Te Rerenga ā te Pīrere (The Flight of the Fledgling) is a longitudinal study of 111 kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori students. This project is perhaps one of the first in-depth research projects of children in kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori, their educational and social environments, and their learning. This is the report for the first year of the study.
Te Rerenga ā te Pīrere tracks the development and progress of three cohorts of children and is unique in that it aims to report on areas identified by those involved in these movements, as the important features and goals of kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori. For example, Māori language development, knowledge of tikanga Māori, and pāngarau (mathematics). The study children, parents, kaiako, and tumuaki were interviewed and the children also completed a series of assessment tasks largely designed specifically for this project.
Children in the study who spoke te reo Māori more often, and had greater exposure to quality Māori language in kōhanga reo, kura, and home environments tended to perform higher overall on the measures that were used than those who did not.