National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement - The Arts 2021 Key Findings

The National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) is a national sampling study designed to assess student achievement across the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) at Year 4 and Year 8 in English-medium state and state integrated schools. The study is organised in five-year cycles. The first cycle ran from 2012 to 2016 and the second from 2017 to 2021. As part of the 2021 study, NMSSA monitored achievement in the arts learning area and also collected contextual data using questionnaires for students, teachers and principals. The previous NMSSA study involving the arts learning area was in 2015.

This report is designed to provide a succinct overview of key findings for the arts learning area from the 2021 study. Supporting documents include a report focused on curriculum insights for teachers, a technical report, and an online interactive statistical application. All reports and the interactive application can be found on the NMSSA website.