Moderation - your ongoing commitment Moderation means a process of monitoring and evaluating assessment documentation and decisions to ensure that standards are applied validly and consistently to all students. The moderation system for Agriculture ITO units is called an Accreditation and Moderation Action Plan (AMAP). It is registered with NZQA and can be viewed at their website. Moderation has two main components: Internal moderation - the 'in-house' process of insuring consistency with the national standards and between assessors with an organisation. External moderation - the process run by the Agriculture ITO to ensure national consistency between tertiary education organisation (TEO) including public and private tertiary education providers, industry training organisations, government training organisations, and school's. Internal Moderation Internal moderation correctly carried out by a school will simplify the external moderation process required by the Agriculture ITO. Set up internal moderation group containing no less than two staff members who are actively assessing and agree a schedule of meeting to cover the pre and post assessment activity you have planned for the year. You will need to use a consistent set of assessment documents covering student and teacher material.  Agriculture ITO has assessment documents available covering an ever increasing range of unit standards.  For information on what documents are available contact quality@agricultureito.ac.nz.  You can use Agriculture ITOs assessment documents or develop your own.  If you choose to develop your own, you will need to compare it against the scope of the unit standard/s to ensure coverage and get it pre- assessment moderated by Agricultture ITO, contact us at quality@agricultureito.ac.nz to complete this process. After you have assessed unit standards, especially for the first time, collect samples of assessment material (three per teacher/assessor is a good guide to start with). Material may include observation notes, verbal questions and model answers, practical assignments, marking sheets, and notes made on discussions with students. Samples should ideally cover a range of assessment outcomes e.g. exceeded requirements, just meet requirements and not yet competent.  Try to avoid extremely good or bad examples of assessment as the decisions are clearer cut and the ability to discuss and debate assessment judgments is limited.   Check with other staff and your quality management system (QMS) for an internal moderation checklist. If you don't have one, develop one to help consistency, you can always make changes to the document but add the latest copy to your QMS. At scheduled moderation meeting/s evaluate and discuss assessments and provide feedback and/or recommendations to the assessor. If required, make amendments to assessment documentation and if you have questions about the unit standard itself report any suggestions or feedback to Agriculture ITO quality@agricultureito.ac.nz. Document results of internal moderation meetings and file the checklists with copies of the assessment material, that way if you need to provide sample for external moderation you'll have them easily to hand.  The Agriculture ITO publishes a list of standards from which external moderation standards will be selected each year. To view the latest list please download the Moderation Newsletter. All accredited schools that have actively assessed Agriculture ITO unit standards in the previous year are required to submit a moderation report covering their internal and external moderation activity, the documented coverage and results of internal meetings will help you complete this report. Agriculture ITO will send you a copy as a reminder when it needs to be completed. External Moderation Agriculture ITO's national external moderation system consists of four main activities.  All accredited organisations assessing against Agriculture ITO's unit standards are required to participate in these activities. 1. Provider Cluster Groups Agriculture ITO requires accredited schools to participate in a local Provider Cluster Group to moderate a sample of their theory and practical assessment materials and decisions, with others who are involved in assessing against Agriculture ITO unit standards. Agriculture ITO will publish the list of standards from which the cluster groups will select the standards they will moderate each year.  The Agriculture ITO will ensure a Moderator is available to each cluster group to provide advice and support and to record and report on moderation outcomes.  Agriculture ITO expects accredited schools to take responsibility for attending cluster group meetings. Feedback to Agriculture ITO has indicated that Provider Cluster Group participation is valuable to accredited schools as it provides opportunities to share ideas, seek feedback, network, and maintain currency with industry practice. 2. Provider assessment material To facilitate national consistency, the National Moderator will request samples of assessment material and student scripts from accredited schools for selected theory unit standards twice yearly.  A panel of Moderators will be convened to moderate assessment material and student scripts.  A plan of the unit standards to be sampled by the National Moderator will be published at the start of each year in the Moderation Newsletter sent to all accredited schools. Providers with accreditation for multiple sites must provide samples from each site. Where available, the student scripts supplied should be those with borderline assessment decisions where credit was awarded and where credit was not awarded. The National Moderator will report the outcomes of moderation to the accredited school.  Assessment material that does not meet the national standard will be required to be resubmitted by a specified date for approval before it can be used again. 3. On-site visits to schools Each year the Agriculture ITO undertakes to visit and interview a sample of accredited schools.  Those selected for a visit will be advised of the visit at the beginning of the year by letter.  A team of Moderators, a pair of Moderators, or an individual Moderator will conduct the visit depending on the amount of assessment being undertaken and the nature of the unit standards being assessed against. The intention of the visit is to ensure that moderation outcomes from Provider Cluster Group meetings and national panels are actioned, and to facilitate the accredited school's engagement in the Agriculture ITO's national external moderation system.  The visit is intended to sample assessment practices and assessor decisions in relation to unit standards, to provide support and guidance for training delivery and assessment against Agriculture ITO unit standards, and to foster partnership between the ITO and the accredited school.  Feedback will be provided by a report, and any actions to bring about compliance with moderation requirements will be identified. 4. Moderation report for schools All accredited schools that have actively assessed against Agriculture ITO unit standards in the previous year are required to submit a moderation report to the Agriculture ITO's National Moderator.  The report will cover moderation activities undertaken by the TEO or school in the previous year. The annual report is for the school to summarise internal activity and their engagement with the Agriculture ITO's national external moderation system; it includes attendance at provider cluster group meetings, and actions taken by the school to bring their assessment material and assessor decisions into line with the national standard following moderation panel feedback where minor improvements were required as opposed to resubmission of assessment material. Please remember if you need assistance please contact Agriculture ITO, Quality Assurance Manager, PO Box 10-383,The Terrace, Wellington 6143 or email quality@agricultureito.ac.nz.