Three quarters of primary aged school children not at level of new curriculum
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
Only a quarter of children at the end of intermediate school were writing and doing maths last year at the level expected by new curriculums introduced this year.
The Curriculum Insights study tested children in Years 3, 6 and 8 last year and results were released on Tuesday.
The study found children were doing about as well as in previous years.
But it found few were performing at the level expected by the incoming maths and English curriculums.
Just 22 percent of Year 3 children, 30 percent of Year 6 children and 23 percent of Year 8s were doing maths at the expected level.
And in writing 41 percent of Year 3s, 33 percent of Year 6 children and 24 percent of Year 8s were at the level expected of their age group.
The study was run by Otago University and the NZ Council for Educational Research for the Education Ministry.
The projects conceptual lead, Dr Charles Darr, from the NZCER said: "These results provide an early indication of student achievement in relation to the national performance aspirations of the refreshed curriculum".
"They give us an important starting point for understanding how students are progressing and how expectations are taking shape during this time of change."
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the results confirmed why it was "mission critical" to focus on reading, writing and maths in classrooms this year.
She said the results showed the government had "stemmed the decline of maths achievement" because maths achievement against the level of the new curriculum had increased from 22 percent in 2023 to 23 percent in 2024.
However, the study's authors said: "In both mathematics and writing, average scores are similar to those recorded in previous assessments, indicating that achievement remains stable".
"The study's new benchmarking, aligned to the refreshed curriculum, sets performance expectations that are higher than in the past.
"These results show where students currently sit in relation to those expectations."
The
study was developed from the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement
.
Stanford was due to make an announcement at Brooklyn School in Wellington on Tuesday after lunch.
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