Student Assessment Information

Many of you will have heard your child or teacher talk about assessments like asTTLe or PATs to name a few. Information you may find useful when looking at these tests or hearing about the results from your child:

asTTLe (Assessment tool for Teaching and Learning) is intended to assess students who are performing between Levels 2-6 (Years 4-12) in reading, writing and numeracy. Each of these levels has been subdivided allowing for better identification and tracking of student growth and progress. The terms used are – Basic, Proficient and Advanced. For example a child at the End of Year 7 would be looking at working on Early Level 4 with a Basic understanding – which would be written as 4B.

PAT – Progressive Achievement Tests, commonly called PATs, are New Zealand standardised tests. A teacher will talk about the stanine level from 1 to 9. A stanine of 5 is average, with the majority of students having a stanine level of 4-6. Students are spread out along the range compared to their peers – a stanine of 1 represents low achievement, while a 9 is outstanding. Although your child may stay at the same stanine over some years, it will show they are progressing along the scale. The teacher would talk to you if the stanine drops as there may be a problem, however staying on the same stanine or going up shows progression.

There are more than 2 tests used by teachers and schools. PAT and asTTLe are two of the most common. We have information on these tests, so feel free to call or email if you have any questions.