The National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement is a collaboration between NZCER, the Educational Assessment Research Unit (EARU) of the University of Otago and the Ministry of Education.
The aim of NMSSA is to assess and understand student achievement. It will show what New Zealand students know, think, and can do, what they aspire to, and how they are realising their goals. It will provide timely information and analyses to the Ministry of Education, the sector and the public on how well the educational system is delivering important educational outcomes.
NMSSA monitors nationally representative samples of students in years 4 and 8 in English-medium schools, using a combination of survey assessments (involving 2000-4000 students) and in-depth assessments (600–800 students). These assessments will cover all learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum over a four year cycle, as well as key competencies.
The NMSSA study builds on the strengths of the previous National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP). What makes this study innovative and different from NEMP is that alongside the in-depth assessment tasks, there will be, for some of the learning areas, a survey of a greater sample of students. The collection of contextual information to enhance our understanding of student achievement is another feature. Specific attention will be given to how Māori and Pasifika students are succeeding in English-medium schools and research will be conducted to better understand achievements among students with special learning needs.
The National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement: Wānangatia te Putanga Tauira is a 2017 report from Charles Darr of NZCER, taking a quick look at NMSSA and describing how it works, summarising some of the results from the NMSSA studies in different achievement areas and discussing how teachers and principals might draw on NMSSA’s work to make sense of achievement in their own schools.