[IN-CONFIDENCE - INTERNAL ONLY]
Tyler Craig
[FYI request #34749 email]
17 July 2026
Tēnā koe Tyler
OIA: GEMS- 48260- Student Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting Tool
(SMART), Assessment Content Review and Validation Processes
Thank you for your email of 20 May 2026 to the Ministry of Education (the Ministry)
requesting the following information:
“I am writing to request information under the Official Information Act 1982
regarding the development, review, validation, and approval of assessment
content used within the Student Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting Tool
(SMART).
Specifically, I request:
1. 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.
2. 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.
a. 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.
3. 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.
Wellington – National Office, PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140
Phone: +64 4 463 8000
education.govt.nz
[IN-CONFIDENCE - INTERNAL ONLY]
[IN-CONFIDENCE - INTERNAL ONLY]
4. Confirmation of whether any pilot testing, trialling, calibration, readability
analysis, or validation processes were undertaken before assessment content
was used in schools.
5. 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.
This request relates to system-level assessment development and review
processes only and does not seek any individual student information or copies
of secure assessment item banks”.
On 18 June 2026 you were notified of an extension of the timeframe for our response
due to the consultations necessary to take a decision on your request. I am now in a
position to respond.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
1. 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.
We have interpreted your request to mean a description of the process used to
develop, review, quality assure, and approve the assessment items within SMART.
SMART items are subject to a rigorous quality assurance (QA) process before being
approved and made available to schools and kura.
SMART assessment items are developed within a comprehensive, lifecycle-based
QA framework.
1. Content development
2. Assessment assembly
3. Piloting and trialling (including psychometric analysis)
4. Assessment delivery
5. Marking and reporting
6. Continuous improvement.
Review of assessment quality is provided through QA Panels. QA panels are
involved at various stages as required during the item’s lifecycle. The QA panel is
supported by Ministry staff and contracted subject matter expertise.
Please see below a high-level table of the item development, QA and approval
process:
Assessment items are developed in alignment with the New Zealand 2025
Curriculum (NZC) or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (TMoA).
education.govt.nz
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OIA: GEMS-48260
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Item
Activities
QA processes
Approval
development
stages
Design &
• Item
• Develop and agree the quality
QA panel &
Specifications
requirements
criteria & requirements
Business
and criteria
• QA
panels
review
item
Owner
setting
requirements and quality
criteria.
Development
• Item
Internal (Ministry) QA processes carried QA panel &
development
out against requirements & criteria by
Business
• Source/create the QA panel and business workstream. Owner
stimuli for
• Review of stimuli for reading
reading
• Review items for reading,
• Create
booklets
writing, maths, pānui, tuhituhi
for trials
and pāngarau
• Create
• Review whole assessments and
assessment
trial booklets.
items
External quality assurance
• Internally approved items are
submitted for external specialist
for reviews against
requirements & criteria.
• Sector trials take place to
gather performance data to
inform improvements.
Pre-delivery
• Quality
• Analyse trial data and insights
Business
validation
assurance
• Psychometric analysis of item
Owner
processes to
performance
analyse and
− item difficulty confirmed
validate
− some poor performing items
are removed
− scaling, equating and
standard setting is
completed with sector
standard setting panels
• Any
adjustments
or
further
QA
reviews/ approvals completed if
required
Delivery event
• Monitor
delivery
• Monitor
performance
and
Business
performance
feedback to implement quick
Owner
fixes or backlog items
• Informs
future
improvements
Post-delivery
• Feedback
and
• QA panels analyse item
QA panel
data & insight
performance data and feedback Business
analysis
• Feed forward to inform design
Owner
specifications and future
improvements.
• Following assessment windows,
an external psychometric
analysis of items is completed.
education.govt.nz
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OIA: GEMS-48260
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2. 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.
a. 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.
Ministry staff possess a diverse range of knowledge, skills, and experience. Where
specific skills are needed, relevant staff will be consulted if the Ministry holds the
expertise required.
The table below identifies providers that the Ministry have contracted to augment its
internal capability and capacity with regard to practising educators, curriculum
specialists, assessment experts, psychometricians, literacy specialists, cultural
advisers, accessibility specialists, or other subject matter experts involved in the
review, validation or approval of SMART assessment items.
Supplier Name
Role in relation to SMART and area of
Based in:
expertise
Haemata Tapui Ltd
Role:
New Zealand
SMART item development and assessment
build to align to Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
Expertise:
• Assessment
experts
• Cultural advisors
• Literacy
specialists
• Curriculum
specialists
Takapaukura
Role:
New Zealand
SMART Te Reo Māori rendering/
translation services. On the QA Panel for
item development.
Expertise:
• Translation
Services
• Cultural advisors
Te Ihuwaka Limited
Role:
New Zealand
SMART Te Reo rendering and translation
Expertise:
• Translation
Services
education.govt.nz
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OIA: GEMS-48260
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Kōtare Enterprises Ltd
Role:
New Zealand
Quality assurance for SMART items and
assessments
Expertise:
• Assessment
experts
• Cultural advisors
• Literacy specialists
• Curriculum
specialists
National Foundation For
Role:
England
Educational Research
Psychometric Services for SMART and
(NFER)
Item development / assessment build for
New Zealand Curriculum (NZC)
Expertise:
• Assessment
experts
• Psychometricians
• Literacy specialists
• Assessment content alignment to
curriculum
EdMetric LLC
Role:
United States
Psychometric services for SMART
Expertise:
• Psychometricians
TupuOra
Role:
New Zealand
Te Reo Rangatira and linguistics quality
assurance services
Expertise:
• Cultural
advisors
Evaluation Associates
Role:
New Zealand
Quality assurance for SMART Reading
items & SMART guidance writing
Expertise:
• Assessment
experts
• Cultural advisors
• Literacy specialists
• Curriculum
specialists
3. 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.
In response to
part three of your request, please refer to the response to
part one above. We note that SMART assessment items are specifically designed, and quality
education.govt.nz
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OIA: GEMS-48260
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assured through the QA process to measure student progress against the 2025
New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.
SMART items are reviewed specifically for:
• Curriculum
level
appropriateness.
• Reading level appropriateness.
• Cultural Sustainability (e.g., affirms and reflects learners’ cultural identities,
connects to students lived experiences).
• Linguistic
Representation
(e.g.,
Māori language is represented appropriately,
language is age level appropriate)
• Accessibility criteria (e.g., Cognitive load matches the developmental stage of
the child, Question types and expectation of tool use is appropriate for the
developmental stage of the child, readability considerations are considered)
• Fairness and Bias (e.g., cultural content, imagery and language affirms a
range of personal identity markers and eliminates negative stereotypes, the
item ensures various groups are equally represented).
4. Confirmation of whether any pilot testing, trialling, calibration, readability
analysis, or validation processes were undertaken before assessment
content was used in schools.
In response to
part four of your request,
please refer to the response to
part one above. Piloting and trialling is included in the Quality Assurance process. The first
SMART assessment item trial occurred in Term 4, 2025. The primary purpose of this
SMART trial was to test assessment items and evaluate how well they performed in
practice. Following this trial, an external psychometric analysis of trial items and QA
process was completed before assessment items went live in 2026. Further trialling
and psychometric analysis will occur ahead of future assessment windows.
5. 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.
All items were subject to the QA process (please refer to
part one of your request).
Items used for the 2025 trial and subsequently used in the 2026 SMART go-live date
(23 March 2026) were:
• Designed (once requirements / criteria were set and reviewed)
• Quality assured via internal/external and panel review
• Trialled in Term 4 2025 - after this, a further round of adjustments were made,
and further psychometric tests and QA were completed
• Approved to go into production and therefore made available to schools and
kura.
Please note, we may publish this response on our website after five working days.
Your name and contact details will be removed.
education.govt.nz
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OIA: GEMS-48260
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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.
Thank you again for your email. If you have further questions, please feel free to
contact our media team in the first instance at
[email address].
Nāku noa, nā
Antony Harvey
Acting Hautū | Deputy Secretary
Te Poutāhū | Curriculum Centre
education.govt.nz
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