[IN-CONFIDENCE - RELEASE EXTERNAL]

Kia ora Lewis

 

Thank you for the information request below.  The Ministry will consider
and respond to your request in accordance with the Official Information
Act 1982 the Act).

 

Under section 15(1) of the Act, we are required to make and inform you of
our decision on your request as soon as reasonably practicable and in any
case not later than 20 working days after the day on which your request is
received. You can therefore expect to receive our decision on your request
on or before 15 September 2025. If more than 20 working days are needed
due to the potential workload and/or consultations involved in answering
your request, we will notify you accordingly.

 

The Ministry may publicly release on our website the response to your
request five days after you have received it. Any personal information
will be removed.

 

In the interim, if you have any questions about your request, please email
[1][email address]

 

Ngā mihi

 

Enquiries National Team | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | Ministry of
Education | TW

education.govt.nz

 

We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent
outcomes

He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana taurite ai
ōna huanga

 

 

 

 

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[UNCLASSIFIED]

Tēnā koe Lewis

 

Thank you for your email of 18 August 2025 to the Ministry of Education
(the Ministry) requesting the following information:

 

I am requesting specific data, communications, and analyses to understand
the efficacy and evidentiary basis of key educational policies in light of
persistent and statistically significant disparities in student
achievement, engagement, safety, and teacher supply.

 

Please provide the following information:

 

1. Regarding Grouping Practices and "De-streaming":

a.   All internal advice, briefings, and meeting minutes related to the
commissioning and conclusions of the "Rapid Review of Grouping Practices
for Equitable Outcomes" (October 2023) .

b.   Any risk analysis or impact reports conducted by the Ministry to
assess potential negative educational outcomes for high-achieving students
as a result of implementing mixed-ability grouping policies .

c.   All pre- and post-implementation data collected from schools that
have received Ministry support to "de-stream," showing changes in academic
achievement (NCEA pass and endorsement rates), student attendance, and
stand-down rates, broken down by ethnicity and school EQI band.

 

2. Regarding NCEA Attainment, "Excellence Gaps," and LRCs:

a.   The raw, un-standardized school leaver data for the years 2019
through 2024 showing:

i.  The percentage of students attaining NCEA Level 2, NCEA Level 3, and
University Entrance.

ii. The percentage of NCEA qualifications awarded that were endorsed with
Merit and Excellence.

This data is requested for the following specific schools: Southern Cross
Campus and Wellington College.

b.   The national NCEA endorsement rates (Merit and Excellence) at Levels
1, 2, and 3 for the years 2019 through 2024, broken down by the following
ethnicities: Māori, Pacific, Asian, and European/Pākehā.

c.   All internal analysis and communications from 2020-2022 discussing
the statistical impact of Learning Recognition Credits (LRCs) on the
validity and comparability of NCEA results .

 

3. Regarding School Disorder, Safety, and Attendance:

a.   The raw, anonymized, incident-level data for all stand-downs and
suspensions for the 2023 and 2024 calendar years. For each incident, this
should include the student's ethnicity, year level, the specific reason
for the disciplinary action (e.g., "Physical Assault on Other Students"),
and the EQI band of the school .

b.   Any analysis the Ministry has conducted to investigate a causal link
between school attendance rates and rates of violent incidents (as
measured by stand-downs for physical assault).

c.   The chronic, moderate, and regular attendance rates for Term 1 of the
years 2019 through 2025, for Southern Cross Campus and Wellington College.

 

4. Regarding Internal Awareness of Systemic Decline:

a.   All internal briefings, meeting minutes, and communications within
the Ministry's senior leadership team since 2018 that explicitly discuss
New Zealand's declining PISA scores , the rising rates of school violence
, and the widening ethnic and socioeconomic achievement gaps in NCEA
attainment .

 

5. Regarding Teacher Workforce and Competency:

a.   All data from 2022-2025 showing teacher attrition rates, vacancies,
and recruitment shortfalls, broken down by subject (e.g., Mathematics,
Physics) and by school EQI band.

b.   All internal briefings and reports since 2022 discussing the reasons
for teacher attrition and the impact of workforce shortages on the
Ministry's ability to meet its policy objectives, including those related
to the "Common Practice Model."

c.   Any analysis the Ministry or Teaching Council has conducted on the
preparedness of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) graduates to manage
classroom behaviour and teach a knowledge-rich curriculum.

 

6. Regarding Curriculum and NCEA Implementation:

a.   The full, un-redacted results from all pilot programs and school
trials for the new NCEA Literacy and Numeracy co-requisite standards,
including the pass rates broken down by ethnicity and school EQI band.

b.   All internal advice, risk analyses, and meeting minutes discussing
the potential for these new co-requisite standards to decrease overall
NCEA attainment and widen existing equity gaps.

c.   Any analysis or modeling the Ministry has conducted to assess the
impact of the "Te Mātaiaho" curriculum refresh on student achievement in
core subjects as measured by international benchmarks like PISA and TIMSS.

 

I request that this information be provided to me in an electronic,
preferably machine-readable (e.g., CSV), format where applicable. As per
the Act, I expect a decision on my request to be made within 20 working
days.

 

Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982
(the Act).

 

Your request, as currently worded, is very broad in nature and scope and
lacks due particularity. As it stands, your request would include broad
information searches on six distinct Education topics.

 

This would cover a large quantity of information, which would require a
substantial amount of time to collate. As such, it is likely that your
request, as it currently stands, would be refused under section 18(f) of
the Act as the information requested cannot be made available without
substantial collation or research.

 

In the hope that we may be able to avoid refusing your request, we would
be grateful if you could refine your request and limit your request to the
information that is most meaningful to you.

 

We have identified the following resources which may assist you in finding
information in scope of your request, so that you can refine your request
for information. These resources can be searched for key terms relevant to
your request:

 

•                      Responses to Official Information Act requests:
[1]https://www.education.govt.nz/search?sit....

•                      Advice seen by Ministers:
[2]https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/i....

•                      Issue-specific information releases:
[3]https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/i....

 

The Ministry’s Education Counts website also provides a wealth of
information on a range of topics, which may be of use to you:
[4]https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/home.

 

I look forward to hearing from you. Once we have your clarification, we
will commence work on your request.

 

Please note that in line with Section 15 (1AA) of the Act, if a request is
amended or clarified after the date on which it is received, the Ministry
may treat the amended or clarified request as a new request that replaces
the original request.

 

Nāku noa, nā

 

 

Official and Parliamentary Information | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga |
Ministry of Education | KJ

1 The Terrace, Wellington

[5]education.govt.nz

 

He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana taurite ai
ōna huanga

We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent
outcomes
[6][IMG]

 

 

 

 

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[IN-CONFIDENCE - RELEASE EXTERNAL]

Kia ora Lewis

 

Please see attached regarding your Official Information Act request.

 

Ngā mihi

 

 

Official and Parliamentary Information | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga |
Ministry of Education | KJ

1 The Terrace, Wellington

[1]education.govt.nz

 

He mea tārai e mātou te mātauranga kia rangatira ai, kia mana taurite ai
ōna huanga

We shape an education system that delivers equitable and excellent
outcomes
[2][IMG]

 

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Kia ora Felix

 

Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982
transferred to NZQA on 16 September 2025 seeking the following
information:

 

Part 1: The Consolidated Pilot Data Set

Provide the single, final, and aggregated spreadsheet (e.g., in CSV or
Excel format) that contains the summary results from all official pilot
programs and school trials for the original, universal NCEA Literacy and
Numeracy co-requisite standards conducted between 2021 and 2022. This
spreadsheet must include the final pass rates, broken down by Ethnicity
(specifically for the categories: Māori, Pacific, Asian, and
European/Pākehā) and by School EQI (or Equity Index) Band

 

You can expect to receive a response to your request on or before 14
October 2025. You will be contacted again if there is a likelihood that
this timeframe cannot be met.

 

As you may know requests for official information become official
information once received.  As part of the processing of requests for
official information, NZQA may need to consult with relevant third
parties.  During the consultation, a third party may ask for the identity
of the individual/organisation requesting the information. If you are an
individual making a request, please advise us whether or not you would
have an objection to disclosing your identity if a third party asks for
your identity, and the reasons for your objection.   If you are an
individual making a request on behalf of an organisation please advise us
both whether you personally have an objection to disclosing your identity,
and the reasons for your objection, as well as any objection to
identifying the organisation, together with reasons. NZQA will consider
your reasons and whether they fit with any withholding grounds under the
Privacy Act 2020 or the Official Information Act 1982.

 

Requests from an organisation for information about the organisation will
be processed under Part 4 of the Official Information Act.

 

Please note that it is our policy to proactively release where possible. 
We will let you know when we respond, if we intend to publish it. Your
name and contact details will be removed before publication.  Please
contact us if you have any questions about that.

 

In some circumstances after scoping a request, NZQA may decide to charge
for making the requested information available. If this is the case, we
will write to you again with details and seek confirmation you wanted to
proceed on that basis.

 

For any enquiries about your request, please contact
[1][email address]

 

If you  are dissatisfied with our response, you have the right, under
section 28(3) of the Official Information Act 1982, to lodge a complaint
with the Office of the Ombudsman at [2]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. You
can also telephone 0800 802 502 or write to the Ombudsman at PO Box 10152,
Wellington, 6143.

 

Ngā mihi

 

NZQA Ministerials team

 

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/