Marie, the content areas many people study for in NZ are vocational -
hairdressing, auto-electrical, paint manufacturing, rather than general
education. To successfully achieve their credits in their area of study they
may well improve their literacy. A literacy specialist may work with their
vocational tutor to assist in them getting their vocational credits. But If
the structure of their course does not contain any explicit outcome
statements related to literacy (and lots don't) there is no need to
'measure' their literacy gain.  If there are no explicit requirements for
literacy skills in the training system, training providers can compensate by
reducing the amount that has to be read in training, simplifying training
materials etc, working orally as much as possible - and place less emphasis
on deliberate acts of literacy teaching to address the skills gap. 

 

Yes, I think that if our Ministry of Education take on board the idea of a
computer based interactive assessment engine, that provides both tutors and
learners with lots of information about the skills a learner has and ideas
on where to go next we will have done something really exciting. But the
decision is some months off.  Will keep in touch about it.

 

 

Alison Sutton, Critical Insight

52a Bolton St Blockhouse Bay Auckland NZ

alison.sutton at criticalinsight.co.nz

Phone +64 9 627 4415 

Mob 021 279 6804

 

  _____  

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Marie Cora
Sent: Tuesday, 6 February 2007 4:22 a.m.
To: alison.sutton at criticalinsight.co.nz; 'The Assessment Discussion List'
Subject: [Assessment 628] Re: assessment in Nz

 

Hi Alison,

 

Thanks so much for this reply, it's really interesting.

 

I'm a bit confused though, how folks can still achieve certain competencies
while not necessarily making gains in literacy.  Maybe you could describe
that a little more?

 

And how exciting!  It sounds like NZ is going for the formative assessment
approach to reporting!  Building accountability systems is such hard work
and takes loads of time, patience, money and a diverse array of people to be
involved.  You will have to keep us informed of your progress - it sounds
like a model system.  

 

Marie Cora

Assessment Discussion List Moderator

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Alison Sutton
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 4:49 PM
To: assessment at nifl.gov
Subject: [Assessment 625] assessment in Nz

 

Hi Marie, Alison Sutton here, I am an adult literacy researcher from NZ who
lurks on this discussion list a lot.   NZ is in an interesting position
because we do not have any nationally mandated testing for adult literacy
and foundation learning - but it is coming!

 

Yes programmes do get government funding. At present providers have choice
about the assessment and reporting methods they use. One reason is that we
have few dedicated literacy programmes as such; most offer literacy skills
development as part of achieving other qualifications. 

 

 Pre-employment labour market programmes have to meet outcomes related to
people moving on to further education and training or employment and
achievement of credits in our competency based national qualifications
framework. They can do all that without necessarily demonstrating any
literacy gain.

 

Programmes run by polytechnics (your community colleges) each work to an
internally developed and moderated assessment systems and often do not have
to show any literacy gain over and above course credit achievement. 

 

Those programmes that do get specific funding for literacy thru a dedicated
fund do have to demonstrate literacy gain - in a variety of ways but mostly
based around progress against individual learning plans or specially
designed before and after assessments - not nationally standardised..

 

The government does want more  systematic evidence that the increased
funding into adult literacy is resulting in gain - but they at this stage
are not pushing 'testing' as such. I am working with the University of
Auckland on a government contract scoping how to develop a computer based
interactive assessment system for adult literacy. The model we are looking
at gives teachers and learners lots of information about progress and is
much more formative in scope that the testing and reporting regimes most of
your funders use. 

 

 

Alison Sutton, Critical Insight

52a Bolton St Blockhouse Bay Auckland NZ

 <mailto:alison.sutton at criticalinsight.co.nz>
alison.sutton at criticalinsight.co.nz

Phone +64 9 627 4415 

Mob 021 279 6804

 

 

 

 

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