1. Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) Link to this
to the Minister of Education
How much has been spent thus far on the numeracy development project?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) Link to this
I have good news. Around $70 million has been spent since the year 2000, with the project achieving excellent results across more than 1,600 primary schools. A recent evaluation of the project showed major improvements in maths results across 400 schools involved last year, with the highest improvement being amongst students who were previously the lowest achievers, and a lift in the achievement across Māori and Pasifika students. The project, of course, has been strongly endorsed across the education sector.
Hon Brian Donnelly Link to this
Can the Minister explain the seemingly perverse findings by the National Education Monitoring Project, which show that despite the considerable investment in developing numeracy skills, students seem to have regressed in number facts and arithmetic algorithms, yet progress seems to have been made in algebra, logic, and statistics?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
The person who ran the project seemed to boil it down by saying that students were doing better, as was expected, in thinking and understanding the maths they were doing. So therefore they were doing better in complex tasks. But for year 4 students some questions went to the heart of their basic arithmetic ability, where they did not do as well as previously. It is very important to keep this in proportion. This is a sample of around 3,000 pupils—years 4 and 8. On some questions year 4 students did not do as well as previously on the basic arithmetic skills, and, as a result, we need to improve in that area.
Dr Ashraf Choudhary Link to this
What were the results of the 2005 National Education Monitoring Project’s evaluation of year 4 and year 8 students in relation to mathematics?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
As I have said in reply to Mr Donnelly’s primary question, the results of the study were very positive. Years 4 and 8 students are making gains in almost all areas of maths, particularly on more complex maths tasks. Averaged across 61 tasks, there was a 4 percent gain for year 8 students. Year 4 students showed a 3 percent gain on all tasks other than arithmetic, where there was a small decline. Work is now under way to improve students’ understanding and recall of number facts. As the researcher, Lester Flockton, has said: “I am personally quite confident that in 4 years’ time we will find that it comes back to the right level again.”
Gordon CopelandDoes the Minister recognise that there is a numeracy achievement gap between boys and girls; if so, what is being done within the numeracy development project to address that?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
Yes, the results show that there is a slight gap between the performance of girls and boys. Of course, that is what the numeracy project is all about—to try to change the way we teach maths, so that boys and other groups that have not been doing as well as others improve their performance. As the results show, that is beginning to happen.
Hon Bill EnglishWhen will the Minister require schools to report the results of numeracy assessments to parents, so that they can know how their child is doing?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
As the member will know, there is a large number of requirements on schools to report on their performance. But I would urge—
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
Any child who is at home now would know that Mr English, as usual, has begun to yell in a way that he would disapprove of if that child did it. But can I say that each school, of course, would welcome a visit from those parents to talk about those results.
Madam SPEAKERI just remind members, when asking questions and giving answers, to stick to the substance of what they are saying.
Hon Brian Donnelly Link to this
Would the Minister agree that New Zealand is the envy of other nations for having a system such as the National Education Monitoring Project to identify clearly, and in a timely fashion, the learning outcomes of our schooling system; would the Minister like to say when this system was introduced, and under which Government it was?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
I would like to say that, yes, I think we are the envy of many countries in that we do have the ability to take a snapshot in time, then use that to feed back into the results and improve the performance of students. The member himself knows that he had a direct hand in developing that project.