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The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is New Zealand's main secondary school qualification offered to senior high school students - Year 11 through to Year 13 (Form 5 through to Form 7 respectively). NCEA consists of both internal and external assessment.
It is a three year qualification which exists at three grades.
History
NCEA replaced the previous secondary school qualifications in a phased change from 2002 to 2004.
The qualifications at the time were the School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and the University Bursaries. The Universities Entrance Board ran Bursary and SFC, and the Ministry of Education ran School Certificate, until 1991 when they were managed by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
Controversy and media
NCEA's phase-in met controversy in the public and media. For some schools, this controversy delayed the introduction of the second level by one year. In these schools the Transitional Sixth Form Certificate was offered for one year in its place. The second and third levels of NCEA were then introduced simultaneously in 2004.
Some schools, most notably Auckland Grammar School who is headed by one of the most prominent critics of NCEA, decided to offer the General Certificate of Secondary Education and the Advanced level General Certificate of Education instead of or alongside NCEA, for some or all of their students. Some schools did this in fear the new qualification would not be recognized overseas, some did this as critics of NCEA. The GCSE and GCE A-level are colloquially known as the "Cambridge exams" in New Zealand since the most prominent examination board is the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. Some schools have opted for the International Baccalaureate. This stepped the controversy up further.
On the other hand, some schools, though none which stood out noticeably, were fully behind NCEA and supported it. There was, therefore, a significant media battle about the introduction of this qualification. A number of the more conservative schools including Nelson College and Wellington College have expressed that they would initially stay with the NZQA for a "test drive" and have indicated that a change to the GCSE and GCE A-levels are possible. There are criticisms about these schools since some claim that though they receive state money they are essentially independent schools (private schools) in behaviour and outlook.
It became clear that there were faults in the system, it being a new system that had not been used in any other country before, though it had been tested in some schools. The Ministry harshly defended NCEA from the equally harsh criticisms that were put before it. Many changes to the system were made in its first years, including the introduction of the New Zealand Scholarship and the awarding of "holistic" grades (see below). After some weeding, the amount of faults that remain in the system is a matter of wide-ranging opinion.
NCEA's first guinea pigs enter university in 2005. No-one knows if NCEA will ever gain the full respect of the education community, but NCEA's first batch of students will be watched upon with great interest. The universities took a neutral stance in this debate.
New Zealand University Entrance
Historically this was not a qualification but the University of New Zealand's equivalent to matriculation at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The lack of any other standard measure of education caused the status of "Entrant" to become a de-facto educational qualification. This was until 1961 when the University of New Zealand was dissolved and its admission certification functions were transferred to the Universities Entrance Board which had the effect of making the qualification de-jure.
From the late 1880s to 1986 University Entrance was awarded by examination or by "accreditation" (continuous assessment). The right to internally assess University Entrance was initially granted (in the 19th century) only to Nelson College and Wellington College (Wellington in fact was an affiliated College of the University of New Zealand). By the late 1980s most schools had the privilege to accredit University Entrance.
From 1986 to 2003 University Entrance was awarded to those who marginally failed to gain a University Bursary.
From 2004, under NCEA, University Entrance is based on the results achieved at NCEA Level 3 (see below for details).
The NZ University Entrance will still be awarded. The NZ University Entrance Scholarship has been replaced by the New Zealand Scholarship, a different but closely related award.
How the system works
NCEA is gained through students passing weighted modules of work. It is based on a system of "credits" which are obtainable through different "standards", comparable to papers, which are worth various amounts of credits. These credits are in effect "points" towards respective qualifications.
Each standard can be assessed as at one of three grades. Some standards can only be Achieved or Not Achieved; these are known as Unit Standards. Those standards which can be Achieved at different levels are known as Achievement Standards.
These standards (modules) can be chosen from the National Qualifications Framework, provided by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
Subjects of previous qualifications have been integrated into the NCEA system as 24-credit programmes of achievement standards, with a few exceptions. However, the actual number of credits available for candidates to obtain depends on however many their education provider has set for them. For example, some students may only be able to obtain 19 credits in a subject while others may be able to obtain all 24 credits, or another education provider could create a customised course made up of various standards which may result in over 24 credits.
Marking system
Mark bands
In NCEA four marks are possible:
- Not Achieved (NA) - meaning the candidate failed to meet the criteria of the standard, in other words they failed in this standard.
- Achievement or Achieved (A) - meaning the candidate met the criteria of the standard to a level which demonstrates adequate understanding of the material tested - this is the lowest possible pass mark.
- Achievement with Merit (M) - meaning the candidate has met the criteria of the standard to a higher level than Achievement which demonstrates substantial knowledge of the material tested.
- Achievement with Excellence (E) - this mark means that the candidate has met the criteria for both Achievement with Merit and Achievement and has demonstrated indepth understanding of the material tested, answering complexed questions successfully.
Marking mechanism
The level of achievement in an achievement standard is not decided on the percentage mark, rather, the easier questions contribute towards an Achieved grade, and harder and hardest questions to Merit and Excellence grades.
Basic questions which demonstrate basic understanding are known as "Achieved questions" or "Achievement questions". Generally, to get an Achievement grade, the majority of Achievement questions must be correct. To get Merit, a student must Achieve as well as get the majority of Merit questions correct, and likewise for Excellence.
The percentage of each questions changes slightly between each papers and between each subjects; however, there is usually a 'pyramid' effect: whereby in a theoretical paper, if there are roughly 6 achievement opportunities, there can be around 3 merit opportunities and usually no more than 1 excellence opportunity. Some of these questions can be worth achievement, merit and excellence opportunities at once depending upon the quality of the answer the candidate gives.
To achieve each of the three bands of achivement the candidate must score sufficiently in each of them. For example in a test with the composition stated above (6 achievement, 3 merit and 1 excellence opportunities) the candidate must get around 4/6 of those achievement opportunities. For merit the candidate must meet the achievement criteria and then 2/3 of the merit opportunities. For excellence the candidate must get the merit criteria, which includes the achievement criteria by proxy, and then get the excellence question right.
This mechanism is slightly altered for essay based subjects as there are no "achieved questions" or "merit questions" per say. Instead the criteria for the each of the marks is made so that when the marker looks at the work hollistically they must decide for example in a level 3 English paper how deeply the candidate "critically analyses" their studied works and what level of fluency their arguement has.
Holistic grades and replacement evidence
The fault uncovered in this system was that a student could get the Merit and Excellence questions right but may stumble on the Achievement questions – demonstrating a good understanding of the subject – but would be awarded with a Not Achieved grade, as he had failed to meet the criteria for Achievement.
Holistic grades were introduced — so that in such an event where technicalities had prevented the student from succeeding, the marker can use his professional judgement to judge if the student had reached a Merit level.
Replacement evidence is when a correct answer at a higher level used as evidence for a lower level at the expense of the correct higher-level answer, for example an Excellence question being turned into a Merit question when the student would not have enough Merit questions to get Merit otherwise. Supplementing by merit and excellence marks can only occur if these marks that come from a marking opportunity which has not already contributed an achievement mark, otherwise this would be 'double dipping' and in practice counting the mark twice.
The exact specifications of holistic grades and replacement evidence vary from subject to subject.
Progression of grades
Level 1
NCEA Level 1 is gained by obtaining a minimum of 80 credits at Level 1 or higher on the National Qualifications Framework. Eight of these credits must come from numeracy standards and 8 from literacy standards to prove the candidate is capable in those areas. These credits can be obtained from different standards offered by NZQA which high schools can choose whether or not to include in their curriculum.
NCEA Level 1 replaced the School Certificate in 2002.
Because credits at higher levels can count towards NCEA Level 1, should a candidate fail to obtain Level 1, it is possible for them to continue on in their studies and obtain it later with credits from a higher level counting down or sitting different assessment standards during the following year to obtain sufficient literacy and numeracy credits.
Level 2
Level 2 is obtained by getting 80 credits, of which 60 must be at Level 2 or higher. Because only 60 need to be at Level 2, 20 Level 1 credits can be used towards NCEA Level 2. There are no literacy or numeracy requirements for NCEA Level 2.
NCEA Level 2 was offered parallel to Sixth Form Certificate (Transitional) in 2003 (see history above) and is intended on replacing it completely in 2005.
Level 3
Level 3, in the same vein as lower levels, is obtained by getting 80 credits, 60 of which must be at Level 3 or higher.
This replaced the University Bursary as a qualification in 2004 but does not entitle the certificant a bursary towards further study.
University Entrance
Under NCEA, University Entrance is awarded to those who gain:
- A minimum of 42 credits at Level 3 or higher, including:
- A minimum of 14 credits at Level 3 or higher in each of two approved subjects (NZQA's list of approved subjects (http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/acrp/secondary/6/631.html))
- A minimum of 14 credits at Level 3 or higher in no more than two other subjects
- A minimum of 8 credits at Level 2 or higher in English, including:
- 4 credits in reading
- 4 credits in writing
- A minimum of 14 credits at Level 1 or higher in Mathematics
For some tertiary courses which have a limited entry quota, students are ranked by their Merit and Excellence grades. Only the top 80 credits are considered.
- four points are given for each credit achieved with Excellence,
- three points for each credit achieved with Merit, and
- two points for each credit Achieved.
- none for Not Achieved.
Note that points are given per credit, not by standard, so a five-credit standard achieved with Merit would get fifteen points. The students above the cut-off point for the course in question are admitted.
The Grade Point Average is a number between 0 and 100, assigned to a student's subject, that can be used for ranking students, or to see a rough measure of performance in a subject. It is calculated by using the total points in a subject as a percentage in comparison to the maximum score, that is, the score if all credits were achieved with Excellence. For example, a student who achieves 8 credits with Excellence and the remaining 16 as Achievement would have 64 points, so his GPA would be 67. There is nothing, however, to stop a student from entering less than 24 credits so long as they score the higher marks in the credits which they did achieve; it is theoretically possible for a student who did not pass all of their standards in to still qualify ahead of a student who did pass all of their standards by the quality of the former's marks if the latter scored only 'achieved' marks.
The GPA is not meant to be a percentage, though the method might imply it. The GPA, if calculated over a full 24-credit course is useful as a very rough aggregate measure of performance in a subject. The total points count is also useful as a rough indicator since the maximum score achieveable in the Bursaries examination, after normalisation, was about 95-98%.
This method was put forward by NZQA, but universities have chosen to use the raw points count (above) rather than the GPA to rank entrants. The rationale behind this is that it ensures students who did not take a full course do not gain an unfair advantage. This is highlighted by the fact that many students take minor 3 or 4 credit modules from an extraneous subject as an addition to their normal school course, and if an Excellence grade was scored in that single module the student will have scored a GPA of 100 in that subject, though they would have scored only 12 or 16 points.
Under Bursaries the maximum number of subjects recognised was 5, equivalent to a 120-credit load (480 points). An 80 credit load (320 points) is equivalent to 3.4 subjects.
Praises and Criticisms
NCEA has generally met a mixed reception, both from the public and high-profile individuals. Some claim that it is far better than the old system, others claim that it is far worse; some claim that it just needs attention to be fixed. Listed below are some of the main points that have been expressed for and against NCEA.
Please note that there may be duplicate and contradicting points between the two arguments, and that Wikipedia does not endorse any of the following points in their factual accuracy or advantage. This list includes arguments for each side only.
Praises
Some say that NCEA is a great step upwards from the old system, meeting the needs of students best. Some of their points are outlined below:
- Assessment is criteria-based: The old system was norm-based, mandating the failure of a set proportion of students each year. With NCEA this is no longer necessary, and students can understand exactly what is required of them.
- Flexible and tailored: The modules of NCEA make it flexible and tailored to all students, so that they can show their individual strengths. They can include what they want to, thus controlling their own learning.
- Greater analysis of results: Universities and employers can now analyse a candidate's strengths and weaknesses with results in individual sectors given as opposed to what some considered a vague percentage.
- Improvement in internal assessment: Internal assessment is now moderated, unlike before, and tests understanding in practical situations as well. Also, the increase of internal assessment relieves pressure from the final examinations.
- Levels are relevant to each other: The three previous secondary qualifications were separate and were not related to each other. NCEA's three levels are all linked under one system.
Criticisms
NCEA has had its critics on different levels. Some say that NCEA will never achieve acceptance from the public, because it is meaningless. Others say that NCEA needs to be fixed, as NCEA is not heading down the road it was meant to be. The criticism from both views (some of which overlap) are outlined below:
- No statistical correction: There is no predetermined proportion of passes or failures. This means that the pass rate is not constant between years or standards. If everyone has the certificate then it becomes worthless.
- Modules can be excluded from a subject: Previously, whole subjects were sat, with no optional modules. Under the NCEA, students have the choice of excluding modules they do not want to enter.
- Mark bands are inconsistent: The marking system means that grades are not consistent with percentages, as it depends on which questions were correct. Thus a student can outscore another but receive a lower grade.
- Combined academic and vocational standards: Before academic subjects are introduced, the original standards on the National Qualifications Framework were vocational. The two types cannot contribute to the same qualification as they are not suitable for each other.
- Lowering of pass mark: The pass mark for the old system was about 46%. Under NCEA, a subject is passed if 14 of 24 credits are achieved. This means the pass mark for a subject is about half of half, which is only 25%.
- Failure is not reported: Failures are not reported on a student's assessment results, based on a policy that only what they do know should be reported. Also, failures in internal assessments are not even reported to the authority.
- Poor internal assessment: The criteria for achievement is often inconcise and means that teachers have difficulty assessing work. Also, some schools allow varying numbers of resits, but others do not. Moderation is poor as incorrect grades are not actually changed.
See also
External link
National Certificate of Educational Achievement website (http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/)
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