A report in to New Zealand's education suggests we need a different barometer to measure school's success.

Business think-tank The New Zealand Initiative recommends the government start comparing and ranking schools with similar student populations.

Executive director Oliver Hartwich told Andrew Dickens rather than looking at how well the students perform in assessments, we should measure how much they improve.

"Some schools might be passing all benchmarks and in fact, they're just coursing, because they're dealing with students from good backgrounds where the parents are reading to [their children]. So we should be expecting more of these school rather than just meeting some National Standards."

Mr Hartwich said it's unfair to rate teachers just on how well their students perform, rather, teachers should be assessed based on where their students are starting from.

He said the Government can already determine student backgrounds through their data, which includes parent's criminal records, and how long they've been on welfare.

LISTEN ABOVE AS OLIVER HARTWICH SPEAKS TO ANDREW DICKENS ON EARLY EDITION