For example, an example of one particular minority group
wishing to have greater control over assessment tools and practices is
the group of the indigenous people of New Zealand, the Maori community.
The majority of Maori students are in English medium classrooms,
learning in the medium of English
and that's around about 85% of Maori students.
There is, however, a small percentage of students
that are learning in the medium of Maori.
In New Zealand there is no restriction on who enters Maori medium education.
It's up to parents to choose on which form of education they enroll their students.
You don't have to be of Maori descent or belong
to the Maori ethnic group to enroll in Maori medium education.
And in all Maori medium schools and
classrooms you will find students of non-Maori descent.
But, what the New Zealand government has done
is it has sponsored
the development of assessment tools that are in the medium of Maori, that have been
developed by Maori teachers, Maori curriculum experts, trialed amongst the
Maori student population, national norms created that look at how we
can compare individual students, groups of
students compared to the national Maori norms.
And those tools are greatly used by Maori teachers.
It's important to note that these tools
aren't simply a translation of the English equivalent.
They have been developed, trialled by Maori teachers, and okayed and checked by
Maori teachers as being suitable for Maori
students learning through the medium of Maori.
There are other issues that we need to consider
when it comes to the assessment of minority students.
When we are assessing minority students in mainstream cultures, in the case
of New Zealand, those learning through the medium of English, we need to take into
account issues such as bias, fairness, and
sensitivity when it comes to minority populations.
In the case of New Zealand, we have three major minority groups.
We have the Maori community, which is around about 14% of the total population.
The Pacifica community from islands throughout the Pacific -
in particular Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Niue, the Cook Islands, Rarotonga, and
other countries. And also, we have in recent times a sizeable number of Asian students.
And one of the things the New Zealand government does provide some
assessment tools that provide norms for each of these major ethnic groups.
And also, it provides norms for those whose English isn't a first language.