The government has announced mandatory reading, writing and maths tests for primary schools.
From next year, schools will be required to test the ability of five year olds to link sounds and letters at 20 and 40 weeks of schooling.
From years 3-8, schools would have to test children's reading, writing and maths twice a year using either e-asTTle or Progressive Assessment Tests (PATs).
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the tests could not be used to create league tables.
"It's not our intention to pit schools against each other, this data is for parents to know how their kids are going, teachers to inform practice, and as a a system to know how we're tracking."
Most schools already used tests, but the practice was not consistent and some teachers did not use the results well to inform the next steps in children's learning, Stanford said.
"There are some schools who are not using assessment at all, but, more importantly, it's the way that the assessment is used to inform teaching practice and so ERO [Education Review Office] have been saying for more than a decade now, in fact probably about 25 years, that we need to have a consistent tool and that we need to build capability in the sector and that's what we're going to be providing."
The tests would ensure parents were accurately informed about children's progress, she said.
"We expect that parents will be reported to in a clear and consistent way with really rich data so that they know how their children are progressing. It's also for the teacher to use in the classroom to inform their teaching practice and importantly for the principal and the board to know how they're tracking as a school. For us as a system, we need to know an aggregate level how are we tracking as a country," she said.
"These are just the first steps. We're also looking at some other checks that could be done at critical milestones to ensure that parents know all the way through their child's journey how they are progressing."
The phonics tests for new-entrants would support the government's decision to mandate the use of structured literacy approaches to teaching reading.
Stanford said the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study, which provided a national view of literacy and numeracy against the New Zealand Curriculum, would be expanded from 2025 to assess reading, writing and maths annually for students in years 3, 6 and 8.
Labour's Education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said she was fine with standard testing, but the government's approach was a step backwards.
She was "actually really disappointed about it".
"We need more investment in our learning support so that our young people get more support from where they're at, we need to increase our teacher knowledge to enable them to differentiate their teaching, and I'm not seeing any of that in these announcements."
Tinetti - a former principal - said the testing regime was similar to the national standards' policy which led to unfair and damaging comparisons between schools.
"You can't deny the damage that national standards did to our young people ... I saw teachers teaching to the test, teaching to the standard, and not teaching to the young person and what that young person is bringing to the school every day."
"I don't want to see that kind of teaching in this country again, it does drive inequity."
Stanford has repeatedly stressed that her new approach is not the same as the National Standards, and argues educational outcomes slipped under the Labour government.
Tinetti said that was not the case. She said there was already standardised testing including the MMSA testing and national monitoring, along with programmes such as Better Start Literacy, which showed people were improving their literacy under Labour's approach.
"The kids that were under Labour and what we've put through - and they're the ones that were in their early years and in their primary years - and we're starting to see that those young people are starting to show some really good results."
