More than half of primary school teachers say their students are getting better at maths, an Education Review Office report shows.
But it said students were not being taught enough complex things like algebra.
The report assessed how curriculum changes from term one this year – as well as the ‘hour a day’ reading, writing and maths requirement – affected students’ English and maths achievement.
ERO said there were “positive signs” that achievement in both subjects had improved.
The Government already revealed this week that double the number of students were exceeding literacy expectations, based on phonics tests.
There was no similar data available for maths achievement, which would be measured in a separate test later this year, ERO deputy chief executive Ruth Shinoda said.
But half of teachers, across year levels, report improved achievement in English and maths compared to last year, which was “unusual”, Shinoda said.
“This is more than we would expect at this stage because it’s such early days,” she said.
“We would also normally see it [take] longer to change teaching practice, and more of a patch effect where some schools are early adopters and some take more time to adopt. The fact that it’s happened consistently across all different school types, rural, urban, right across the country and actually in our schools in poorer communities, they’ve been more supported, is encouraging. “
But schools were not teaching enough complex maths like algebra and probability, Shinoda said.
“We’re hearing that it’s sometimes because students aren’t there yet, and obviously we’ve only had this in place for two terms, so students in later years won’t quite be where we need them to be,” she said.
“But we’re also hearing from teachers, they’d like more support, not all teachers in primary school are confident on some of those more complex maths.”
Teachers had been focusing on basic maths because children in New Zealand historically struggled with the subject, but it was time to start tackling trickier problems, she said.
The report recommended the Ministry of Education give teachers more training and resources to help with that.
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Auckland Primary Principals’ Association president Lucy Naylor said teachers just needed more time.
“Most schools will have jumped on to the structured literacy first as a priority, because that’s where the greatest need was, and I think schools generally are a little bit more confident teaching maths,” she said.
“The workforce has the capacity and the capability to do it, we just need a little bit more time to embed the new curriculum and actually get our heads around what’s being asked of us.”
Naylor said overall the results were a “good surprise”.
“It’s been a challenging year in terms of the pace of rollout, so it is reassuring to see that the effort that the teachers and the leaders across the motu have actually put in is starting to pay off, and we’re seeing some really good results.”
The report was based on Ministry of Education responses from almost every school in the country, phonics test results from more than 400 schools, visits to more 400 schools, and hundreds of interviews with teachers, students and whānau, ERO said.
It also surveyed 6000 leaders, teachers and students, and whānau across more than 1000 schools.
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