July 14, 2025 • 6 mins
New data shows there's been a noticeable surge in high school students passing NCEA numeracy and literacy assessments.
Latest results show 57 percent achieved the maths standard across all year levels in May this year, up from 45 percent in the same month last year.
61 percent met the reading standard for all year levels - up from 58 percent.
Education Minister Erica Stanford says she's 'proud' to see that achievement rates have gone up.
"We've turned the corner, we have a relentless focus on achievement, on literacy and numeracy an hour a day - the clear curriculum, the standard teaching practices and all those resources we're putting in - we're now starting to see these results improving."
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Student results are improving in the NCAA numeracy and literacy
test mass is going gangbusters, but reading up only slightly
or flat same with So I've got the numbers here
for you. Actually, fifty seven percent of students across all
year levels have passed the numeracy test, sixty one percent
past the reading, and fifty five percent have passed the writing. Now,
(00:22):
these are the tests that all students have to pass
before they can be awarded any level of nca so
they are very important. Erica Stamford is the Ministry of
Education and is with us now. Minister, good afternoon, good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Right, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm well, thank you? What you'll be pleased with these?
Are you?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Look? I'm really proud that I'm a minister who's able
to sit here today and not to have to say
here's another dot point on the graph of decline. You know,
we've turned the corner. We have a relentless focus on
achievement on literacy and numerousy hour a day, the clear curriculum,
the standard teaching practices and all the resources we're putting
(01:01):
in and we are now starting to see these results improving.
We've still got a long way to go as you
can see.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, but yes we do. But the results themselves, on
the face of it, the numeracy results, fifty seven percent
of students achieve the standard across all your levels, up
from forty five percent. That's massive, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well it's even bigger when you look at the low
de SOOL schools, and I want to do a shout
out to all of those principles and teachers in our
lower des SOL schools because the same point last year,
less than twenty percent of those kids we're getting across
the line this year in the same period this year
in May and our results from May it was thirty
four percent. That is massive. They are leading the turnaround
(01:41):
and part of its government investment, but part of it
is the huge emphasis at our schools and are putting
on literacy and numeracy. So they need to be celebrated
for those results.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, I wanted to hone in on that one. So
that's like a fifteen percent improvement. How do you do
that in a year You've said in your statement that
it's down to a particular two point two million dollars
of investment in low decile schools. That's a hell of
a payoff, what exactly is that funding for.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Look, there's a number of things we did. We didn't
just invest in those young people. And I came out
over at the end of last year and said, look,
we know where these students are. We know the schools
of concern where we need to go and help upscale
their teachers and make sure those students are being targeted
to get additional assistance to get them across the line.
But it's also the focus we've had in the last
(02:32):
eighteen months. All I have talked about is writing, maths
and achievement an hour a day, getting rid of cell phones,
having an absolute laser focus on that, and not focusing
on all the other stuff that doesn't actually shift the dial,
but focusing on this stuff. And when you have a
clear focus from the top, schools have responded and they've
done an enormously enormous amount of work to get across
(02:53):
the line.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
So this wasn't actually about you think less about funding
more just about what people were focusing on.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, it's a bit of both. I mean, we did
put some funding in and we did go to one
hundred and forty one schools and say, look, you guys
are the ones we've targeted, we've assessed as needing targeted interventions,
and we did invest in those schools and those teachers.
But I think more of it is the fact that
we have had a focus on this. If you look
over the last six years of the previous government, they
defunded maths PLD for goodness sake, it wasn't a priority.
(03:24):
Every breath I take, every word I speak is reading, writing,
maths and achievement. And schools have responded.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So you mentioned in your statement, you say the government's
two point two million dollar investment in twenty twenty four
to provide targeted support to students in the low DEESCTYLE
schools has resulted in these achieving these assessment achievements. What
exactly was that money, what did it go to and
when was it paid out.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It's been ongoing since the end of last year and
we went to a third party, I believe a third
party I think it was Evaluation Associates or provide support
for those schools. So they went in and they helped
teachers work with those students who needed additional support and
help them with what that looked like.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So that was the end of last year and Aready
already we're saying that this has had a massive impact.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I forget the exact date. It wasn't right at the
end of last year. I think it might have been
the beginning of term for I forget the exact date.
But once we saw the results from last year, we
realized we knew the names of all of these children
almost we knew which schools are at. We heat mapped
where they were, and we went to those one hundred
and forty one schools and said, here is a whole
lot of support for you to help get these kids
across the line. But look, that was one of the things.
(04:42):
I still think that that the schools on their own
have done a huge amount of heavy lifting. Even without
the schools who haven't had that funding, they've done a
huge amount of work because of the focus they've had
on reading, writing, and maths. Because it's been a clear
directive from this government I think.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean, look, I'm not complaining. I think this is fantastic.
But just if you're a parent out there listening to this,
and you know your kids that are like their style school,
you'll be thinking, what on earth so we can get
a fifteen percentage point increase? Just by telling people that
they should be doing maths.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
No, well, look, there's been a Look, there's been some
other things we did as well. I mean, I've made
it very clear to one of the issues that we
had was the really difficult language and the tale words
that they were using in some of those assessments, the
numerous the assessments, and I said, hey, you need to
make sure that you are translating the word if it's
(05:35):
in today, because we've got a whole lot of English
first language speakers at those schools who are migrant children
or they are their parents are migrants, and their English
is their second language, and so we need to make
sure that we are using English words or translating at least.
I remember. I remember one teacher said to me, I
had an international student or a migrant student who said,
(05:56):
who is Manuka and why is he sleeping at the
bottom of the garden when we were talking a Monucah sleeper. Now,
you and I know what a monuca sleeper is, but
for an English's second language student, they don't. So there
were some little tweaks there as well to make sure
we're using words that everybody understands. So it's less about
understanding the word and more about the actual numeracy component
as well, But that was only a very small part
(06:17):
of it. I think for most part it was that
the work that teachers and principles have done with a
focus on numeracy in the classroom.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Okay, interesting, appreciate your time, Minister, Erica Stanford Education Ministry.
For more from Heather Duplassy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
Student results are improving in the NCAA numeracy and literacy
test mass is going gangbusters, but reading up only slightly
or flat same with So I've got the numbers here
for you. Actually, fifty seven percent of students across all
year levels have passed the numeracy test, sixty one percent
past the reading, and fifty five percent have passed the writing. Now,
(00:22):
these are the tests that all students have to pass
before they can be awarded any level of nca so
they are very important. Erica Stamford is the Ministry of
Education and is with us now. Minister, good afternoon, good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Right, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm well, thank you? What you'll be pleased with these?
Are you?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Look? I'm really proud that I'm a minister who's able
to sit here today and not to have to say
here's another dot point on the graph of decline. You know,
we've turned the corner. We have a relentless focus on
achievement on literacy and numerousy hour a day, the clear curriculum,
the standard teaching practices and all the resources we're putting
(01:01):
in and we are now starting to see these results improving.
We've still got a long way to go as you
can see.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, but yes we do. But the results themselves, on
the face of it, the numeracy results, fifty seven percent
of students achieve the standard across all your levels, up
from forty five percent. That's massive, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well it's even bigger when you look at the low
de SOOL schools, and I want to do a shout
out to all of those principles and teachers in our
lower des SOL schools because the same point last year,
less than twenty percent of those kids we're getting across
the line this year in the same period this year
in May and our results from May it was thirty
four percent. That is massive. They are leading the turnaround
(01:41):
and part of its government investment, but part of it
is the huge emphasis at our schools and are putting
on literacy and numeracy. So they need to be celebrated
for those results.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, I wanted to hone in on that one. So
that's like a fifteen percent improvement. How do you do
that in a year You've said in your statement that
it's down to a particular two point two million dollars
of investment in low decile schools. That's a hell of
a payoff, what exactly is that funding for.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Look, there's a number of things we did. We didn't
just invest in those young people. And I came out
over at the end of last year and said, look,
we know where these students are. We know the schools
of concern where we need to go and help upscale
their teachers and make sure those students are being targeted
to get additional assistance to get them across the line.
But it's also the focus we've had in the last
(02:32):
eighteen months. All I have talked about is writing, maths
and achievement an hour a day, getting rid of cell phones,
having an absolute laser focus on that, and not focusing
on all the other stuff that doesn't actually shift the dial,
but focusing on this stuff. And when you have a
clear focus from the top, schools have responded and they've
done an enormously enormous amount of work to get across
(02:53):
the line.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
So this wasn't actually about you think less about funding
more just about what people were focusing on.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, it's a bit of both. I mean, we did
put some funding in and we did go to one
hundred and forty one schools and say, look, you guys
are the ones we've targeted, we've assessed as needing targeted interventions,
and we did invest in those schools and those teachers.
But I think more of it is the fact that
we have had a focus on this. If you look
over the last six years of the previous government, they
defunded maths PLD for goodness sake, it wasn't a priority.
(03:24):
Every breath I take, every word I speak is reading, writing,
maths and achievement. And schools have responded.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So you mentioned in your statement, you say the government's
two point two million dollar investment in twenty twenty four
to provide targeted support to students in the low DEESCTYLE
schools has resulted in these achieving these assessment achievements. What
exactly was that money, what did it go to and
when was it paid out.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It's been ongoing since the end of last year and
we went to a third party, I believe a third
party I think it was Evaluation Associates or provide support
for those schools. So they went in and they helped
teachers work with those students who needed additional support and
help them with what that looked like.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So that was the end of last year and Aready
already we're saying that this has had a massive impact.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I forget the exact date. It wasn't right at the
end of last year. I think it might have been
the beginning of term for I forget the exact date.
But once we saw the results from last year, we
realized we knew the names of all of these children
almost we knew which schools are at. We heat mapped
where they were, and we went to those one hundred
and forty one schools and said, here is a whole
lot of support for you to help get these kids
across the line. But look, that was one of the things.
(04:42):
I still think that that the schools on their own
have done a huge amount of heavy lifting. Even without
the schools who haven't had that funding, they've done a
huge amount of work because of the focus they've had
on reading, writing, and maths. Because it's been a clear
directive from this government I think.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean, look, I'm not complaining. I think this is fantastic.
But just if you're a parent out there listening to this,
and you know your kids that are like their style school,
you'll be thinking, what on earth so we can get
a fifteen percentage point increase? Just by telling people that
they should be doing maths.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
No, well, look, there's been a Look, there's been some
other things we did as well. I mean, I've made
it very clear to one of the issues that we
had was the really difficult language and the tale words
that they were using in some of those assessments, the
numerous the assessments, and I said, hey, you need to
make sure that you are translating the word if it's
(05:35):
in today, because we've got a whole lot of English
first language speakers at those schools who are migrant children
or they are their parents are migrants, and their English
is their second language, and so we need to make
sure that we are using English words or translating at least.
I remember. I remember one teacher said to me, I
had an international student or a migrant student who said,
(05:56):
who is Manuka and why is he sleeping at the
bottom of the garden when we were talking a Monucah sleeper. Now,
you and I know what a monuca sleeper is, but
for an English's second language student, they don't. So there
were some little tweaks there as well to make sure
we're using words that everybody understands. So it's less about
understanding the word and more about the actual numeracy component
as well, But that was only a very small part
(06:17):
of it. I think for most part it was that
the work that teachers and principles have done with a
focus on numeracy in the classroom.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Okay, interesting, appreciate your time, Minister, Erica Stanford Education Ministry.
For more from Heather Duplassy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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