Primary schools to measure student progress

The Government has made a decision to shift towards a system that measures student progress, alongside National Standards / Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori, to help ensure every student gets the support they need to achieve, Education Minister Nikki Kaye says.

“Monitoring student progress gives teachers more data on which to tailor learning plans for their students – and we want to roll this out to all primary schools and kura,” Ms Kaye says.

“Measuring progression means teachers will be able to see how far children have come in the specific learning areas that make up National Standards.

“The changes agreed by Cabinet will see teachers able to track progress during the school year as students continue to learn and master new skills.

“Measuring progression will help build on the gains already being made in student achievement.

“We have a good record on lifting achievement overall. We have done this by funding for more children to participate in early learning, introducing national standards, implementing Communities of Learning and investing more to support young people at risk of not achieving. Progression is another step in our plan.

“The change also reflects the education sector’s observation that we don’t adequately show a student’s progress over time, particularly for students who may be below the standard, and this will help address that.”

To support teachers the Ministry of Education has developed progress tools, such as Learning Progression Frameworks, the Progress and Consistency Tool and Whakatupuranga, that help show how children are doing and how they can progress. These have been developed in a number of areas including reading, writing, maths and digital technologies.

The Government wants to roll out tools like these to all primary schools and kura as evidence shows they deliver real benefits for teachers and kaiako, by streamlining paperwork and reducing their reporting workload.

“Practical details of this change will be worked through with the sector before it is fully implemented, but we intend for it to be rolled out within three years,” says Ms Kaye.

“We will be holding an education summit later this year to work with academics, the education sector and international specialists to ensure the design of the new system is evidence based.”