Measures of improvement of functional reading skills in New Zealand students within the past decade Dr Lynne Whitney Ministry of Education New Zealand Representative on PISA Governing Board

Tēnā koutou - hello from Aotearoa New Zealand Land of the Long White Cloud

Overview  New Zealand school system  Reading literacy results from PISA 2009  Reflections on PISA reading results  Examples of New Zealand’s policy response

New Zealand Education System “ The education system of New Zealand today reflects our bicultural heritage, our relatively short colonial history and the enduring vision of a world-leading education system that enables every student to be successful.” Ministry of Education (2010) OECD Review on Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes

New Zealand Schools  Public (96%) and private (4%) schools  New Zealand Curriculum that sets the direction for student learning and guidance for each school as it designs and reviews its own curriculum  Compulsory schooling 6 – 16 years  Range of options at primary and secondary level  Schooling provided in English (98%) and Māori (2%) languages

New Zealand Schools  Tomorrow’s schools (1989)  Responsibility for the governance, administration and management of individual schools is with a Board of Trustees elected by the school community (staff and parents)  Boards of Trustees employ all school staff, manage property, control school finances and set school policies  Self-managing school model supports flexibility, responsiveness to local communities and innovative practice but places significant expectations and demands on principals and school

New Zealand Schools  National Administration Guidelines outline requirements of schools related to: –Developing and implementing teaching programmes –Planning, self-review and reporting –Employment and personnel management –Financial and property management –The provision of a safe physical and emotional environment –Other requirements including school attendance and length of school day and year

Ministry of Education  Provides policy advice to Government  Develops and supports the curriculum  Develops assessment standards  Sets minimum standards for being a teacher  Negotiating and providing teachers’ salaries  Provides operational funding to schools  Monitors performance / intervenes in risk situations  Leads cross-Government initiatives in education

New Zealand results from PISA  If New Zealand’s vision is a world leading education system that enables every student to be successful … what does PISA tell us about our progress toward that goal? –How effective is our education system for all learners  compared with other countries?  for different groups of students within New Zealand?

New Zealand results from PISA  New Zealand students on average score well above the OECD average in reading –NZ average = 521 –OECD average = 493  The gap between New Zealand’s high and low performing students is wider than most other high performing OECD countries in reading –NZ = 334 points between the top and bottom 5% –NZ = range from 344 – 678 score points

Percentage of students not reaching PISA Reading Proficiency Level 2 (2009)  Students from different ethnic backgrounds perform differently in PISA reading literacy European Māori Pasifika Asian

Percentage of students not reaching PISA Reading Proficiency Level 2 (2009)  Students from different socio-economic backgrounds perform differently in PISA reading literacy LOW MEDIUM HIGH

PISA 2009 relationship between reading achievement and school mean socio-economic status for Māori (red) and non-Māori (blue) students

Māori students’ attitudes towards reading MāoriAll NZ  Diversity of reading  Enjoyment of reading

Reflections on PISA results from a system perspective  There is a wide range of achievement within each school (within school variation)  There is relatively small but observable difference across the schools in the system (between school variability)  These differences can be explained to varying degrees by –The socio-economic background of schools and individual students –Population characteristics such as ethnicity –Other factors such as language spoken in the home compared with the language of instruction

Reflections on PISA results from a system perspective  There has been no significant change observable at the system level since 2000 – so it is a challenge to achieve system change  Relative to other countries taking part in international achievement studies New Zealand students overall tend to perform better in reading when they are 15 years old than earlier in school as assessed by Progress in International Reading Literacy

New Zealand’s response  The Ministry will continue to focus on improving education system performance for all students, and in particular for those groups of students currently under-served by the system – Māori learners, Pasifika learners, and learners from low socio-economic communities

New Zealand’s response  School sector priorities –Every child achieves literacy and numeracy levels that enable their success –Every young person has the skills and qualifications to contribute to their and New Zealand’s future –Māori achieving education success as Māori  Improved literacy and numeracy achievement  Effective, high-quality, culturally responsive teaching that enables all students to succeed  More young people gaining a recognised school leaving qualification  Improved secondary-tertiary transitions

New Zealand’s response  The focus has been and continues to be on : –Raising achievement and reducing disparity at all levels through quality teaching and learning –Targeting priority areas (e.g. literacy, numeracy and Māori achievement) –Building the knowledge base and capability of the sector –Focusing on student potential

New Zealand’s response  Ministry funded activity that targets –Particular populations –Particular domains –Main vehicles for this are  Review and support of the curriculum  Developing assessment standards and resources  Professional learning and development  Decile funding  Strategies to accelerate achievement in low performing populations  Interventions targeted at low performing students and schools

Examples for reading  Developing assessment standards and resources - introduction of National Standards in reading  Decile funding – targeted funding to schools  Interventions targeted at low performing students and schools – Student Achievement Function  Māori education strategy – Māori learners enjoying and achieving education success as Māori

National Standards in reading  Vision for the New Zealand Curriculum is for young people to be confident, connected, actively involved life-long learners  In 2010 all schools with students aged 5 – 13 were required to implement National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics

National Standards in reading  National Standards (age 5 – 13 years) –are descriptions of the knowledge, skills and understanding students need if they are to access the national curriculum with confidence (informed by PIRLS’ benchmarks and PISA’s proficiency levels) –will help to set clear expectations for the reading knowledge and skills students need to achieve at each level of the curriculum –will provide teachers and parents with clear learning goals and information about students’ progress. Teachers will use this evidence to help make decisions about students’ learning

National Standards in reading  National Standards –students’ achievement or progress against the standards is not based on a national test –students’ achievement or progress is determined using an Overall Teacher Judgement –Overall Teacher Judgements are made by the classroom teacher for each student –an Overall Teacher Judgement can tell you whether a student is performing well below, below, at or above the national standard for their year level

Overall Teacher Judgements

Decile funding  Deciles are a way in which the Ministry of Education allocates funding to schools  A school’s decile rating reflects the average family backgrounds of students at the school  There are 10 deciles and around 10% of schools are in each decile. Decile 1 schools have the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds whereas decile 10 schools have the highest proportion of students from high socio-economic backgrounds  The lower a school’s decile rating, the more funding it gets. The increased funding given to lower decile schools is to provide additional resources to support their students’ learning needs  The decile rating does not measure the standard of education delivered by a school

Student Achievement Function  Approach to helping schools accelerate student achievement and realise the potential of their students  Particular focus will be given to schools where students are achieving below or well below the National Standard for their year  Student Achievement Function practitioners work with a number of schools

Student Achievement Function (SAF) 1.Schools identified for support 2.Talk through understanding of need for change with their dedicated SAF practitioner 3.School leadership understand how SAF will help them “How do the leadership involve teachers?” 4.Teachers in the school carry out self review, data analysis and observations 5.Teachers understand the opportunities for improvement 6.Teachers define root causes and develop the solution 7.School works with SAF practitioner to identify and obtain the correct support 8.School leadership measure success

Māori education strategy  Māori students’ educational success is critical to Aotearoa New Zealand  Ka Hikitia – Managing for Success is a strategy that sets out the Ministry of Education’s approach to achieving education success for and with Māori  Ka Hikitia means to ‘step up’ or to ‘lift up’ and here it means stepping up the performance of the education system to ensure Māori are enjoying and achieving education success as Māori.

Māori education strategy  A Māori potential approac h –recognising that every Māori student can achieve –that being Māori is an advantage –that all Māori learners are inherently capable  Identity, language and culture count –knowing where students come from and building on what students bring with them  Productive partnerships –Māori students, the whānau (extended family), iwi (tribe) and educators working together to produce better outcomes

To sum up …  PISA provides important information for policy development and implementation about students who have been in education for about 10 years  The New Zealand education serves our students well on average and we have a relatively high proportion of high achievers in reading compared with other high performing countries  But while we are a high performing system we cannot be a world class system until the New Zealand education system can do better for students who consistently do not achieve at least Level 2 of the PISA reading literacy proficiency scale

To sum up …  So New Zealand continues to develop and implement policy that addresses critical issues related to –Raising achievement in reading and reducing disparity  All examples –Targeting priority areas  Student Achievement Function  Decile funding  Māori education strategy –Building capability of the sector  National Standards  Student Achievement Function –Focusing on student potential  Māori education strategy

References  OECD Review on Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes New Zealand Country Background Report /90729/966_OECD-report.pdf  Ministry of Education website

Kia ora - Goodbye