Describing learners’ literacy and numeracy progress at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) for the period 2013 to 2016

Abstract or Summary

This report outlines literacy and numeracy progress for learners enrolled at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) from 1 January 2013 to 31 January 2017. Following the Tertiary Education Commission’s (TEC’s) sequence concept (TEC, 2014), which allows for multi-year analyses, we selected a four-year period for review. We present a snapshot of reading and numeracy progress scores. Although this data-selection procedure can be contested, we believe it provides reliable evidence of enrolled learners’ LN progress. Using paired t-tests, we analysed two data sets: paired reading (N= 3551) and numeracy (N=3483) scores were significantly different when time 1 (initial scores) and time 2 (progress scores) were compared . We also report cross-tabulations which show the proportions of learners whose scores had progressed and regressed. At least 35% of learners who were targeted for re-testing on reading obtained exemption level scores, while 33.7% of learners obtained exemption level scores for numeracy. We concluded that these snapshot results provided clear evidence that the institute exceeded the performance targets (of statistically significant gain for 25% of targeted learners) set as part of TEC funding requirements for literacy and numeracy gain in the sector.