Events

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Latest NZAI Assessment Webinar on May 16

“Doing the things that work and doing them our way.”

In our latest webinar we were delighted to feature a workshop from our recent Assessment Conference, presented by Ben Hutchings. Principal of Te Kura Tirohanga Maunga | Mountain View School in Māngere Bridge in Auckland.

In Ben’s own words, his school “has been on a wild ride like everyone else – from COVID to flooding. But by promoting a collective awareness of puumanawatanga in our place, measuring impact over time and building an approach that focuses on repeated opportunities we are beginning to see real success. Along the way, a curriculum and assessment approach has emerged by focussing on what works – more specifically, what works for us.”

Webinar title:               Doing the things that work and doing them our way.

Feedback from Ben’s conference presentation included the following statements:

… there was a lot to take away and think on. I loved how he placed importance on both the experiential and observable as well as assessment driven judgements. He talked about the things teachers must do and the things leaders must do.

Thank you to those who attended the webinar. For those unable to attend, it was recorded and you can find it here on our website along with the associated slide presentation.

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  We are celebrating the success of

NZAI Assessment Conference  2024

Taking Assessment from Strength to Strength – in Principle, Practice and Proof

During the first week of the April school holidays, educators from across Aotearoa met together at Ormiston Junior College in Auckland to talk all things assessment. On the next day, we met online, giving the opportunity for more people to join the conversation. We comprised teachers, school leaders, PLD facilitators, education agency personnel, university academics – all education professionals interested in discussing how good assessment practice is a vital component of learning, teaching and system improvement.

Keynote speakers were:

Hon. Erica Stanford – Minister of Education	Lisa Rodgers – Director General at Department of Education, Western Australia	Professor Jenny Poskitt – Massey University and NZAI President	Utufa’asisili Rosemary Mose – Deputy Chief Executive Pasifika NZQA

The Minister detailed her government’s view of how to improve and the Director General of Western Australia explained how they have achieved significant improvements across the state in recent years. The Deputy Chief Executive of NZQA highlighted the approaches needed to boost achievement for the traditionally underserved in our education system and Professor Poskitt emphasised the principles that underpin the use of assessment to improve learning.

Teachers and leaders ran workshops demonstrating their school’s path to demonstrable learner improvement. Some education professionals talked the intricacies of data analysis while others explained culturally responsive assessment practice. We learned about new advances in assessment tools  and  why school culture, relationship building and learner agency are important components of effective assessment practice.

NZAI is of the view that NZ is unlikely to see gains nationally in student learning outcomes until we can all agree on how assessment should be used at each level of the system to support improvement. The conference was focussed on beginning the conversation to achieve that.

Thank you:

to our keynote speakers and workshop presenters, who made their knowledge and experience available to others so that we can add to the our growing body of understanding of what makes good assessment practice.

to our sponsor, Evaluation Associates | Te Huinga Kākākura Mātauranga, who contributed in many ways to making the conference a success, including up to $500 off conference expenses to a lucky winner.

to Ormiston Junior College for generously allowing us to use the school as a wonderful venue, to NZCER for their ongoing support for NZAI and to The Conference Company for running our conference with their usual friendly and helpful eficiency.

and to all those who were interested to attend our conference, either in person or online, attentive to the issues raised by our speakers and workshop presenters. Remember that all online presentations will be available on the TCC platform for three months. We look forward to seeing you again next year, to welcoming others from the education community and in the meantime to keeping you up to date with assessment news. 

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  NZAI Assessment Conference  2023  –  Online presentations are on our website.

Our annual National Assessment Conference was in April, a kanohi ki te kanohi conference at Ormiston Junior College in Auckland and the second day online.

The theme of the conference was: How do we know they are learning?

The keynotes and workshops were outstanding. We were privileged to have the participation of a wide range of presenters who offered their experience and wisdom on assessment from a range of different perspectives. We thank all speakers sincerely for their time and generous willingness to support our conference

You can find all online presentations here on our website. Dive in, they’re worth your time!

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*** NZAI  National Conference 2021 – Presentations are now on our website ***

Our virtual conference at the beginning of October was a great success, despite our initial nervousness about using an online platform for the first time.

Assessment to Improve Learning: Principles, Practices and Proof across the System

We’re extremely grateful to our first class line-up of keynote speakers and workshop presenters who all offered opportunities to broaden and deepen our collective knowledge and understanding of assessment at all tiers of the education system. They have now given us permission to publish their presentations on our website. 

You can find the presentations here.

We encourage you to go back to our publication, Assessment to Improve Learning: Principles, practices and proof, distributed to all schools at the end of Term 1 2021. You’ll be able to make connections with the themes of the conference, and see how the publication can assist you to review the assessment practices in your education setting.