International benchmarks for New Zealand education
Participation in international education studies provides New Zealand with benchmarks for comparing our system with those of other countries, and a rich source of evidence for developing education policy.
Responsibility for managing New Zealand’s participation in the international surveys rests with the Comparative Education Research Unit in the Ministry of Education.
The work covers: the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA); Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL); and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). A fifth survey, the International Civics and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), is in the early planning stages, with the study to be conducted in 2008.
The unit comprises a core team of nine staff, but this can swell to 30 at peak times to help with coding and entering the data.
“CERU is part of the Strategy and System Performance group. As such, we have a monitoring role for student achievement and adult foundation learning and literacy. We also provide evidence for policy decisions and to assist with strategic priority setting,” CERU manager Lisa Rodgers says. “So we provide international benchmarks, identify achievement trends and provide information to help with forecasting.”
PISA is done every three years, and about 4,500 New Zealand fifteen year olds from 170 schools have just completed tests for the 2006 survey. New Zealand is one of 56 countries taking part in this cycle which focuses on scientific literacy but also assesses reading and mathematical literacy. The assessments look at students’ ability to apply knowledge and skills and to analyse, reason and communicate effectively as they pose, solve and interpret problems in a variety of situations. The survey also obtains background information on the students and their schools.
“PISA is a key indicator for measuring our progress in providing an education system that has strong learning foundations, successful school leavers and motivated and self-directed lifelong learners,” says senior research analyst Maree Telford. “PISA measures how New Zealand compares internationally for these goals, and enables us to identify strengths and weaknesses in our curriculum.”
Data collection is under way for the 2006 Adult Literacy Survey and Life Skills Survey (ALL), which builds on the 1996 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). “It will provide information on the stock of skills New Zealanders have, whether that’s the right stock of skills and whether we have the right skill building programmes in place,” says ALL project manager Paul Satherley. A lot of the analysis will be done within CERU in consultation with other agencies interested in adult skills, such as the Department of Labour, the Tertiary Education Commission, and the Ministries of Social Development, Women’s Affairs, Te Puni Kokiri and Pacific Island Affairs.
New Zealand is one of 40 countries taking part in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). PIRLS is a cycle of assessments carried out every five years, and is designed to measure trends in reading literacy achievement. It involves New Zealand’s Year 5 students (10 year olds), and data for the second cycle were collected in New Zealand late last year.
Senior research analyst Megan Chamberlain says PIRLS looks at reading literacy levels of middle primary school children, at the point where they have “finished learning to read and are moving to reading to learn”. Students’ reading comprehension skills are assessed using a variety of texts, from stories to brochures to science material.
“We look at how well our students perform against students from other systems as well as monitoring how well groups of students within New Zealand are progressing. “We also collect valuable background information from school principals, classroom teachers, and from the children themselves. Parents also provide information about their child’s early literacy experiences. The background information helps us to understand the influences on students’ reading achievement.
“Some of the effects of our literacy strategy should start to show up in this cycle. It won’t be the sole measure of success but it will be an indicator of how it is progressing,” Megan says.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) likewise provides data that is used for monitoring our education system and identifying trends in students’ mathematics and science achievement at Year 5 (10 year olds) and Year 9 (14 year olds).
The third cycle was completed in 2002–2003 and data collection for the fourth cycle will take place in New Zealand towards the end of this year, although this time covering only Year 5 students.
Senior research analysts Robyn Caygill and Kate Lang say the data will indicate if interventions such as the Early Numeracy project, which started in 2001 and is being progressively rolled out nationwide, are having an effect.
How does New Zealand’s education compare?
PISA 2003: The mean performance of New Zealand 15 year olds was significantly higher than the OECD mean for each of the four areas assessed in 2003 (reading, mathematical and science literacy, and problem solving). Finland was the only country that performed significantly better than New Zealand in reading and only four countries achieved a result that was significantly better than New Zealand in mathematics and science. Results from PISA 2006 are due at the end of 2007.
IALS 1996: New Zealand has a similar distribution of literacy skills within its adult population as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. About one in five adults were operating at a highly effective level of literacy. Results from the 2006 Adult Literacy Survey and Life Skills Survey (ALL), which builds on IALS, will be available from mid 2007.
PIRLS 2001: New Zealand students had a mean reading score that was significantly higher than the international mean for 35 countries but lower than that of students in 11 countries including Sweden, the Netherlands, England and the United States. New Zealand students were well-represented in the highest levels of reading proficiency but there was a relatively large gap in scores between our highest and lowest performing students compared with most other high performing countries. Results from PIRLS 2005-2006 will be available from December 2007.
TIMSS 2002–2003: At Year 5 (middle primary), the New Zealand students’ mean score for mathematics was similar to the international mean for 25 countries but their mean science score was significantly higher. Students’ mean performance in each learning area was similar to Australia’s but lower than for England and the United States. New Zealand had a significant improvement in both mathematics and science achievement in the eight years since the first study in 1994–1995.
At Year 9 (lower secondary), the mean scores for both science and mathematics were significantly higher than the international means for the 46 countries taking part. There were no significant changes in the overall mean performance for either subject in the eight years since the first study in 1994–1995. Results from TIMSS 2006–2007 (Year 5 only) will be available from December 2008.
