Reporting and Assessment Requirements and Expectations for 2026

Monday 2 February 2026

The revised Years 0-10 English and Mathematics & Statistics New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) means changes to how schools and teachers are expected to teach, assess, and report on student progress against the curriculum.

From 2026 all state and state-integrated schools will be reporting against the revised Years 0-10 English, Mathematics & Statistics learning areas. There are new Progress Markers that define the level of proficiency expected at each year level, and new Progress Descriptors for teachers to use when reporting to parents and whānau.

To provide clarity on what schools are expected to include in assessment, and reporting to parents and whānau, the Ministry has developed a table showing what is required (i.e. regulated) for Years 0-10 for 2026, and what is expected practice. To download as a PDF, click here.

SMART resources

Later this month, the SMART tool will also go live for schools and kura.

SMART reports give you a clear, consistent picture of how individual students and your class is progressing against the curriculum.

SMART gives teachers two stages of information. The Foundation report is available immediately. This includes which questions they found easy or difficult and gives teachers an early sense of strengths and gaps straight away. That means you don’t need to wait for the scaled‑score reports to start adjusting your teaching.

The six-week period to get the scaled report will only be for 2026. This is because real assessment data is used to make sure questions are set at the right level of difficulty – e.g. a Year 3 assessment item is assessing the Year 3 curriculum. This work only needs to happen once. This is similar to what happened when e-asTTle was first introduced. Doing this now will make reporting faster in future years.

What reports will I see?

Available immediately after the assessment:
Foundation report
Through the Foundation Report, you’ll see raw‑score information as soon as students complete the assessment. As soon as an assessment is marked, SMART offers early insights into learning and progress at an individual student and class level, based on raw scores.

After six weeks there are six reports available:
Teachers will receive scaled-score information through these three reports:

Demonstrated skills and practices,
Next Learning Focus,
Gaps

There are three school-level dashboards available, including information broken down by:

Year level,
Strands/Elements,
Demographic.

Demonstrated skills and practices
This view shows which elements and sub-elements of the curriculum students have demonstrated skills and practices. It helps you see what elements of learning are well established across the class, so you can build on strengths and make informed planning decisions.

Next learning focus
This report shows each student’s current learning zone. It helps you see what they can already do independently and what they are ready to learn next. SMART calculates a clear “next steps” range so you can plan targeted teaching.

Gaps
The Gaps report highlights the specific skills and practices a student and/or class has not yet demonstrated. It helps you identify patterns across a class, and where additional practice or focused teaching may be needed.

To support school-level planning and reporting

Year levels
This view shows distribution across progress descriptor levels across each year group in your school. You can see at a glance how students at each year level are tracking in reading, writing, mathematics, pānui, tuhituhi, and pāngarau, and switch between chart, bar graph, and table views depending on what’s most useful.

Strands/Elements
This view lets you compare performance across strands/elements (such as reading, writing, and mathematics) side by side for each year level. It helps you identify where particular strands/elements may need attention across the school, or where strengths are emerging. Scaled scores, which place raw scores on a measurement scale so results can be compared fairly across different assessment versions and years, show the spread of student achievement within each strand/element, making it easier to see patterns and variation

Demographics
This view lets you break down school-level data by student demographics, such as gender or ethnicity, for each year level and domain. It can help you see where different groups of students are tracking, identify where gaps maybe emerging, and inform decisions about targeted support or resourcing.
Find out more, and see examples of SMART reporting

We know teachers, parents, and whānau are keen to see how SMART can support teaching, learning and assessment. A new set of SMART infosheets is now available on Tāhūrangi at the links below:

More detailed guidance is available on Tāhūrangi. For additional support, email [email protected].