What is moderation?

1. Managing internal moderationhttp://www.nzqa.govt.nz/audience-pages/secondary-schools-and-teachers/ncea-resource-kit/intro/

2. What is moderation? • Moderation is about checking that assessment materials and marking is at the national standard • Ensures that internal assessment in schools is credible and robust

3. Types of moderation There are two types of moderation • External moderation • done by NZQA for 10% of student work • Internal moderation • done in schools or between schools

4. DO WE HAVE TO DO MODERATION? • Āe marika! YES!

5. General expectations Teachers are expected to: • check assessment materials before use • check inter-class consistency of grading • verify a sample of student work for each standard • maintain their understanding of national standards • act on feedback from external moderation • review materials again before use

6. Checking means... • Thoroughly reviewing assessment materials before first use, regardless of source, to ensure: • context is suitable for the students • authenticity can be assured • appropriateness of language • consistency with the registered standard

7. Inter-class consistency means... • Ensuring work of all students for a standard/activity is marked in the same manner, irrespective of class or teacher This may be achieved by: • strip marking eg. teacher A marks all of Q1, teacher B marks all of Q2 etc • panel marking • sharing a reviewed assessment schedule while marking • referring to guinea pig papers/annotated benchmarks • check-marking a proportion of each other’s work

8. Verify means... • Another subject specialist familiar with the standard confirms your marking is at the national standard • The samples should be at the grade boundaries ie. Achieved, Merit and Excellence • There is no set number of samples to check

9. How to have a sample verified... • In larger departments, some inter-class consistency methods may double as verification • Make reference to benchmark samples in recent moderation reports for the standard • E-mail/send samples to a colleague • Share samples at an association or cluster meeting

10. How can we work smarter? • Use critiqued activities/tasks • eg. from TKI, or previously moderated activities, share reviewed activities with other schools • Marking – inter-class consistency • Share reviewed assessment schedule while marking • Refer to guinea pig papers/benchmarks or previously moderated samples • Verify that marking is at the national standard • Check grade boundary samples with a colleague • Use meetings, e-mail, Skype etc to discuss student work and grade boundaries with colleagues

11. Evidence of internal moderation? • Keep the original activity/task with improvements noted on it • Make review notes on the activity for future reference • Use 2-colour pens on moderation cover sheets, eg. • Red for maker • Green for verifier • Make notes on the moderation cover sheets if guinea pigs/benchmark samples had been used • Use the school’s moderation forms eg. Internal Moderation Cover Sheet as working documents

12. How else can i improve my ability to assess at the national standard? • Keeping up-to-date with NCEA related information • Keeping benchmark exemplars of your marking • Being a NZQA moderator or marker • Belonging to a subject teacher cluster or association • Professional development • Using the OTSE process (Optional teacher selected evidence) ie. • where you can send additional student material to the moderator and ask specific questions about this work and interpretating the standards