Findings from the New Zealand Numeracy Development Projects 2006 Patterns of Performance and Progress on the Numeracy Development Projects: Findings from 2006 for Years 5–9 Students

The purpose of this study was to analyse the data from diagnostic interviews conducted with year 5–9 students by teachers who participated in the professional development programme of the Numeracy Development Projects (NDP) in 2006. By the end of a year on the NDP, just under half of the year 6 students were able to use a range of additive strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems (stage 6). Between one-third and one-half of the year 8 students were able to use a range of multiplicative strategies to solve problems with multiplication, division, and fractions (stage 7). These fi ndings raise issues about some of the achievement objectives in the draft New Zealand Curriculum (2006) and the need to provide further intensive support for teachers if the majority of students are to meet these new objectives at the levels stated in the new curriculum document. The proportion of students at the upper stages of the Framework has increased over time, but this coincides with an increase in the proportion of students from high-decile schools taking part in the NDP and correspondingly a decrease in the proportion of students from low-decile schools. The analysis of effect sizes for comparisons between younger students after the NDP with slightly older students before they began the NDP shows that the impact of the NDP was greatest for Pasifi ka students, who had the largest effect size, on average (0.40). The average effect size for student