NCEA Resubmissions for 2021 onwards

From February 2021 onwards, the only resubmission option available to students, is for a student who received a grade of “Not Achieved”. 

Should a student be awarded a “Not Achieved” grade, they may be given the opportunity to be awarded an “Achieved” grade, providing there is only a minor changes required in the resubmission. 

There are no other options available to students or teachers when offering a resubmission from this year onwards.

The new rules put out by NZQA are as follows:

Schools may offer a resubmission opportunity to students only when a minor error prevents them from reaching an ‘Achieved’ grade.

The only change in grade boundary available for resubmissions is from ‘Not Achieved’ to ‘Achieved.’

On this basis, the highest grade that can be awarded as a result of a resubmission of an internal assessment is limited to ‘Achieved’.

This rule applies from the beginning of the 2021 academic year.

Schools may continue to offer one resubmission for each assessment event against an Assessment Standard.

A resubmission:

• Can be offered to individually identified students to correct a minor error and gain the grade of Achieved, not Merit or Excellence
• Does not allow students to gain Merit or Excellence grades
• Should take place as soon as possible after the assessment has been completed
• Can be offered where the teacher judges the student should be capable of discovering and correcting the minor error by themselves.
• Can be offered after each assessment opportunity for a standard, whether it be the initial assessment, or where offered, the one further assessment opportunity allowed.
• Only one resubmission can be provided for each assessment of a standard.
• Teachers decide which students at the Not Achieved grade boundary meet the criteria for a resubmission.
• No further teaching or learning can take place.
• Teachers must ensure that the students work is authentic, by only giving non-specific feedback and taking care not to over-direct them.
• The amount of time provided for a resubmission depends on the nature of the assessment and should ensure teachers can confidently assure authenticity.
• If there is a substantive or significant change to be made to the student work, a resubmission cannot be offered.

NCEA Level Endorsements

As from February 1, 2021, students are eligible to gain an “Achieved” subject endorsement at Level 1.

To be awarded with an endorsement, students need to have meet the following criteria:

1.  A course will be endorsed with Excellence when the student achieves 14 or more credits with Excellence in the course.

2.  A course will be endorsed with Merit when a student achieves 14 or more credits with Merit or Excellence in the course.

3.  A course will now be endorsed with Achieved when a student achieves 14 or more credits with Achieved, Merit or Excellence in the course.

4.  These 14 or more credits must include a minimum of 3 internally assessed credits and 3 externally assessed credits.
Exempted from this rule are courses that include 14 or more credits in Physical Education or Religious Studies or Level 3 Visual Arts. A course will be endorsed:

a. if 14 or more credits are achieved with Merit or Excellence from internally assessed Physical Education or Religious Studies standards

b. if 14 credits are achieved with Merit or Excellence from one of the externally assessed Level 3 Visual Arts standards or 14 or more credits are achieved with Merit or Excellence from internally assessed Level 3 Visual Arts standards.

2. The course must be completed within one school year.

3.  All exclusions will apply. Where two or more standards assess the same learning outcome they are mutually exclusive for all NCEA qualifications and endorsements.

4. Courses may include unit standards, but only unit standards with Merit and/or Excellence criteria will contribute to an endorsement.

5. The result for any standard can be used in only one course endorsement in the year it is reported.

6. Course endorsement does not include Scholarship.