Hon Hekia Parata
Minister of Education

11 June 2013 Media Statement       

National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori data released

Education Minister Hekia Parata says the latest National Standards data shows an increase in Years 1-8 achievement, particularly for Pasifika children.

She also says the Government has a more complete picture of education in New Zealand with the inclusion of Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori information for the first time.

The 2012 national aggregate data shows:

·         Reported achievement against the National Standard for reading increased by 1.2 per cent from 76.2 per cent in 2011 to 77.4 per cent in 2012.

·         Reported achievement against the National Standard for mathematics increased by 1.4 per cent from 72.2 per cent in 2011 to 73.6 per cent in 2012.

·         Reported achievement against the National Standard for writing increased by 2 per cent from 68 per cent in 2011 to 70 per cent in 2012.

Pasifika children showed the greatest increase on last year, improving by around 3 per cent in all three standards.

“It’s great to see that around 70 per cent of children are at or above the National Standards and the increase in Pasifika achievement.

“It’s a credit to our teaching profession to see progress being made child by child and school by school. I would like to thank teachers and school leaders for all their work and for the continuous improvement in collecting, compiling and using National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori data.

“This data is extremely powerful for both identifying and providing support to all children, and targeting professional development to teachers to continue to improve their overall judgements against the standards.

“This is only the second year that National Standards data has been reported and we expect the quality to continuously improve each year. It gives us a very comprehensive picture of our system and what we need to be focusing on.

“It is also exciting that we now have the Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori information. Our children in kura and schools using Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori are generally at a level where they should be for kōrero, pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau, but the information also shows us where there is room for improvement.’’

Ms Parata says the latest National Standards data is in line with other studies and shows disparity continues to exist in our system, in particular achievement is significantly lower for Māori and Pasifika learners than for others, and boys trail girls.

“We have a range of support in place to help children including Reading Recovery, Reading Together and targeted programmes to accelerate progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

“We expect school leaders and teachers to use their data and to be targeting resources to the areas where extra support is needed.

“We are also looking to introduce the Progress and Consistency Tool for National Standards and Te Waharoa Ararau for Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori later this year which will help support teachers to make reliable and consistent judgements.’’

This is the first year that National Standards data has been disaggregated by year level which shows some concerning trends including a decline in the rate of achievement as the year level increases, especially in mathematics.

“The Ministry has established an advisory group of experts in the fields of literacy and numeracy and asked them to consider National Standards data and other information and make recommendations about what we can do better to address these issues.

“Ensuring each and every child gets a good education is the most important thing our Government can do to raise living standards and create a more productive and competitive economy.”

Notes to Editors

National Standards data

Around 450,000 students were assessed using National Standards.

Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori data

Please note Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori cannot be directly compared to National Standards because the curricula are different. Around 22,000 students were assessed against Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori.

Individual school data will be released later this month on the education counts website along with Regional and Territorial Local Authority analysis.

National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori are part of Public Achievement Information available on the Ministry of Education’s ‘Education Counts’ website.

Public Achievement Information includes National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori data, Education Review Office (ERO) reports, schools’ annual reports, NCEA data, and relevant national and international reports. It allows parents to see how their child’s school is performing and will allow the Government to see how well the system is doing as a whole in order to raise achievement for all children.

For more information go to:

2012 National Standards / Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori - Home Page
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/National-Standards_Nga-Whanaketanga-Rumaki-Maori

2012 National Standards Achievement Results - Main Page
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/National-Standards_Nga-Whanaketanga-Rumaki-Maori/122072

2012 Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori Achievement Results - Main Page
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/National-Standards_Nga-Whanaketanga-Rumaki-Maori/121977

Summary of 2012 Achievement Results - National Standards & Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/National-Standards_Nga-Whanaketanga-Rumaki-Maori/122331

ENDS

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