published national standards data last year that this is about continuous improvement. We highlighted the importance of parents seeking a wider set of information to get a more rounded picture. We will do the same this year—for example parents can visit a school they can talk to educators they can review a school’s charter and annual plans and consider the school’s latest Education Review Office report. This is about a wide range of data informing parents and we will be publishing that data because we are confident of overall teacher judgments not just one assessment tool.