Standardised Testing Can Be Useful – If We Keep It Low-stakes

The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) acknowledges the government’s announcement on assessment for schools and stresses the need for standardised testing to be used alongside good practices that support teaching and learning.

NZCER is the developer and administrator of Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) - one of three options for schools and kura to consider, alongside e-asTTle and Te Waharoa Ararau. PATs are standardised, multiple-choice assessments for pāngarau/mathematics, pānui/reading comprehension, listening comprehension, punctuation & grammar, and reading vocabulary.

Nearly half of the schools in Aotearoa already use PATs in some way shape or form. Schools own their own data and are supported by NZCER to administer the assessments – a situation that does not change with this announcement.

“For more than 40 years, we have been administering and evolving the PATs,” notes Tumuaki Graeme Cosslett, “including a substantive refresh in the last few years with an explicit equity focus.”

“Our longstanding belief is that standardised assessments are valuable in low-stakes, formative environments rather than as a high-stakes, solitary indicator of progress. We hope PATs will continue to be used as one of several tools in a teacher’s toolkit – alongside observations, whānau input, ākonga feedback and appropriate professional learning and development.”

“Education is about nurturing ākonga, realising potential, and helping communities thrive. So long as we retain a focus on good practice and purposeful use of assessment information, then we believe that teachers, schools, and whānau can use assessment information to gain a better understanding of students’ learning by highlighting both strengths and opportunities for growth.”

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