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Phillip Fry
[FYI request #34748 email]
18 June 2026
Tēnā koe Phillip
OIA: GEMS-48261 – Evidence, Moderation, and Reliability of Progress
Descriptor Reporting Rubrics
Thank you for your email of 20 May 2026 to the Ministry of Education (the Ministry)
requesting the following information:
copies of any formal advice, reports, evaluations, implementation papers,
moderation guidance, research summaries, expert advice, or briefing
documents since 1 January 2024 relating to how nationally consistent
interpretation and application of the Progress Descriptor reporting rubrics was
expected to be achieved across teachers, schools, and kura.
This includes, but is not limited to, information relating to:
•
how teachers were expected to consistently distinguish between the
Emerging, Developing, Consolidating, Proficient, and Exceeding
categories;
•
any identified risks that broad descriptor language (for example, “higher
level thinking”, “growing confidence”, “apply learning strategies
confidently”, or “reflect and explain ideas clearly”) could be interpreted
differently between teachers or schools;
•
any moderation, calibration, exemplification, benchmarking, or inter-rater
reliability processes considered, proposed, trialled, or implemented to
support consistency of judgments;
•
any evidence, research, evaluations, expert advice, pilot findings, or
literature relied upon regarding whether the Progress Descriptor rubrics
would support sufficiently reliable and comparable reporting between
schools;
•
any analysis of the extent to which the rubrics relied on teacher
professional judgment versus standardised assessment tool outputs.
Wel ington – National Office, PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140
Phone: +64 4 463 8000
education.govt.nz
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To avoid duplication of material already proactively released, this request is intended
to seek supporting evidence, implementation, moderation, reliability, evaluation, or
research documentation not already contained within previously released Cabinet
papers and briefing documents.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
The Reading, Writing, and Maths rubrics (Years 0–10) are designed to help teachers
reflect on the progress a student has made against the Progress Markers, how much
support a student may still need to meet the Progress Markers and achieve
proficiency, and use this information to select a Progress Descriptor to describe a
student’s progress.
There is no formal advice, reports, evaluations, implementation papers, research
summaries, expert advice, or briefing papers relating to how nationally consistent
interpretation and application of the Progress Descriptor reporting rubrics was
expected to be achieved across teachers, schools, and kura. I am refusing this part
of your request under section 18(e) of the Act as the documents alleged to contain
the information requested do not exist or, despite reasonable efforts to locate them,
cannot be found.
Moderation guidance material on how teachers are expected to use the Rubrics is
available on the Ministry’s Tāhūrangi website at:
https://newzealandcurriculum.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/reporting-to-
parents-and-wh-nau/5637158852.p
In particular you may be interested in:
• the Using the Rubric which can be downloaded on Tāhūrangi via the
‘Download resource’ link.
• Or the Reporting to Parents and Whānau – Guidance for Teachers - Making
an Informed Decision video at the following link
https://vimeo.com/1174973359?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
As all the information relating to how nationally consistent interpretation and
application of the Progress Descriptor reporting rubrics was expected to be achieved
across teachers, schools, and kura is available online, I am refusing your request
under section 18(d) of the Act as the information is publicly available.
education.govt.nz
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Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review
my decision on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do
this by writing to
[email address] or to Office of the Ombudsman,
PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
Nāku noa, nā
Cindy McDonald
Principal Advisor
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate
education.govt.nz
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