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Tyler Craig
[FYI request #34749 email]
18 June 2026
Tēnā koe Tyler
OIA: [GEMS-48260] – Information about SMART
Thank you for your email of 20 May 2026 to the Ministry of Education (the Ministry)
requesting the following information:
A description of the processes used to develop, review, quality assure,
validate, and approve the assessment tasks, questions, texts, prompts, and
student response items used within SMART.
Confirmation of whether practising educators, curriculum specialists,
assessment experts, psychometricians, literacy specialists, cultural advisers,
accessibility specialists, or other subject matter experts were involved in the
review, validation, or approval of SMART assessment content.
For any such reviewers or contributors, please provide:
their role or area of expertise;
whether they were Ministry staff, contractors, vendor staff, or external
advisers; and whether they were based in New Zealand or overseas.
Confirmation of whether SMART assessment content was reviewed
specifically for:
alignment with the New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa;
curriculum level appropriateness; reading level appropriateness; cultural or
contextual suitability for New Zealand learners; moderation consistency;
accessibility considerations; or bias and fairness considerations.
Confirmation of whether any pilot testing, trial ing, calibration, readability
analysis, or validation processes were undertaken before assessment content
was used in schools.
A description of how assessment content approval decisions were made,
including whether there were defined criteria or sign-off processes prior to use
in the 2025 trial phase or 2026 national rollout.
Wel ington – National Office, PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140
Phone: +64 4 463 8000
education.govt.nz
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Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
The Ministry needs to extend the timeframe for responding to your request, pursuant
to section 15A(1)(b) of the Act, as consultations necessary to make a decision on the
request are such that a proper response cannot reasonably be made within the
original time limit. You can now expect to receive a response to your request on or
before 17 July 2026, which is an extension of 20 working days.
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, Ministerials
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate
education.govt.nz
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