This report details the results of an investigation into the school-based assessment, PAT: Reading Comprehension, which has recently gone online. We wanted to know whether the test items behaved in similar ways in the online and paper-based modes, and whether there was any difference in student scores.

There were two main findings:

1. There was very little difference between how items behaved online and how they behaved on paper. That is ...

This report describes sampling and analysis details for the NZCER national survey of primary and intermediate schools 2016, as well as respondent characteristics and characteristics of the schools with which respondents are associated. It supports the individual thematic reports that use the 2016 National Survey data.

The  Teacher-led Innovation Fund (TLIF) is a government fund intended to help groups of teachers develop innovative practice. The Ministry of Education had shared four themes that had already emerged from TLIF Monitor meetings as being important in teacher-led inquiry. The themes related to the way that TLIF teams:

• worked with external experts;
• engaged with the community;
• used an evidence base to information implementation; 
• sustained inquiry with a changing team ...

This report sought to understand how the Principal Recruitment Allowance programme was operating, and provide information to the Ministry of Education to help inform their decision making aimed at improvement around the programme. 

This article is based on the talk Rose Hipkins gave at the NZATE conference in Christchurch in July 2016. The talk drew together many threads from almost a decade of research on the implementation of NZC, with a specific focus on how the key competencies have been understood and enacted. This set the scene to discuss a different way to think about weaving key competencies into the curriculum—by introducing "capabilities" ...

This is an evaluation of the Check and Connect programme, which was part of the Ministry of Education's Positive Behaviour for Learning strategy.

Check and Connect orginated in the United States, where it had good evidence of success. This report provides the findings from an evaluation of the trial of the programme in New Zealand, focusing on the changes made by students with at least one year's experience on Check and ...

This is an evaluation of the MY FRIENDS Youth programme in New Zealand trial schools. The evaluation focused on whether the programme was implemented as intended, the progress made towards short-term outcomes, and whether the programme was a fit with the New Zealand educational and cultural context. It is available here or below.

The evaluation was done for the Ministry of Education by NZCER in partnership with Associate Professor Roseanna Bourke ...

This is a series of three reports that draw on data from NZCER's PATs to explore student achievement and progress in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Two of the reports use PAT: Mathematics data. One explores the consistency of teacher judgements against National Standards, the other simulates patterns of student progress in National Stanards.

The third one uses data from PAT: Reading Comprehension and is co-written by Melanie Berg and Elliot Lawes ...

This report looks at how National Standards are viewed and used in primary and intermediate schools in 2016, almost seven years since they were introduced. It draws on data from the NZCER National Survey of Primary and Intermediate Schools, which was conducted in late August and early September 2016. The survey asked principals and teachers how National Standards data was being used and their views on its impact and value ...

Evaluation research focusing on educational initiatives that impact on the learning and lives of young people must be challenged to incorporate ‘student voice’. In a context of conventional evaluation models of government-led initiatives, student voice is a compelling addition, and challenges the nature of traditional forms of evaluation. It requires a student-first approach where young people actively report on their experiences, rather than being represented by others. This paper presents ...