The assessments tab shows all the assessments that you are authorised to view. Unlike in the home tab, you can view assessments that are retired and filter your assessments by date and other criteria.

Filtering assessments

When viewing the assessment tab, you may wish to filter the assessments you see so that only a subset is visible. You can filter by criteria – including combining criteria so the filter meets your exact needs.

The available filter criteria are:

• Status (active, non-active or retired)
• Assessment area (numeracy, reading, vocabulary or writing)
• Assessment type (adaptive, non-adaptive, snapshot, non-adaptive for printing, non-adaptive snapshot for printing)
• Date (by date range created).

In addition, selecting “show more options” lets you add further filtering options for:

• Assessment strand (Number Knowledge, Number Strategies and Measurement, General Numeracy, Read with Understanding, or Vocabulary), and
• Difficulty (the step selected for non-adaptive assessments).

To filter using these criteria:

1. Select the criteria you wish to filter by. For date ranges, use the date picker to select the date range. For all other criteria, select the checkbox next to the criteria name.
2. Select “apply filter”.

Note that once a filter has been applied to the assessments tab, it will remain filtered during the LNAAT session that the tab is accessed in. The filtering will be removed once the session is ended or if you click “reset filter”.

Creating an assessment – overview

Assessment areas

The LNAAT allows you to assess six different areas:

• Reading assessments assess the learner's ability against the Read with Understanding assessment strand.
• Numeracy assessments assess the learner's ability against either the Number Knowledge or Number Strategies and Measurement Assessment Strands or in General Numeracy, which is a combination of both strands.
• Vocabulary assessments assess the learner's ability to use vocabulary knowledge. They are designed for learners who are achieving at or below the lower steps of the Reading Progressions. See the PDF at the bottom of the page for more information.
• Writing assessments assess the learner's writing skills on six dimensions under the Write to Communicate assessment strand.
• Starting Points listening assessments assess the learner's knowledge of a basic range of New Zealand English words.
• Starting Points reading assessments assess the learner's ability based on the Starting Points assessment guide.

For more information on how to create these assessments see:

• Creating a Reading Assessment
• Creating a Numeracy Assessment
• Creating a Vocabulary Assessment
• Creating a Writing Assessment

Types of assessment

Reading and numeracy assessments can be set as “adaptive”, “non-adaptive”, “non-adaptive for printing”, or “snapshot”, whereas vocabulary assessments can only be set as “adaptive”.

Writing assessments can only be performed as written, offline assessments that are then marked and entered into the LNAAT to be assigned a score.

Adaptive assessments (also called computer adaptive tests, or CAT assessments) mark the learner's response as they progress through the assessment, selecting each next set of questions based on the results of the answers the learner has already given.

In this way, the LNAAT can usually arrive at a more precise assessment of the learner's ability as it is able to dynamically adjust the questions. This avoids an assessment that is too easy or difficult overall for each individual learner.

Non-adaptive assessments are also performed on the computer but use an algorithm to determine a likely spread of questions based on a starting point that is chosen when creating the assessment.

Non-adaptive assessments have the advantage that everyone is answering the same set of questions. However, they run the risk of the assessment being too easy or too hard for some learners.

Non-adaptive for printing assessments are non-adaptive assessments that are specifically created to be printed and handed out to the learners for completion (for example, when an online assessment cannot be performed due to lack of internet access).

The answers for these types of assessments are automatically compiled in a marking guide. This is then used to mark the assessment, after which the marks are entered into the LNAAT by the educator or organisation administrator.

Snapshot assessments (available only for reading or numeracy) are shorter adaptive assessments aimed at using a minimum number of items to make a broad estimate of a learner’s achievement level.

When creating a snapshot assessment, educators must either set a step-level threshold or choose “no threshold”.

When a threshold is set, the LNAAT will terminate the assessment once there is sufficient confidence around the result to categorise the learner as achieving either below or above the threshold step. If the LNAAT cannot categorise the result after about 16 items, it will terminate the assessment and report a threshold decision of “undecided”.

If the “no threshold” option is selected, the LNAAT will not attempt to categorise a learner as above or below a threshold step and will simply terminate after about 16 items. 

Snapshot assessments will always report a best-fit step and a scale score (with a margin of error), whether or not a threshold has been set. See the PDF at the bottom of the page for more information.

Non-adaptive snapshot for printing assessments (available only for reading or numeracy) are shorter non-adaptive assessments that are specifically created to be printed and handed out to the learners for completion.

After assessments are created

Once an assessment is created, an organisation administrator can assign it to an educator so that it appears on their home tab.

Adaptive assessments (including snapshot and vocabulary assessments) are automatically retired 26 weeks after creation. Non-adaptive, non-adaptive for printing, non-adaptive snapshot for printing, and writing assessments will retire 16 weeks after creation.

Retired assessments are only visible under the assessments tab once they have reached their expiry date.

Get a data engine extract of learner assessment results

You can generate a report which will generate a file containing all assessment results in numeracy, reading, vocabulary and writing for all selected learners.

Demographic data is included to assist in student management system integration.To get this extract, from the assessment tab:

1. Select the check box to the left of the assessment name(s) you would like included in the extract.
2. Under the “data engine extracts” panel in the side menu, select a date range below the learner assessment results.
3. Under the “learner assessment results” panel in the side menu, select “get extract”.
4. Click on “Click here to download the Data Engine Extract”.
5. Choose whether to save or open the file when prompted. 

Key documents

• Snapshot assessments information (PDF 105 KB)
• Vocabulary assessment information (PDF 1.1 MB)