PPTA

18 reasons for 18 credits - managing student and teacher assessment workload

The New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) suggests an effective way of managing student and teacher assessment workload would be to limit the number of credits offered.

This should take into account the abilities of the class but on average a realistic number of credits to offer would be 13-18 per course, based on assumption of about four hours per week contact time over about 33 weeks, plus some homework time.

18 reasons for 18 credits

5 subjects X 18 credits = 90 = plenty
6 subjects X 18 credits = 108 = heaps!
Teachers can teach more and summatively assess less
Course endorsement and certificate endorsement can become the priority, ie quality over quantity - this benefits students and – dare we say it – league tables
Fewer scheduled assessments means increased opportunities to differentiate programmes of teaching and learning
Limiting credits means students have fewer chances to pick and choose what assessments they will opt out of
Fewer credits may mean there is more likelihood of being able to offer students a reassessment opportunity
Less assessment may provide more time for innovations to teaching and learning programmes
Fewer assessments may enable students with challenges to benefit from more teaching time, and for more able students to tackle the excellence criteria
Limiting summative assessments across the school may offer more opportunities for cross-subject collaboration
Limiting credits helps students manage their assessment load
The revised assessment matrices allow for curriculum coverage with 18 credits
Limits and helps to manage teachers’ marking loads
Less data entry
Less paperwork
Teachers’ moderation workload is (somewhat) addressed
Staff agreeing to a credit maximum should help level the playing field across subjects
Helps to manage the workload of the principal’s nominee!