Curriculum Insights and Progress Study: Year 3 Foundation Assessments 2025 Publications

Publication Details

These findings come from the 2025 Curriculum Insights foundation assessments of Year 3 students. They describe patterns across a nationally representative sample.

Author(s): The Educational Assessment Research Unit (EARU) at the University of Otago, and the New Zealand Council for Educational research (NZCER). Report for the Ministry of Education.

Date Published: September 2026

Key findings

Results from the 2025 Curriculum Insights and Progress Study show that 25% of Year 3 students met or exceeded the curriculum expectations for mathematics, 53% in reading, and 41% in writing.

The following tables show the percentage of Year 3 students meeting curriculum expectations in mathematics, reading, and writing for the previous years’ assessments.

Please note, in 2023, the foundation areas of reading and mathematics were assessed; in 2024, writing and mathematics. From 2025, reading, writing and mathematics will be assessed every year.

Table 1: Percentage of Year 3 students meeting curriculum expectations in Mathematics
Year 3202320242025
At or above curriculum expectations 20 22 25
Less than 1 year behind curriculum expectations 35 35 38
More than 1 year behind curriculum expectations 45 42 38

Table 2: Percentage of Year 3 students meeting curriculum expectations in Reading
Year 320232025
At or above curriculum expectations 54 53
Less than 1 year behind curriculum expectations 16 14
More than 1 year behind curriculum expectations 30 33

Table 3: Percentage of Year 3 students meeting curriculum expectations in Writing
Year 320242025
At or above curriculum expectations 41 41
Less than 1 year behind curriculum expectations 20 17
More than 1 year behind curriculum expectations 39 42


Table 4 below shows student strengths and areas for further growth.

Table 4: What do students know, and what needs more focus?
  What most can do What some can do What many find challenging

Maths
  • Add numbers to 20.
  • Identify a line of symmetry.
  • Read information from a simple bar graph.
  • Find half of an amount.
  • Identify how many 10s are in 130.
  • Identify movements on a simple grid.
  • Order 3-digit numbers to 1000.
  • Identify a ¼ turn anticlockwise.
  • Solve division problems.

Reading
  • Draw on phonics knowledge (knowledge of sound–letter relationships), orthographic knowledge (knowledge of spelling patterns and conventions), or stored word knowledge to read words that match easily recognisable pictures.
  • Complete a short sentence by choosing a familiar word that fits both the sentence meaning and grammatical structure.
  • Identify how writers use language to influence the way the reader responds.
  • Use evidence from a text to infer the reason for a character’s actions or words.

Writing
  • Use some correct beginning and ending sentence punctuation.
  • Include some appropriate structure and language features.
  • Write short, correct sentences.
  • Write sentences using a range of structures.
  • Use correct beginning and ending sentence punctuation in most sentences and some correct punctuation (e.g., commas in lists).
  • Use appropriate text structures (e.g., sentences to introduce and conclude paragraphs) and language features (e.g., simile).
  • Write correct sentences that vary in structure and length.

About the assessment

Maths: Students completed a computer adaptive assessment covering the breadth of the mathematics curriculum.

Reading: Students completed an online assessment of reading skills and meaning-making.

Writing: Students used pen and paper to write an extended response to a prompt.

Refer to the summary report for more information.

Further information is available on the University of Otago website Curriculum Insights and Progress Study.

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