In 2010 the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP) examined what a nationally representative sample of New Zealand students in year 4 and year 8 know and can do in writing, reading and mathematics, and their perceptions of these areas of the curriculum.
The ‘light sampling’ approach (sampling of students and assessment tasks) means that different groups of students answered different sets of tasks. Group A focused mainly on writing, Group B focused mainly on reading and Group C focused mainly on mathematics.
In each area of the curriculum, questions and tasks were clustered conceptually to form several dimensions of interest. In writing, for example, the dimensions of interest (clusters) were surface features, deep features and demonstrating understanding. The cluster scores and total scores formed the basis of reporting on students’ achievement.
The growth in achievement between year 4 and year 8 was measured using the assessment task components that were in common. As 2010 was the normal four-year cycle for writing, trends in achievement since 2006 are reported.
Effect sizes were used to examine differences between demographic subgroups of students’ overall performance. The eight demographic variables included gender, ethnicity and whether English or another language was used at home, school type, school size, zone, community size and socio-economic index.
Students’ attitudes to and opportunities for writing, reading or mathematics were examined through a number of open-ended and rating questions. Correlational analyses were undertaken to explore the relationship between achievement and attitudes and opportunities. Trends in perceptions since 1998 were examined for attitudinal questions for writing, reading and mathematics.