National Certificate of Educational Achievement

The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is the official secondary school qualification in New Zealand. It was phased in between 2002 and 2004, replacing three older secondary school qualifications. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority administers NCEA.

NCEA Level 1 replaced School Certificate in 2002, Level 2 replaced Sixth Form Certificate in 2003 and Level 3 replaced Bursary in 2004. A transitional Sixth Form Certificate was offered by schools in 2003 and 2004. The initial academic level was set about 35% lower in Level 1 NCEA than a School Certificate pass (50%) so more students could get some type of qualification. Over time the academic standard in each level has been lifted about 5%. Nearly all of the much easier Unit Standards have been phased out. Those that remain do not lead to a tertiary level course at University as they are a lower standard than normal credits. Over time there has been an increase in the amount of checking and supervision of teachers' marking. Teachers who give wrong grades or credits to students are warned and red flagged if there is no improvement but students are allowed to keep the unearned credits.

The NCEA system has three levels – one, two, and three – corresponding to their respective levels on the National Qualifications Framework. Each level is generally studied in each of the three final years of secondary schooling, with NCEA level one in Year 11, NCEA level two in Year 12, and NCEA level three in Year 13, although it is not uncommon for students to study across multiple levels.

To pass each level, students must gain a certain number of credits at that level or above. Credits are awarded through students passing unit standards or achievement standards. Each school subject is made up of multiple standards - for example Mathematics at level one is made up of 13 achievement standards, including separate standards for number, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics and probability.

Unit and achievement standards represent the two kinds of standard used in NCEA. Both use criterion-based marking, which means students need to meet the specified criteria for each grade level to achieve at that level. However, unit standards are 'competency based' whereas achievement standards derive from the New Zealand Curriculum. Most unit standards use a simple achieved/not achieved system, whereas achievement standards use a four-grade scale: Not Achieved (N), Achieved (A), Merit (M) and Excellence (E). Furthermore, each standard is assigned a particular credit value. For instance, Standard 91394 (Analyse ideas and values of the classical world) is worth four credits while Standard 91587 (Apply systems of simultaneous equations in solving problems) is worth 3 credits. All passing marks for a standard receive the same number of credits, such that one candidate might achieve 4 credits in AS 91394 when another achieves 4 credits in AS 91394 with excellence. Due to criterion-based assessment, attainment in standards is independent.

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