Tēnā koutou, and we hope you're preparing for a wonderful holiday period. As NZCER begins preparations for a massive 2026, we thought we'd take a look back at everything released so far this year. Who knows, perhaps you'll find your dream holiday read within!
2025 in aromatawai and assessment
With schools having the choice of using Progressive Achievement Tests for their assessment in 2026 and beyond, it was a big year for our standardised tests - which have now been around for more than 50 years!
The big release was PAT Tuhituhi | PAT Writing, a standardised writing test with automated scoring. It can assess writing in genres of persuasive, narrative, recount or informative, as selected by the teacher. You can read more about the assessment here.
We also released a huge number of updates for our assessments: including whānau reporting and item-level reporting for PATs, SMS integration for PAT Tuhituhi, updated average scale scores, and more than 70 new items for Te Urungi, our beginner's assessment for te reo Māori.
Looking ahead to 2026, we are working on curriculum alignment for PATs now that the 0-10 statements are gazetted, and the expansion of PAT Tuhituhi to Year 3 and 4 ākonga! Also as a quick reminder - nothing changes for PATs in 2026. They will continue to be a trusted, research-based set of assessments available for schools.
Of course, our work in the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study continues apace as well. Key releases here were the maths and writing foundation area reports on student achievement against the curriculum, and the Pouārahi report on supporting ākonga Māori in writing.
2025 in rangahau
All told, NZCER published 21 reports in 2025 - a combination of Te Pae Tawhiti research (funded through a government grant for NZCER to do work that supports its strategic priorities) and commissioned research, which other organisations contract us to do.
The refreshed curriculum has been a huge focus in the public eye this year, and NZCER has produced several reports that provide evidence about curriculum implementation and feedback.
We had two Te Pae Tawhiti reports focusing on the Aotearoa NZ Histories curriculum - one summarising school leader and kaiako perspectives, and another on ākonga and whānau perspectives. Some of the findings include:
- All ākonga we spoke to said that learning about Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories was important.
- Ākonga had clear ideas about how to keep histories learning engaging for everyone
- Most educators have shown support for the curriculum content, recognising it addresses a longstanding gap in teaching the histories of these lands and its people, especially for Māori.
- The tumuaki and kaiako we interviewed appreciated the clarity, direction, and mandate offered by the new curriculum content.
We also produced several reports summarising feedback on the 2024 curriculum drafts:
Through our Te Pae Tawhiti work, we released several reports taking the pulse of the education sector. The National Survey of Schools looked at primary education, with reports on findings from principals and teachers based on responses from the end of 2024. Findings here include:
- Nearly all principals indicated that, in their schools, Te Tiriti o Waitangi was valued and that ongoing teacher learning and self-reflection were practised. Nearly all (97%) of principals agreed that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is enacted in their school values and day.
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi is enacted in school values and day-to-day activities" (85% agreement in 2024, compared with 73% who rated the equivalent item as “good” or “very good” in 2019).
Related reading: What do primary teachers want to change? Class sizes and support staff
Related reading: Climate stressors are impacting our primary schools
We also surveyed school board members in collaboration with Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa—New Zealand School Boards’ Association, and with assistance from the Kōkirihia Collective. We wrote about findings relating to equity and Te Tiriti o Waitangi here.
Other NZCER reports released this year include a deep dive on leading with high expectations, the fourth report in our COMPASS series, a report on generative AI use by primary school teachers and students, and of course one of the most-read reports this year, Strengthening early literacy practice: Exploring story sharing in diverse, equity-funded kindergartens!
Te Wāhanga, the Māori research unit of NZCER, produced a huge volume of work this year. In addition to the COMPASS report above, Te Wāhanga published our final Te Pae Tawhiti report for the year, an excellent breakdown of Māori leadership across four kura—Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae, TIPENE, Kia Aroha Campus, and Te Kura Māori o Porirua—which you can read here. We alsocollaborated with Ngā Tapuwae on this report about mana motuhaketanga, equity, and the equity index.
On the commissioned research front, we were proud to publish a literature review on the concept of equity in kura mana Māori motuhake, evaluations of NCEA workshops, the NEX initiative and the Tūturu programme. There was a report on school libraries and their impact and one on students as readers, and a data report on bullying trends through the KiVa Kāhui Ako project.
Our final commissioned release this year was He tōtōpū nō te pakiaka, he hiwa nō te pā—Research on indigenous national monitoring frameworks, which informs Te Tīrewa Mātai - a project we're very excited to tell you more about next year.
2025 in NZCER Press
Last but not least, our publishing arm has been incredibly busy in 2025, with some amazing books and journals released for your reading pleasure. For the educational researcher or practitioner in your life, we are sure to have something wonderful to gift this Christmas!
Last but not least, we wrote many articles outlining our findings in slightly more bite-size portions.
Have a wonderful holiday period, and we hope you find something nice for your summer reading!