Has the Academic Performance of Low Socioeconomic Students and Students from Ethnic Minorities Improved in the Subject of Economics over the First Five Years of a Standards-Based Assessment Regime?

This article aims to establish whether the first five years of full implementation of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) has seen improvement in the achievement of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) schools, and from ethnic minorities, in the subject of economics. The findings show that the academic performance of low-SES students in economics has significantly worsened from 2004 to 2008. When data are stratified by ethnicity and SES status, Asian students have seen an increase in academic performance in economics across all SES groupings. Pacific Island students have seen no significant change in their academic performance in economics for low-and medium-decile school students, but a significant improvement in academic performance for students from high-decile schools. Maori students have seen significant improvement in academic performance in economics in medium- and high-decile schools, but have experienced a significant deterioration in academic performance in low-decile schools. There has also been a large decrease in the number of students from low-SES schools taking the subject of economics. This raises questions around the relevance and suitability of the current secondary school economics curriculum to low-SES students, as well as around its suitability for the new NCEA assessment regime.