Events

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NZAI Assessment Conference 2025 Registrations are now open

We are delighted to let you know that our NZAI Assessment Conference will once again be taking place next year. It will be held at Ormiston Junior College, East Auckland, from Monday 14 – Tuesday 15 April 2025, both days kanohi ki te kanohi.

The theme of our 2025 conference is Using assessment for better, smarter, faster learning, and we are excited to bring together leaders in the field of education to share insights and best practices.

Registrations are now open, and we encourage you to take advantage of the early bird registration, which closes on Monday 10 March 2025. Register now to secure your spot and enjoy the early bird discount!

Link here for registration.

We are thrilled to announce that the following distinguished keynote speakers will be joining us at NZAI 2025:

Michael De’Ath Recent Director General of Education, Queensland	Hineihaea Murphy Managing Director of Haemata Associates	Dr Jacqui Patuawa National Manager Leadership Development Services Evaluation Associates	Rt. Hon. Erica Stanford   Minister of Education

Early bird registration

Full registration – two days	$475
One day registration	$250
Student full registration	$225
Student one day registration	$150

If you purchase three Early bird Full Registrations from the same organisation, the fourth registration will be free.

If you are the fourth registration from your organisation please email your name and organisation to nzai@theconferencecompany.com, and we will provide you with information on how to avail yourself of the free registration.

Sponsorship Opportunities   We take great pleasure in inviting you to attend the NZAI Assessment Conference as a sponsor and exhibitor.   Our Sponsorship Prospectus is available here, if you would like to discuss sponsorship or exhibition opportunities. Please contact us at nzai@theconferencecompany.com or phone +64 9 360 1240.

 

We look forward to seeing you at the Conference in April. Keep an eye out on this page, where we’ll update you on more details as they become available.

Link here for registration.

 

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  We are celebrating the success of

NZAI Assessment Conference  2024

Taking Assessment from Strength to Strength – in Principle, Practice and Proof

During the first week of the April school holidays, educators from across Aotearoa met together at Ormiston Junior College in Auckland to talk all things assessment. On the next day, we met online, giving the opportunity for more people to join the conversation. We comprised teachers, school leaders, PLD facilitators, education agency personnel, university academics – all education professionals interested in discussing how good assessment practice is a vital component of learning, teaching and system improvement.

Keynote speakers were:

Hon. Erica Stanford – Minister of Education	Lisa Rodgers – Director General at Department of Education, Western Australia	Professor Jenny Poskitt – Massey University and NZAI President	Utufa’asisili Rosemary Mose – Deputy Chief Executive Pasifika NZQA

The Minister detailed her government’s view of how to improve and the Director General of Western Australia explained how they have achieved significant improvements across the state in recent years. The Deputy Chief Executive of NZQA highlighted the approaches needed to boost achievement for the traditionally underserved in our education system and Professor Poskitt emphasised the principles that underpin the use of assessment to improve learning.

Teachers and leaders ran workshops demonstrating their school’s path to demonstrable learner improvement. Some education professionals talked the intricacies of data analysis while others explained culturally responsive assessment practice. We learned about new advances in assessment tools  and  why school culture, relationship building and learner agency are important components of effective assessment practice.

NZAI is of the view that NZ is unlikely to see gains nationally in student learning outcomes until we can all agree on how assessment should be used at each level of the system to support improvement. The conference was focussed on beginning the conversation to achieve that.

Thank you:

to our keynote speakers and workshop presenters, who made their knowledge and experience available to others so that we can add to the our growing body of understanding of what makes good assessment practice.

to our sponsor, Evaluation Associates | Te Huinga Kākākura Mātauranga, who contributed in many ways to making the conference a success, including up to $500 off conference expenses to a lucky winner.

to Ormiston Junior College for generously allowing us to use the school as a wonderful venue, to NZCER for their ongoing support for NZAI and to The Conference Company for running our conference with their usual friendly and helpful eficiency.

and to all those who were interested to attend our conference, either in person or online, attentive to the issues raised by our speakers and workshop presenters. Remember that all online presentations will be available on the TCC platform for three months. We look forward to seeing you again next year, to welcoming others from the education community and in the meantime to keeping you up to date with assessment news. 

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  NZAI Assessment Conference  2023  –  Online presentations are on our website.

Our annual National Assessment Conference was in April, a kanohi ki te kanohi conference at Ormiston Junior College in Auckland and the second day online.

The theme of the conference was: How do we know they are learning?

The keynotes and workshops were outstanding. We were privileged to have the participation of a wide range of presenters who offered their experience and wisdom on assessment from a range of different perspectives. We thank all speakers sincerely for their time and generous willingness to support our conference

You can find all online presentations here on our website. Dive in, they’re worth your time!

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*** NZAI  National Conference 2021 – Presentations are now on our website ***

Our virtual conference at the beginning of October was a great success, despite our initial nervousness about using an online platform for the first time.

Assessment to Improve Learning: Principles, Practices and Proof across the System

We’re extremely grateful to our first class line-up of keynote speakers and workshop presenters who all offered opportunities to broaden and deepen our collective knowledge and understanding of assessment at all tiers of the education system. They have now given us permission to publish their presentations on our website. 

You can find the presentations here.

We encourage you to go back to our publication, Assessment to Improve Learning: Principles, practices and proof, distributed to all schools at the end of Term 1 2021. You’ll be able to make connections with the themes of the conference, and see how the publication can assist you to review the assessment practices in your education setting.