Lecturers Guide to Literacy and Numeracy Testing

This page explains why literacy and numeracy testing is important for Levels 1–3 students, how to interpret results, and provides practical tips to support your students. 

Purpose of Testing 

The Literacy and Numeracy Adult Assessment Tool (LNAAT) gives you data on your students’ reading, writing, and numeracy levels. Use this information to contextualise literacy and numeracy in your teaching. 

All MIT staff teaching Levels 1–3 must hold the NZCALNE (or equivalent). This qualification helps you embed literacy and numeracy in your teaching and interpret LNAAT results. MIT has embedded L&N in courses since 2012, so your NZCALNE enables you to recognise and use these features effectively. 

MIT’s Guidelines are available on MITNet under Teaching and Assessment → Literacy and Numeracy. 

Key Points for Students 

• All students at Levels 1–3 complete the assessment nationwide. 
• Students cannot fail the assessment. 
• Literacy focuses on reading and writing (e.g., completing forms). 
• Numeracy focuses on everyday calculations (e.g., budgeting for food). 
• Tests should be done within the first three weeks and again before the course ends. 

Why it matters: Strong literacy and numeracy skills support success in learning, work, and daily life. The results highlight areas where students need support. Resources are available on the MIT Canvas Standards Template – ensure students access the page and videos before testing. 

Benefits for Lecturers 

Embedding literacy and numeracy in your subject makes it easier to support students on lower progression steps. For example: 

• Cooking: teach volume and weight through recipes. 
• Plumbing: teach measurement and proportion using pipes and drains. 

What You Need to Do 

• Schedule class time for the LNAAT assessments. 
• Each student has a unique access code. Allow ~1 hour for literacy and ~1 hour for numeracy. Students can pause and return, but aim for completion on the same day. 

Interpreting Results 

• The results screen shows a scatter plot: 
  • Line: indicates the student’s skill step. 
  • Dots: show how questions were answered. 
• Students should answer ~70% of questions at their step correctly, more than 70% below their step, and less than 70% above it. 

Learner’s Progress Report (Steps 1–3)

• Shows up to 5 recent assessments. 
• Accessible via ‘View details’ screen. 

Scatter Plot

• Shows levels of successfully answered questions. 
• Compares progress to Learning Progressions and course demands. 

Question Detail

• Identify strengths and gaps. 
• See which strategy or progression a question targets. 
• Match responses to course requirements. 

Responding to Results 

Literacy strategies: 

• Use consistent language and terminology. 
• Link synonymous words and ideas. 
• Teach use of a thesaurus. 
• Embed activities from Learning Progressions (e.g., Identifying Main Ideas). 

Numeracy strategies

• Use proportional reasoning for percentages and multiplication. 
• Include visual representations of decimals. 
• Use tables/boxes for rates or scaling problems. 
• Encourage checking answers and estimation strategies.