17327 (2026). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Minister of Education

17327 (2026). Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan to the Minister of Education: What specific benchmarks, if any, are currently being used to assess school progress toward the Government’s 2030 reading, writing, and mathematics targets?

Hon Erica Stanford: The Curriculum Insights and Progress Study (Curriculum Insights) is the key indicator for the Achievement Target. Curriculum Insights has been conducted annually since 2023 with a nationally representative sample of English-medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand. From 2025, Curriculum Insights assesses reading, writing, and maths annually at Years 3, 6, and 8. This is an expansion of the original study, which only assessed reading and writing on alternating years.