Te Urungi is an online assessment for beginner to intermediate ākonga from Year 4 onwards to demonstrate their knowledge of te reo Māori. Featuring over 270 pātai, audio support and full digital reporting, it is a vital resource for ākonga and non-students alike.  

NZCER has recently refreshed this assessment, with updated design and content, more than 50 new pātai, and audio support that enables all pātai to be read aloud.  

Te Urungi is suitable for kura and schools, tertiary institutions and workplaces. Those with an existing NZCER Assist account can purchase the assessment as they would any other - if you do not have an NZCER Assist account, please contact our Assessment Services team at assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz 

Te Urungi - Aratohu / Guide

Ngā āhuahira o Te Urungi (Features of Te Urungi)

Curriculum alignment and level  

Te Urungi contains more than 270 pātai, aligned to Levels 1–3 of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and the te reo Māori curriculum guidelines—Te Aho Arataki Marau mō Te Ako i Te Reo Māori.  

Pātai are aligned to the Learning Languages area of the curriculum, and engage with a wide array of vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures.  

Te Urungi also complements the Taku Reo student perception survey, also available on NZCER Assist.

Technology and accessibility  

Te Urungi is a computer adaptive test, meaning the level of pātai changes as you take the test, adapting to the taker’s ability. 

Refreshed audio support provides a new layer of accessibility, while also modelling good te reo Māori pronunciation. Participants can both read and listen to a pātai before selecting a response.  

As a test accessible through our NZCER Assist platform, users also have access to comprehensive digital reporting to get both a student-by-student and a big picture view of learning progress.  

Who can use Te Urungi?  

This assessment is designed for use by ākonga at Year 4 and above. Ākonga at any year level or reo Māori proficiency are encouraged to use the assessment, although it is intended for those with a beginner to intermediate reo Māori capability.  

Additionally, Te Urungi can be used by non-schools – workplaces, tertiary institutions and other organisations. The adaptive nature of the test, as well as the detailed reporting, make it an excellent tool for organisations who wish to increase the reo Māori skills of their kaimahi.  

How to access Te Urungi 

To use Te Urungi, you need to have an account on our NZCER Assist platform. Schools can log in to their existing account here, or contact our Assessment Services team to set one up.  

For other organisations, please contact Assessment Services at assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz to get set up.  

The aratohu kaiako (teacher manual) is now available 

The teacher manual can found here. The manual describes how the tool and the assessment scale were developed, and includes practical information about how to administer the assessment and use the reports. The reports are designed to help teachers plan learning that will help students make progress in the curriculum. 

For further support, you can check out our knowledge and solutions centre here. 

This widely used test has been revised and standardised for use in New Zealand. It is an individually administered test, which provides a measure of an aspect of a child's word reading skills, ie word recognition. The Test Card consists of 110 words printed in decreasing size of type and graded in approximate order of difficulty. Used in conjunction with other information, the Burt Word Reading Test should allow teachers to form a broad estimate of a child's reading achievement to aid decisions about appropriate teaching and reading materials, instructional groupings, etc. In addition, the Burt Word Reading Test should prove useful as an indicator of possible wider reading problems.

Not suitable for group use.
Untimed: 5 minutes.

To purchase the BURT Word Reading Test, please head to our paper tests shop. 

The Assessment Resource Banks (ARBs) consist of over 2,800 curriculum-based assessment resources in English, Mathematics, and Science at Levels 1-5 of the New Zealand Curriculum. These have been developed by NZCER under contract to the Ministry of Education.  

ARBs can be used to provide evidence for overall teacher judgement and consist of: 

• tasks for students to complete; 
• a teacher information page (using this resource); 
• marking students responses and working with students; 
• and in some cases have examples of students' work.

Some resources can also be completed online and pdf results emailed or downloaded. There are also a number of research articles and conceptual maps that support classroom teaching and learning and formative assessment. You can also download the ARBs information brochure here. 

If you are a New Zealand eduational institution, you can register for the ARBs here. 

Follow ARBs and other Assessment news and updates on Twitter at @NZCERassessment.

Features of ARBs 

Online interactive assessment resources

Of the 2,800 assessment resources about 1,400 are online-interactive. This means that students can drag and drop, highlight, select from given options, or simply click and type to provide their answer. Some of the online interactive resources also have auto-marking which means that the entire resource is marked by the ARB website.

Sharing assessment resources

Students can share their work by downloading or emailing their results once they have completed a resource. Teachers can access students' results from their teacher account.

Saving and liking resources

You can save collections of your favourite resources for future reference. You can also like resources by clicking the heart next to the title of the resource.

Teacher accounts

Assessment Resources are accessed via individual teacher accounts. This means that your collections are personalised for you.

For information on publications please visit About the ARBs, or for further information about ARBs please email arbs@nzcer.org.nz 

The Teaching, School, and Leadership Practices survey is a self-review tool for principals to gather useful information about three key aspects of practice and leadership that underpin effective teaching and learning.

The survey items are from robust research and are consistent with the Dimensions of Effective Pedagogy in the NZC, the Standards for the Teaching Profession, the Educational Leadership Capability Framework, and ERO’s School Evaluation Indicators.

The tool is free, quick, and confidential

The tool is open in Term 2 and 3 each year. The teacher’s survey will take 15 to 20 minutes and the principal’s survey will take approximately 10 – 15 minutes to complete. Both teachers and principals complete the School and Leadership Practices section, and principals have immediate access to reporting. 

For further information about the TSP survey tool, please visit the TSP site. 

The TSP survey is now available through NZCER Assist 

In 2023, we integrated the TSP survey tool into our NZCER Assist platform. has led to changes in the registration process and how you will administer the survey and access reporting. Please see below for a summary of important changes to how TSP will operate in NZCER Assist.

• Your school will need to be signed up to NZCER Assist to access the TSP survey. The registration process will provide access to NZCER Assist. The survey continues to be offered free of charge.
• Once registered our team will support schools with assigning Assist users to TSP and what that means for accessing TSP reporting.
• There is a new minimum reporting threshold for the Teacher survey. The Teacher survey report will be enabled once 5 or more responses are completed.
• If you are a smaller school with 4 or fewer teachers, please read here for advice on engaging with the TSP survey tool.
• Reporting for 2023 onward will be available on NZCER Assist. You can still access your historic reports by clicking ‘Login’ on the lefthand menu. Please note that access to historic reporting will be removed at the end of Term 2, 2023. Reports can be requested after this date by contacting our team at tspsurveys@nzcer.org.nz

If you need more information or assistance, please contact our Assessment Services team. Alternatively, you can contact our Education Advisors to enquire about a PLD workshop on using the survey tool or its data. 

Wellbeing@School provides schools with self-review toolkits to build a safe and caring climate that deters bullying. There are two tools for schools to use - Wellbeing@School, and the Inclusive Practices Toolkit. 

Both tools are free, confidential, evidence-based and locally designed. NZCER manages the Wellbeing@School toolkit and website - below you will find more information about each. 

Features of Wellbeing@School

Wellbeing@School is designed around a self-review cycle, and offers a range of resources:

• two W@S Student Surveys (Years 5-8 and 7-13)
• the W@S School Self Review Tool
• the W@S Teacher Survey
• next step planning modules
• a comprehensive range of online survey reports.

The self-review tools explore how different layers of school life contribute to creating a safe and caring climate.

Schools can use this application to confidentially store data, access reports of their data, find suggestions for next steps actions, and track changes over time.

All New Zealand schools can register to use the tools. The principal must agree to the terms of use for website and tools.

Inclusive Practices Toolkit

The Inclusive Practices Toolkit is designed to support primary, intermediate and secondary schools to engage in a review process. The aim of the review process is to support schools to engage in an ongoing journey towards building inclusive practices for all learners (including learners with extra support needs).

With this toolkit, schools can explore the extent to which a school is creating a safe and caring climate that deters bullying; and the extent to which a school includes all students in all aspects of school life.

The Inclusive Practices Tools include:

• a Student Survey
• a Community Survey
• a Staff Survey (available online only)
• a School Review Profile [SRP] (available online only)
• Inclusive Practices next steps links
• Inclusive Practices action plan template [doc] and
• a range of online survey reports.

All current schools using the W@S toolkit will be informed about minor changes to the Terms of Use (changes are indicated). The changes add Inclusive Practices Tool (IPT) to the current agreement.

The core aspects of the agreement stay the same: the data is owned by each school under NZCER stewardship; data reports can be made available to the Ministry of Education or other users if requested, however these reports are anonymous and school data is grouped.

Relating to Research

Research suggests that approaches that build students’ social and emotional (SE) skills and competencies (such as their ability to relate to others or engage in social problem-solving) are related to improvements across a range of student outcomes. For example, SE learning (SEL) opportunities are associated with increases in students’ social competencies and academic achievement as well as decreases in conduct problems such as bullying (e.g., Payton et al., 2008).

Some key teaching strategies can be effective in building students’ social and emotional skills and ability to resolve conflicts such as bullying behaviour (e.g., see (Farrington & Ttofi, 2009). These include the use of visual resources such as DVDs and videos to prompt discussion, and cooperative learning (when combined with other approaches).

Notes about research sources: Farrington & Ttofi ( 2009) meta-analysis noted that videos and cooperative learning were components of WSA associated with decreases in bullying.

Effective SEL approaches are described using the acronym (SAFE) (Payton et al., 2008).

For further information about Wellbeing@School, read more at the W@S website and tools, or contact us at wellbeing@nzcer.org.nz.

What do the teachers at your school really think about their job and their working conditions? Which aspects of your school’s culture and working conditions are teachers positive about, and which aspects could be strengthened?

The Teacher Workplace Survey is designed for all teaching staff (0.5 FTE and above) within your school. Because of the anonymous nature of the survey, schools need at least 5 respondents for the system to be able to generate reports. The survey asks teachers to rate items in five areas: 

• Physical working environment and resources
• Satisfaction with school
• School leadership
• Professional development
• School organisation

Items in the survey are internationally research-based, and the results are completely anonymous for teachers and confidential to the school.

Benefits of the Teacher Workplace Survey

• Provides a snapshot picture of what teachers think about their work and their working environment.
• Gives teachers a forum for expressing their views with absolute confidentiality.
• Provides an opportunity to look broadly at gathering data within an important component for improving teaching and learning.

The Teacher Workplace Survey is now online

In 2023, we integrated the Teacher Workplace Survey with our NZCER Assist platform, providing instant reporting once 5 or more staff have completed the survey. 

Reporting within NZCER Assist is restricted to nominated Assist users to ensure reporting and data is confidential. If you have any questions about administering the survey or who should have access to reports, please contact our team at assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz  

Cost Structure

Price for sitting online surveys: Schools will pay a survey subscription depending upon the size of the school:

• Band A, 1000+ students: $500.00
• Band B, 250-1000 students: $350.00
• Band C, less than 250 students: $250.00 

How to access the Teacher Workplace Survey

Please email our team at assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz to subscribe if you are not already a user of NZCER Assist or require assistance. 

We also have a team of people able to provide a range of ongoing assessment support and advice to schools. Our Education Advisors can provide support on how to use the survey results to define or address the problem for improvement. 

For questions or advice on registering, email assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz or call (04) 802 1630.

Relating to research

NZCER, New Zealand and international research consistently point to the importance of working conditions that enable teachers to enjoy their work and to work positively and productively with learners. Most evidence based on framework provided in Teacher Working Conditions that Matter: Evidence for Change (Leithwood, 2006), but other references are also included.

For further information about Teacher Workplace Survey, call us on (04) 802-1630 or email assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz.

Understand student perceptions about the use of te reo Māori

The Taku Reo student survey is an online research-based survey designed for New Zealand students in English medium from Years 4 to 8. Some of the research that informed the survey is summarised is this brief report.

Taku Reo can help increase awareness of the student voice about te reo Māori in schools. It gives you a snapshot of your students’ use of te reo Māori at school, at home, and in the community.  

Benefits of Taku Reo

Using Taku Reo lets students and whānau know that te reo Māori is valued at school, and is a vital part of the curriculum.

Taku Reo is designed as a formative tool for school self-review. The survey can contribute to revitalisation of the language by prompting:

• schools to reflect on practice from students' perceptions
• teachers to think critically about how they teach te reo Māori.

The results of the Taku Reo survey contribute to an evidence base for planning and goal-setting for te reo Māori within schools. You can use your results to:

• increase visibility of te reo Māori within your school
• normalise te reo Māori into your school’s planning
• follow progress of te reo Māori use over time in your school
• gain an understanding of your students’ perceptions of where te reo Māori is being used.

Taku Reo also complements Te Urungi - our beginner's assessment for te reo Māori. 

How to access Taku Reo

At this time, the Taku Reo survey is free for schools (usual price $100).

If you don't currently have a subscription to NZCER Assist, you will need to contact our Assessment Services team to get set up.

If you already have a log in to NZCER Assist, add Taku Reo by going into the Tools section of your account.

The Science engagement survey is an online tool to help teachers find out how students perceive their science learning in class. There are two versions of the survey: one for Years 0 to 4 and one for Years 5 to 10.

This tool will give schools information about their students’ engagement with science and their perceptions of the learning opportunities that have been provided for them. It provides a useful starting point for designing a science programme that is responsive to students’ interests and needs.

The Science Engagement survey is free to use

There is no charge to use the Science engagement survey. At NZCER we are interested in the sorts of science related learning experiences happening in our primary and early secondary schools. While your school's data will always remain absolutely confidential to your school, we may use aggregated data from all schools to obtain a clearer picture of what's happening and where the gaps are. This information will be used to benefit science education in New Zealand. As there is something in it for us, we provide the survey free.

How to access the Science Engagement survey

If your school is already subscribed to NZCER Assist, you can log in and create a Science Engagement survey as you would for any PAT assessment. 

• Log in to NZCER Assist and select 'Science engagement survey'
• Click 'Activate Access' button the first time to get started.
• Click 'Add new survey group' and enter a class name, the term and the year level of your students, then click 'Add'. You will need to create a separate survey group for each year level in your class.
• Preview the survey you have created by clicking on the blue computer-screen icon under the heading 'Demo'.
• Go back to the Science survey page. In the ‘survey group’ you have created, you will find the survey token which is the password each class member will need to access the survey.
• To do the survey, students type in the survey URL (http://www.nzceronline.org.nz/) and enter the survey token for their class.
• The site administrator can view the class reports as soon as the students have completed the survey. Simply click on the 'Reports' tab on the top black tool bar and the 'Item Report' icon for the class you wish to view.

If your school is not subscribed to NZCER Assist, you’ll need to contact our Assessment Services team to get set up. You will not need to pay anything if you are only subscribing for the Science engagement survey.

• Visit NZCER Assist
• Click on the 'Subscribe' button and complete the registration form, selecting ‘Science engagement survey’.
• You will receive an email with your administrator username and password. Log in with your username and password.  
• From here, the process is the same as above.

For more information or assistance, contact either our Assessment Services team or our Education Advisors for workshops to support your use of the survey. 

Please note: The Me and My School survey is now available (online only) on NZCER Assist. Please see below for new reporting features and updated pricing information.

If you would like to subscribe for this survey, please contact us at assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz or log in to NZCER Assist here.

About Me and My School

How connected and committed are your students to their learning? How do you know?

Me and My School is a unique, research-based student engagement survey designed for New Zealand students Years 4 to 10. It offers a snapshot of the learning culture in your school, standardised data to track progress over time and a nationally referenced gender, ethnicity, and year level comparison. 

It comes in two versions: one for students in Years 7 to 10, and a junior version for Years 4 to 6. The survey is easy to administer, completely anonymous, and asks students to report their level of agreement to a series of statements regarding affective, behavioural and cognitive aspects of engagement. It provides:

• anonymous data through whole school, class, year level, gender, and ethnic filters
• rich reporting information that tells your school’s story
• a statistical framework for tracking aspects of engagement over time
• a separate report showing student engagement with reading

The items in the survey were sourced from national and international research literature or were specially constructed by researchers to address the three different aspects of engagement.

What's new for Me and My School on NZCER Assist?

Administration

• The Me and My School online survey is now available on NZCER Assist - no need to log into a different site.
• Much easier to create and administer Junior and Senior survey token codes for online surveys.
• Surveys completed online are accessed through NZCER Online.

Reporting

• Reporting becomes available as soon as 10 or more students have completed their survey. No need to contact NZCER to generate school reporting.
• Updated item report with new filter options - now available.
• Engagement and Reading scale reports are interactive and are based on real time data.
• Updated reference data is coming soon.

Me and My School resources

Download the Me and My School information sheet

Download the Me and My School: Case study through a cultural lens

Get the most out of this assessment by registering for one of our PLD workshops.

Benefits of the Me and My School survey 

• Starting point for Kāhui Ako / Community of Learning (CoL) Achievement Challenges and school cluster-wide sharing of trends and patterns through ethnic, gender and year level standardised data.
• The student engagement scale offers both position and tracking of student cohort progress over time.
• Improved knowledge of how your students behave as learners, whether they like learning and feel they are learning.
• Improved reporting features on NZCER Assist.

Cost structure

$250.00 registration fee. $2.00 per student per survey.

How to subscribe for Me and My School

As a survey delivered through our NZCER Assist platform, schools will need an account to get set up. To do this, contact us at assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz.

You can also contact our team for further information about Me and My School, including calling us on (04) 802-1630. 

NZCER’s Education Advisors, Julie Roberts and Melissa Denzler, can provide support and challenge for how to use the survey results to define or address the problem for improvement. Contact Julie and Melissa at educationadviser@nzcer.org.nz 

STAR results are reported as scale scores. If you have used PATs, you will be familiar with how scale scores work. Scale scores are not dependent on a particular year group, test or time of year. Scores can be compared across classes, year level cohorts and across other demographics such as gender and ethnic group. We recommend using scale scores to monitor progress for both individuals and groups of students.

Stanines are useful when you want to get a sense of how a student's scale score compares with a nationally representative sample of students in a year level. This is sometimes called a normative comparison. When making a normative comparison, teachers need to select the stanines for the most appropriate year level reference sample and record which one they have used. This will depend on the time of year the student was tested. Because the reference data for STAR was collected in March, it is not always appropriate to use the reference sample for the same year group as the student.

At the start of the year (Term 1)

If students are tested at the start of the year, then stanines for their year level should be used. For example, if a Year 3 student is assessed in February, then teachers should record the appropriate stanine for the Year 3 reference sample and note that is a Year 3 stanine.

At the end of the year (Term 4)

When students sit a STAR test in Term 4 their scale scores should be compared with the reference sample for the next year level up. This is because the reference data refer to students who did the test in Term 1. By the end of the year, students are more like students who are just starting the next year level up than students who are just starting their own year level. So, if a Year 3 student is tested in Term 4, then stanines for the Year 4 reference group should be used. It is important to record that they are Year 4 stanines.

In the middle of the year

Making stanine comparisons in the middle of the year is less straightforward. This is because there is no obvious reference group. If you want to make a normative comparison in Term 2 or 3 it is probably best to record the stanine for the student's year level but to note that this will tend to overestimate how well they are doing compared to peers at the same stage of schooling. So, for instance, if a Year 3 student is tested in Term 2 then the Year 3 stanines should be used. Again, it is important to record that they are Year 3 stanines and to note they tend to make the students look a little better against their year level than if they were tested in Term 1.

Where can I find stanines for year levels not recorded in the Teacher Manual?

The Teacher Manual provides stanines for two or three year levels for each test form. Stanines for all year levels for each test form can be found on NZCER Assist. You will be able to download the relevant PDF document from the lefthand side of the screen under the heading "STAR 2nd edition - Stanine table for all years". Contact our Assessment Services team if you require assistance. 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using stanines?

Advantages

• Stanines let you compare your own students' results with a similar national representative groups of students.
• Stanines form an "interval" variable which means that the amount of progress represented by going from the middle of one stanine band to the middle of the next stanine band is the same across all stanines.
• Because they form an interval variable, stanines can be averaged. An average stanine for a class or a year level cohort is a meaningful variable. This is not true for percentiles.

Disadvantages

• Stanines are always tied to a particular year level and time of year. If your students have not done their STAR tests at the same time of year as students who formed the nationally representative sample, it is much more difficult to use stanines meaningfully.
• Stanines give us only nine bands with which to describe the full range of achievement within a year level. This means that stanines can only provide a rather coarse measure of achievement.