Don’t forget that a curriculum dominated by assessment has been the norm for decades. I don’t think the introduction of standards based assessment has made that any worse. I got the same “is it in the exam?” questions in previous assessment systems. However, it certainly hasn’t improved the siutation.

BUT

Many teachers, departments, and schools have been sucked into an approach which NCEA was never intended for.

The courses I teach are not determined by standards. In fact, History standards largely assess skills rather than content. I also teach Classics, in which the standards are based on content or topics. The standards do not direct my teaching in these subjects. I would be a fool not to prepare them for the exams of course, but the content, coherence and direction of the course is determined by the curriculum. In fact the main limiting factors on learning in my classroom are exams (which were around well before NCEA was introduced) and was, a prescribed syllabus that was both eurocentric and lacked relevance.

Now, suddenly the Revised Curriculum has opened up a world of opportunity. The assessment system will fall into place around this. Standards based assessment allows enormous flexibility. I don’t see it as compartmentalising learning. In fact, our curriculum is already compartmentalised – by subjects. Real learning does not occur through the separation of the whole (and I am not referring to standards, but subjects). Standards based assessment allows us the opportunity to develop the sort of curriculum we want, but most schools have failed to grasp this.

The problem to me is that we have a national qualification system that starts too early and is still dominated by exams. Surely this must change.

I do actually agree with the underlying idea you were arguing for – a coherent curriculum free from the constraints of high stakes assessment, but I don’t think it has anthing to do with the implementation of standards. I strongly believe that teachers are allowing themselves to be directed by these, when that doesn’t have to be the case.

However, the dismantling of high stakes assessment would make a big difference to teaching and learning in secondary schools. I would actually love to see an evidence / portfolio based approach to assessment.