In 2010 the Ministry commissioned a three year monitoring and evaluation project to get a broad overview of the implementation of National Standards in a representative sample of English-medium state schools with Year 1 – 8 students. The National Standards School Sample Monitoring and Evaluation (NSSSME) Project is contracted to Maths Technology Ltd, an independent evaluation company with specialist expertise in literacy, numeracy, educational assessment and evaluation. The project is led by Dr Gill Thomas.
The project collects monitoring and evaluation information from a sample of English-medium state schools as they introduce and implement National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics (Years 1-8). The project tracks the progressive impact of the implementation of National Standards in schools over time, so its focus changes as the implementation focus in schools does.