SMART Reports Are Coming Friday… Who Exactly Are These Reports For?

by ELV

This Friday, schools across New Zealand will finally receive the detailed SMART reports from Assessment Window One.

(Assessments taken in April...we are now in June.)

There's just one tiny problem.

Teachers have already written the reports.

They've been printed, sealed in envelopes and carried home in children's bags. Mid-year reports have gone home. Eight weeks of teaching, intervention, observation and assessment have happened since children sat the tests.

So I found myself reading today's Ministry email wondering one very simple thing.

Who exactly are these reports for now?

The email tells us these reports will help teachers "check in on how students are progressing, inform teaching and learning, and support overall judgement when reporting to parents."

That would have been incredibly useful...

...about six weeks ago.

Instead, teachers did what teachers have always done, without the need for $24 million contracts or lattes and flat whites on the Gold Coast. We sat beside our children and read with them. Together we solved problems, noticed misconceptions and adapted tomorrow's lesson because of what happened today.

Instead of thrusting an AI-generated report at whānau, we may have phoned them, had a kōrero at the school gate or even bumped into them in the supermarket and talked about how their child was doing.

We wrote reports based on all of those moments and observations (admittedly forced to use an alien language that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue or align with anything currently being mandated into existence... and who really knows where it all fits within the Phases).

Learning didn't stop or become any less responsive while the data was being scaled, equated and Stanfordised.

One thing did make me smile though.

The return of everyone's favourite word.

Psychometricians.

I swear this word has become the educational equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Whenever confidence in the system needs reinforcing...

...out come the psychometricians.

Whenever reports need defending...

...out come the psychometricians.

Whenever someone wants us to believe the numbers are beyond question...

...there they are again.

It's becoming one of those wonderfully official words — a little like laser focused or gripped up — that's expected to end the conversation simply because nobody wants to admit they don't casually use it over dinner.

After my giggle, I reached the paragraph about writing.

Apparently, after reviewing the data, the psychometricians found that the marking by both teachers and AI hadn't differentiated enough across the writing rubric to allow reliable detailed reporting.

I had to read that twice.

After months of hearing about the power of this assessment system...

...the conclusion is that neither the humans nor the artificial intelligence produced data reliable enough to generate the reports they promised.

That's quite the plot twist.

Now I'm genuinely fascinated about Friday.

Because I'm willing to make a small prediction.

I suspect we'll be shown children making "progress" against the refreshed curriculum.

There's just one awkward question.

Progress compared with what?

The refreshed curriculum is new.

There is no genuine national baseline against it.

No agreed starting line from which to confidently measure growth.

Yet somehow I suspect the graphs will look wonderfully convincing.

The release of these reports aren't really about informing teaching anymore. Perhaps they're about informing someone else?

Whoever they are for I am sure they'll definitely tell us something about the story being built around SMART.

After the recent political discussion about the future of the tool, this release suddenly feels far more interesting than just another data drop.

Will it confirm what teachers have experienced?

Will it acknowledge the limitations?

Or will it reassure the public that everything is working exactly as intended?

If Friday comes and nobody claims these reports prove the success of the reforms, I'll happily eat my words.

But after watching this story unfold for the past year, I suspect the rabbit has already been tucked safely into the hat.