Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) are standardised tests available for students in Years 3-10, and are one of the options available to schools in 2025 as they are encouraged to assess twice yearly in reading, writing and maths.
NZCER developed the PATs more than 40 years ago, and has been updating them regularly since – including our recent equity-focused refresh of maths (now PAT Pāngarau) and reading comprehension (now PAT Pānui).
Each PAT is designed to assess an important capability, such as reading comprehension, that develops over time and across the curriculum. When developing questions, careful attention is paid to how the curriculum defines these capabilities and how they are expected to develop.
We are currently developing PAT reporting that will align scale scores on the new PAT Pānui and PAT Pāngarau to curriculum expectations – but this remains a work in progress as the curriculum is finalised. When this new reporting is completed, it will be possible to draw a direct link between a scale score on a PAT and how this relates to curriculum expectations.
In the meantime, teachers are encouraged to become familiar with the new phase outcome statements and consider how these align with test content.
A word about stanines
Stanines are one way we can group ākonga based on their PAT scores. However, it’s important to remember that stanines are relative. They are based on the information we get from students sitting PATs in Term 1 – so a test score that places in a high stanine is good relative to other students sitting the same test.
This means that if overall achievement levels are low, a high stanine may not be an indication of meeting all curriculum expectations at that year level. Conversely, if overall student achievement is high, a lower stanine may not be an indication of not meeting curriculum expectations.
Got more questions about PATs? Contact us here!