David Farrar: Structured literacy is working

Erica Stanford released the following data on new school entrants:

• 58 per cent of students were at or above expectations, up from 36 per cent in Term 1.

• 43 per cent of students exceeded expectations in Term 3, more than double the Term 1 rate.

• Māori students performing at or above what’s expected have increased from 25 per cent to 43 per cent

• In high equity (low-decile) schools, children meeting expected levels has gone up from 18 per cent to 35 per cent

• Pacific students, from 27 per cent up to 43 per cent.

These are incredibly pleasing results, and so early on. We need to make sure Erica Stanford has another four years (at least) as Education Minister, so all this progress isn’t lost.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders