Steve McCracken: Secondary Principals' Council Chair on the increase in NCEA exam support requests

More students are needing extra help while sitting their NCEA exams, new data shows. 

NZQA data shows Special Assessment Condition applications have tripled in the past decade, with more than 23 thousand last year. 

The support can include extra time or rest breaks for students with learning or mental health needs. 

Secondary Principals' Council chair Steve McCracken told Mike Hosking the significant increase is likely a result of schools and systems becoming more aware of potential support needed to perform in high-pressure assessment conditions.  

He says technology is getting better and medical diagnosis and referrals from health professionals are becoming more prevalent.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Classic floodgate story. I think this one new data on
NCEEA Special assessment applications are more than tripled in the
past decade. So go back to twenty fifteen, there were
eight hundred and forty three applying for special assistants. Last
year it was twenty three, one hundred and forty one.
Why Steve McCrackan is the Secondary Principals Council chair and
as with us, Steve, morning to you, Good morning mate.

(00:20):
Is this a good example of give people an excuse
they'll use it?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
No, not at all. I don't think there's an excuse.
What we've seen is actually more robust assessments of young
people in order to be able to assess their knowledge.
So yeah, it's a great way in terms of supporting
young people and making sure that they can perform the
best that they possibly can when they need to.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Does it vary widely between level one and level three
in terms of applications.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I don't know those exact numbers, Mike. However, it starts
all the way through in terms of not only from
mgqa's perspective, but from a school perspective around year nine
and ten as well, around how we start to train
and encourage young people to use those assessment conditions that
they need to perform the best that they can. So
I wouldn't be able to give you an exact number

(01:07):
on the differences between level one and three.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Is the treatment school by school, year by year universal
or is it sort of got it made up as
you go along, depending on the mood of the day,
vibe about it.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh, no, not at all. It is definitely year by
year and making sure that things are appropriate and nationally
sound in terms of making sure that there is coherence
and considerations across the country.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
But how do you do all the difference? So I've
got diagnosis of ADHD, that's clinical, I can prove it,
et cetera. But versus the person who goes, I'm anxious,
how do you measure that?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, that is difficult to measure. And we as schools,
we rely on the professionals to give us that information.
And there's obviously processes that we have to adhere to
from an MZQA perspective, and there's set criteria and things
as well. Not all students who apply for it get
their special assessment requests, so it is quite a robust
process and many of our young people have years of

(02:08):
reports and things that they feed into to receive those
assessment conditions.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
So how would you explain sixty eight hundred to twenty
three thousand in a ten year period. What has happened there?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, that's a significant increase, isn't it? And you could
easily look at the pandemic and that's excusable. What I
think that that is related to is actually schools and
that the systems are becoming more aware as well as
parents and students themselves more aware of the potential of
learning needs to be able to perform in those high
pressure assessment conditions. So the technology is getting better. The

(02:45):
assessments in terms of medical diagnosis and referrals from professionals
and health professionals are becoming more prevalent and in a
good way as well. So I think there's a range
of things that can't just be paid to one or
two things.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Mike, Okay, nice to talk to you, appreciate it. Steve mcrackan,
who's the secondary principle's peer council, I assume he's relatively now.
I don't think I've dealt with him before, and I
like the culdor.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
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