[kall]

http://www.camhigh.school.nz/

Claim to have a 100% pass in NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement).

Originally Posted by Alison Annan - 2003

Cambridge High School principal Alison Annan is delighted with her school’s NCEA results. Each of the school’s approximately 200 Year 11 students achieved 80 credits or more in NCEA Level 1.

Annan attributes the success to the tracking of individual students' achievement of NCEA credits last year.

"We kept a tally of the number of credits each student had and at the beginning of term four there was a full-on effort for the students perhaps sitting on 40 or 50 credits to get them past the 80."

Students of all abilities were keen to know how many more credits they needed to reach their goals, she says.

"It gave them the motivation to go out and get the balance that they needed. As a country we've been looking for that self-motivation and independence for many years."

Annan says the school will be using its NCEA results to address any possible weaknesses in its teaching and learning programmes, and to determine the number of credits students will need to achieve Level 2.

"Some students have got Level 2 credits already. These results will enable us to provide them with much more tailored, individualised programmes."

Originally Posted by scoop.co.nz

Did School Pass Kids For Picking Up Trash?

Friday 4 Jul 2003 Deborah Coddington Press Releases -- Education

ACT New Zealand Education Spokesman Deborah Coddington today said that the NCEA's rock-bottom credibility would drop even further, if there were truth in the allegation that at least one school deliberately passed children who should have failed.

"I'm very concerned by the experience of one former Cambridge High School student, who told the Education Weekly newspaper that:

`In the last four weeks of the last term in 2002, the school was getting the people in who were not going to pass level one [of NCEA] and gave them the chance to pick up litter for an hour so that they could get the extra credits that they needed to get to pass the year.'

"The student says, `there were many cases like this around the school'.

"Cambridge High had a 100 percent pass rate for NCEA Level One. Education Minister Trevor Mallard must tell us why that didn't raise alarm bells - and he must explain what work his Ministry is doing to check the student's story.

"Cambridge High principal Alison Annan has long been a proponent of NCEA. In an online newsgroup, she told a parent who complained her daughter was an NCEA `guinea pig' that:

"It is high time we stopped criticising and blaming, and got on with things. Calling a child a guinea pig is not helpful or encouraging. Our pass rate for our internal standards has vindicated our belief that students previously who would have left school with no qualifications, have blossomed, and quickly understood, and enjoyed, the accumulation of credits. Maori students have been able to gain credits to a level of achievement in the past we have only dreamed about. It is clearly a system that will upskill New Zealanders."

"The question must be asked: has the principal's faith in NCEA taken her too far? It is lovely that students `blossom' from getting pass marks, but if those marks aren't genuine, how will they ever help them in the future?

"What use is a qualification to an employer if the student passed Mathematics by cleaning the schoolyard? If this accusation is true then, although Cambridge High might have the country's cleanest grounds, we can judge nothing of its pupils' true performance. All the students who slogged their guts out last year must be horrified. Until the facts are known, every Cambridge High NCEA pass will be devalued.

"Cambridge High is the school that punished a student for writing an honest and well-written story containing the word `boner'. Now the principal, and Board of Trustees, must ensure they can account for and verify their school's behaviour," Ms Coddington said.

[trogg]

What the hell is the Kiwi education system coming to?

Can we just go back to the bad old days of School Cert and University Entrance exams?

At least then an employer knows that someone has achieved a national grade in a subject.

#rant ends#

[edshuck]

Originally Posted by trogg

What the hell is the Kiwi education system coming to?

Can we just go back to the bad old days of School Cert and University Entrance exams?

At least then an employer knows that someone has achieved a national grade in a subject.

#rant ends#

If NZ is like California, then someone in the government realized that they were not getting their proper take from the purchase of things for education and wanted their cut.

[Sparklechick]

I don't really believe in Assessment anymore. In 6th form half of our grades were internally assessed, the problem was that some teachers were easy markers and others were hard. I just so happened to get an English teacher who decided she didn't like me so always gave me crap marks. I got an A2 in School C English and was looking at getting a 6 or 7 in 6th form English (because of her). So I complained to the Head of English (who just so happened to be my journalism teacher and thought the sun shone out of my arse). He took a look at my work and changed the marks AND gave the teacher a good bollocking.

[kall]

I too have an 'Internally Assessed English' story.

In 5th form, the entire thing is internally assessed. My teacher didn't like my attitude (ie: cruise through everything and just tap into the Universe for the answers and nail exams), and submitted a grade of 58% to the NZQA (NZ Qualifications Authority - the people who give the achievement certificates for each year of schooling).

When my 5th form Cert came back, I was given 78%...due to 'scaling'.

I was impressed. She was not. :P

[Penny]

Your 5th form was internally assessed?? I thought it was all external way back then! :P Mine was all exams argh...

I just slacked off in 6th form the only course I did well in was computer studies, and so I got one of our schools highest marks in that, the rest was all ordinary... just enough to get me into my tech course the next year.

I don't think I would enjoy the NCEA stuff, all internally assesed I sucked at doing my homework, I was just glad in 5th form it was exams... except I didn't manage to study very much for it..

[Sparklechick]

Originally Posted by Penny

Your 5th form was internally assessed?? I thought it was all external way back then! :P Mine was all exams argh...

I just slacked off in 6th form the only course I did well in was computer studies, and so I got one of our schools highest marks in that, the rest was all ordinary... just enough to get me into my tech course the next year.

I don't think I would enjoy the NCEA stuff, all internally assesed I sucked at doing my homework, I was just glad in 5th form it was exams... except I didn't manage to study very much for it..

Studying sucked big time.

That's why I don't think I could go back to school for anything now.

Too many distractions around

[Penny]

Originally Posted by Sparklechick

Studying sucked big time.

That's why I don't think I could go back to school for anything now.

Too many distractions around

LOL there were lots of distractions at school for me.. constantly shifted for talking too much...

In form 2 particularly, the teacher shifted me to sit with these 3 boys.. it was like the "people who can't concentrate at other desks group" and I hated this boy and one day he wouldn't give me the dictionary so I put his pencil case in the rats cage, then I wouldn't get it out so he hit me over the head with the dictionary...

I sat by myself after that..

[kall]

Originally Posted by Penny

Your 5th form was internally assessed?? I thought it was all external way back then! :P Mine was all exams argh...

I just slacked off in 6th form the only course I did well in was computer studies, and so I got one of our schools highest marks in that, the rest was all ordinary... just enough to get me into my tech course the next year.

I don't think I would enjoy the NCEA stuff, all internally assesed I sucked at doing my homework, I was just glad in 5th form it was exams... except I didn't manage to study very much for it..

'Way back then'?

I would have been in the same year as you.

:P

(I was put up a year).

[Penny]

Originally Posted by kall

'Way back then'?

I would have been in the same year as you.

:P

(I was put up a year).

lol I know, I was kinda just saying it tounge in cheek... I think you would have been a year above me then if you were put up a year (smarty pants!) I was 6th form in 1996.

[kall]

Originally Posted by Penny

lol I know, I was kinda just saying it tounge in cheek... I think you would have been a year above me then if you were put up a year (smarty pants!) I was 6th form in 1996.

Oh true. How embarassing.



Don't mind me...5 hours sleep will do that.

*locks down Admin area so he doesn't accidentally bugger anything up whilst temporarily retarded*

Anyway. Back on topic...

What value is a qualification from that school to an employer?

What measure of the applicant's abilities is it?

How do the kids who ACTUALLY worked hard on their year feel knowing that the certificate that they have is the same as one that someone who gained credits for 'Groundskeeping'?

[Penny]

Originally Posted by kall

Oh true. How embarassing.



Don't mind me...5 hours sleep will do that.

*locks down Admin area so he doesn't accidentally bugger anything up whilst temporarily retarded*

lol I'll forgive ya, its just I come across as so mature.. I trick people! :P