Data from the National Survey of Secondary Schools shows many principals expressing concern about plans to replace NCEA.

The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) is pleased to announce the launch of PAT Tuhituhi Te Pihinga – a standardised, paper-based writing assessment for Years 3-4. This assessment ...

Janine Simpson is NZCER's Kaituki Ratonga Aromatawai | Team Lead Assessment Services. She has worked in primary education as a classroom teacher, school leader, and mathematics facilitator. Learning ...

This year, the Ministry of Education expects schools to include five common components in reporting to parents and whānau. These are: Progress Descriptors for reading, writing and maths a visual ...

NZCER has completed work on interim mapping tables that support the interpretation of PAT Pānui | Reading Comprehension and PAT Pāngarau | Mathematics results in relation to the Ministry of ...

With assessment high on the agenda for many schools, we have seen a strong takeup of the Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) so far this term. But how can you make sure you're getting the most out of ...

The following is from our Term 1, 2026 Assessment News pānui. If you'd like to receive this pānui as it is released, you can sign up here. Welcome back to another school year! We imagine there’s ...

A quick thought experiment – imagine asking students to solve the problem ½ + ¼. How do they respond? How do they get to those responses? To many, this will look like a simple problem using familiar ...

Update, 4 March 2026: This update has taken place and changes have been applied to PAT Pānui scale scores. You can find an updated summary of average scores and progress here. NZCER has updated the ...

This is some of the most important information from the Term 4 Assessment News, our once-per-term pānui about all things assessment. To stay up to date with it as it is released, click here to ...

With change on the horizon for school assessment, it is worth pausing to take stock of the current landscape. The government’s move toward requiring schools to use standardised tests twice a year, ...

NZCER has run a National Survey of Primary Schools regularly since 1989, with the last survey of primary school teachers taking place in 2019. This enables us to monitor trends over time and assess ...