This report provides in-depth information on the achievement of primary pupils in DEIS Urban Band 1 and Urban Band 2 schools in the National Assessments of Mathematics and English
Reading 2021 (NAMER ’21). The current report is one of two initial reports from NAMER ’21. It is intended to be read in conjunction with Kiniry et al. (2023) who provide more detail on the purpose of the national assessments, the administration of NAMER ’21, and overall achievement in reading and mathematics.

A key purpose of the current report is to compare the average achievement of primary pupils in Urban Band 1 and Urban Band 2 schools with that of primary pupils in Urban Non-DEIS schools.
In this way, findings contribute to monitoring progress towards targets under the DEIS Plan 2017 (Department of Education and Skills, 2017a) which refer to reducing the percentages of lower achievers in DEIS schools and increasing the percentages of high achievers, in reading and mathematics.

Primary pupils in Ireland also participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2021. Findings from PIRLS are published alongside those of NAMER; see Delaney et al. (2023) for Irish results. NAMER and PIRLS provide important insights about primary pupils’ achievement and experiences following the disruption to education systems caused by COVID-19.