It showed almost all socio-economically disadvantaged children fell behind in maths by Year 3, with 95% below curriculum level and 70% more than a year behind.<\/p>\n
The proportion for this cohort of disadvantaged kids was almost as high for writing: 91% were already below curriculum level in Year 3, with 80% already more than a year in arrears.<\/p>\n
The inequity gap is also widening in reading, where two out of three disadvantaged kids in Year 3 were more than a year behind.<\/p>\n
This indicates that socially disadvantaged<\/a> kids appear to fall behind before they even get to their first school day, which Stanford said was \u201cabsolutely\u201d the case.<\/p>\n Her upcoming school readiness programme will complement the Engage and Enrich programmes that are already helping 136 ECE centres with oral language and self-regulation.<\/p>\n But any new ECE-based programme doesn\u2019t help those who are not in ECE, who are more likely to need help the most.<\/p>\n In 2025, 36% of children aged 0-4 were in ECE, with participation rising with age; 83% of 4-year-olds attended ECE for 10 hours or more, with 43% attending for 20 hours or more.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is one of the most difficult policy problems,\u201d Stanford said.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you influence parenting to make sure that you\u2019re doing the single most important thing? Speaking to your child, using rich language, inviting a response, not using baby language, talking to them all the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more language that young people are exposed to, the more words they hear, the better their oral language skills will be, and they don\u2019t even have to be able to talk yet.\u201d<\/p>\n But there is no Minister for Parenting, nor is Stanford suggesting one.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single mother and every single father wants the best for their children. They just don\u2019t always know [how].<\/p>\n \u201cHow do we get that into homes is a tough one. I\u2019ve got the compulsory education system, and what we\u2019re doing with these reforms is the very best we can do when they walk in that front door at age 5.\u201d<\/p>\n Worsening inequity<\/p>\n Stanford noted the groupings of smaller numbers in the CIPS data<\/a> when broken down by socio-economic bands, which makes them inherently less robust.<\/p>\n But this doesn\u2019t mean the inequity gap<\/a> isn\u2019t widening. It is, and has been, for more than a decade.<\/p>\n International assessment results<\/a> from 2018, she said, showed New Zealand with \u201cthe strongest relationship between socio-economic background and educational performance of all of the English comparative-speaking countries \u2013 more than the US, more than Australia, more than Canada, more than the UK”.<\/p>\n \u201cThings have been getting worse. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to address. But it\u2019s going to take many, many years to turn this enormous ship around.\u201d<\/p>\n The widening gap in the CIPS data over recent years was not an indication of a negative impact of her reforms, she added.<\/p>\n \u201cOur reforms have only been in place, by the time they did this last assessment, for three-and-a-half terms. So there were no reforms in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n The results by whole year groups rather equity bands within those groups were still low:<\/p>\n Maths had seen the most improvement, but only a quarter of students in Year 3 and Year 8 were at curriculum level or above in 2025.Only 41% of Year 3 students reached the curriculum benchmark in writing in 2025, while for Year 8 students it was 28%.Just over half of the students in Years 3 and 6 were at or above curriculum level in reading in 2025, while for Year 8 students it was 45%.<\/p>\n Stanford said the small improvements in maths and writing over recent years were a surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told by NZCER [Council for Educational Research] to expect, at best, stagnation, but probably overall a slight decline when you are introducing such massive changes to the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n It was hard to know how many kids made up the long tail of underachievement. More than half of our most deprived children are not regularly attending school, which could be as many as 50,000 kids.<\/p>\n Stanford said the Government has \u201cflooded the system\u201d with support for those struggling the most, for example with full-time structured literacy support staff.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that all relies on working out who the kids are, and which schools need support. This year, for the first time, we can now measure progress over time and accurately pinpoint who these kids are, where they are, and which schools have the highest level of needs.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve moved CIPS to every year. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve introduced twice-yearly checks in reading, writing, and maths.\u201d<\/p>\n Similar to the challenges with ECE-based support, this only helps those who are in school. Stanford said this underlines the importance of increasing attendance, which Associate Education Minister David Seymour is responsible for, and which has seen some improvement.<\/p>\n In Term 1 2026, 68.8% of students attended school regularly (defined as 90% of the term), up from 65.9% in Term 1 2025.<\/p>\n For students facing higher socio-economic barriers, only 53.8% attended school regularly in Term 1 this year.<\/p>\n This means that many of those who are struggling the most will miss out on any benefits Stanford\u2019s education reforms will bring.<\/p>\n Her six main pillars of reform are:<\/p>\n a knowledge-rich curriculum grounded in the science of learningevidence-based instruction for early literacy and mathsmonitoring student progressworkforce developmentmore learning support for students with additional needsgreater use of data<\/p>\n These have not been without controversy.<\/p>\n Many in the sector, including parents, have welcomed them, but teacher unions in particular, and some academics, have been critical of Stanford\u2019s departure from progressive education<\/a>, saying she\u2019s too reliant on a few key advisers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Inequity is not inevitable<\/p>\n Stanford said the goal of the reforms as a package is to have consistency across schools and classrooms, including interventions to help those falling through the gaps.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you turn up to a school that has had an amazing teacher who\u2019s taken on board structured literacy, and they\u2019ve got all the math resources in the classroom, and they\u2019ve got high-impact teaching and a whole lot of maths catch-up, then your chances of success are much higher, even if your starting point was behind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is what I am trying to do with these reforms … get that consistency \u2013 the same curriculum, the same internationally benchmarked world-leading knowledge-rich curriculum, access to the maths textbooks, workbooks, teacher guides that are helping to build teacher capability.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore only the wealthy schools could afford it. We have created a level playing field so that your means will not determine your destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n Saying some kids are a lost cause before they step into a classroom was making excuses, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat has been the excuse of the failed experiment that we\u2019ve had for the last 25 years. \u2018It\u2019s beyond our control. Our child-centred, child-led, sit-on-a-beanbag and pick-a-path education system would have worked if it was not for societal factors.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cGuess what? Societal factors are always there. They always have been. Why is it that, in the last 20 years, we have taken a complete nosedive? It\u2019s because of those failed pedagogical approaches or the teaching practice approaches. It should not matter their level of disadvantage, or their home situation when they turn up to school. No matter their starting point, they should have the same finish point.\u201d<\/p>\n She pointed to phonics checks results between Terms 1 and 3 last year, with all ethnicities and all school Equity Index (EQI) bands showing significant improvement<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Term 1, almost three-quarters (73%) of kids from poorer backgrounds needed support at the 20-week check during their first year of school, while 7% exceeded the curriculum benchmark. In Term 3, the proportion needing support had dropped to 55%, while 24% were exceeding expectations.<\/p>\nThe phonics checks across terms in 2025 for kids in the first year of school who face higher socio-economic barriers. The check is against curriculum expectations. Source: Education Ministry<\/p>\n