Further News about Alignment

Hi all.
it is great to see your contributions and ideas and we would encourage everyone to continue to add your feedback even if it is very brief. Already we are considering your comments and will shortly feedback some ideas about how we can address your valid points.

Remember to go and check the comments link at the bottom of the post below and add your own comment if you haven't done so already . You could press both RSS feeds at the top right of the page so you get notice of new comments and posts. In that way you can keep up to date with what are people are adding.

Also just to keep you in the loop with where we are up to in the alignment process.
We are currently working on altering the existing Achievement Standards and the Unit standards that will remain in the new matrix and writing the new standards that are indicated in the Matrix.
One of the big changes will be detailed assessment conditions for all the standards which include guidance about good assessment practice, possible assessment contexts, authenticity, text selections and possible methods of collecting evidence. In line with NZQA's philosophy we will be suggesting different possible methods of assessment you could consider when assessing a standard.
This includes other ways in which you can collect evidence for achievement standards throughout a unit which is more closely aligned to the way unit standards have been assessed in the past.
We will also be adding in special notes which will break down the instructional words of the standards (eg explain, describe etc) to make it much clearer what these actually mean for you and the students
This will be complete by the end of February 2009. In March and April you will get the chance to formally feedback about these changes. This will be in the form of an online survey, plus regional cluster group meetings. Please Attend!!!
Cheers
Josephine and Deb