COVID-19 Update #5

Managing assessment during COVID-19

NZQA realises that schools, teachers and students are being affected in different ways by the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the disruption and uncertainty that this is causing. We will work with you, providing advice and direction to help you manage your assessment programme for 2020.

We know it is a difficult time for you and your school community, and our advice aims to reduce the load on everyone as much as possible by giving you space to target what students need to know and do to set them up for success.

Thanks to its flexibility, NCEA allows you to maintain credible assessment outcomes by changing the ways you gather and record evidence, and to manage disruptions to your teaching and assessment of standards.

Below are guidance and tools that you can adopt or adapt to your own circumstances, and that may be useful even beyond the current situation. Follow the links in the attachment to find up-to-date information on:

• Reviewing your programmes
• Selecting suitable standards for remote assessment
• Templates to integrate evidence gathering with teaching and learning
• Resources for conducting remote assessment
• Remote assessment of performance-based subjects
• Managing internal assessment for students absent from school due to COVID-19

We aim to have all high-use Level 3 templates published by 15 April with Level 2 and Level 1 available in early May.

We acknowledge that some schools will be affected more (or for longer) than others, and that your own school’s experience of COVID-19 will affect individual students and teachers in different ways. The structure of some courses you offer may mean they are already well insulated from the impact of these disruptions, but to manage credible assessment in other courses, your teachers may need to use the material we have provided now or later in the year.

We are planning for a range of scenarios and will keep you informed as the situation changes. We know there are a lot of questions coming your way. Please remember, send your queries or those of your staff through to your School Relationship Manager so we can get back to you with an answer as soon as possible. We have been receiving some queries through other channels, which delays our ability to respond quickly.

Managing assessment during COVID-19 [PDF, 113 KB]

A PowerPoint presentation with guidance for teachers on evidence gathering is available from your Principal's Nominee, or through the COVID-19 Resources link using your teacher login.