Strategic Direction

Government and Education Sector Outcomes

The Government’s education sector goal is to have a world leading education system that equips all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills and values to be successful citizens in the 21^st century.

The goal supports the Government’s vision for economic growth that delivers greater prosperity and opportunities for New Zealanders, and gives all young people the skills they need to realise their potential to contribute to the economy and to society.

Six education agencies are directly involved in the management of education: the Ministry of Education; the Education Review Office; the New Zealand Qualifications Authority; the Tertiary Education Commission; the New Zealand Teachers Council; and Career Services.

These agencies work towards the Government’s priorities both individually and collectively. The following priorities provide a common direction and purpose.

1. Increasing opportunity for children to participate in high quality early childhood education.
2. Every child achieves literacy and numeracy levels that enable their success.
3. Every young person has the skills and qualifications to contribute to their and New Zealand’s future.
4. Relevant and efficient tertiary education provision that meets student and labour market needs.
5. Māori achieving education success as Māori.
6. Value for money from Government expenditure in education.

ERO’s Contribution to Education Priorities

Agencies with responsibilities in pre-tertiary education are committed to building strong learning foundations for literacy and numeracy, increasing the levels of educational achievement, and maximising the value received from their services.

ERO contributes to each of the education priorities through evaluations that support change and improvement in the sector. In particular, ERO will contribute to:

• Priority 1 – Through regular reviews of the quality of education in early childhood services, ERO will report on the participation of target groups in early childhood education and how services are building foundations for children’s future learning
• Priority 2 – ERO will give the Government regular and timely information on how well schools are implementing national standards in literacy and numeracy, and using assessment for educational improvement. ERO will also report on literacy and numeracy in secondary schools and across the curriculum
• Priority 3 – ERO will report on sector strategies aimed at enhancing students’ attainment of skills and qualifications, and how well schools are supporting target groups of students to achieve, particularly Māori and Pacific, and those with special needs
• Priority 4 - ERO will provide information about the senior secondary school- tertiary interface, focusing on programmes developed to support young peoples’ transition from school to tertiary education and employment
• Priority 5 – ERO will develop its evaluation processes to support schools in promoting Māori succeeding as Māori
• Priority 6 – ERO’s information and advice will help Government to target resources and interventions to those schools where students are not achieving as well as they should.

ERO’s two core activities will support change and improvement in the sector:

• system-wide advice and evaluations – that will influence the national debate and support the government in the development and implementation of education policy and practice (Impact 1)
• independent evaluations of schools and early childhood services - that will support them to improve student achievement, the quality of teaching and learning, governance, self review and leadership (Impact 2).

Figure 1 describes how ERO will contribute to the Government’s priorities.

Figure 1: ERO’s Contribution to Education Priorities

ERO’s Audiences and the Intermediate Outcomes

Early childhood and school education involves many participants and each has a distinct role that is crucial to improving New Zealand’s education system. The quality of the governance of schools and early childhood services, leadership and teaching, the role of parents and whānau in nurturing their children’s learning, and appropriate and well‑implemented education policy, all contribute to improved educational outcomes.

ERO will seek to increase its influence in the sector through strategic partnerships and joint work programmes. In the course of its work, ERO will inform and influence the following target groups:

Strategic Focus

ERO has focused its strategic development on the following.

Complementary evaluation

ERO’s evaluation approach is designed to make schools’ self review and ERO’s external review more complementary. Each review investigates how the school uses its self- review processes to set priorities, make and implement strategic decisions and to monitor its efforts towards continuous improvement. ERO identifies areas for development and confirms or challenges areas that the school’s self review has highlighted as strengths or weaknesses.

ERO focuses on how schools are responding to developments in the school sector, and government education priorities. Specifically ERO evaluates how each school uses self review to develop its curriculum and to promote the learning, engagement, progress and achievement of its students.

To support this approach and build sector capability, ERO has revised its review methodologies, provided workshops for principals, board chairpersons and school leadership teams to build their understanding of and skill in conducting self review. ERO’s complementary evaluation approach assists schools to build leadership capacity and to use self review to raise the educational performance of their students.

Differentiated review methodologies

ERO uses the quality of school self review as a critical factor in determining how soon a return visit should be scheduled. ERO has also introduced differentiated review methodologies that take account of each school’s context and capability. Each ERO report informs a school when they can expect their next review – within one to two years (where there are issues to be addressed and school self review is poor), within three years (where there are no material concerns) or within four to five years (if the school has strong self- review processes and meets all the criteria that would indicate it is a consistently high performing school).

Its differentiated methodologies allow ERO to focus greater attention on schools where students are not progressing and achieving well. In these schools ERO’s longitudinal review processes support schools to develop their self-review capacity so they can develop strategies to improve student achievement. ERO’s processes are designed to align with and inform the external support and interventions provided to schools by the Ministry of Education.

The differentiated methodologies also allow longer intervals between reviews where performance of a school is of a very good quality and likely to be sustained.

This targeted approach to evaluation supports the Government’s value for money focus, by ensuring resources are focused on those schools which need the most support, while increasing self accountability and continuous improvement across the sector.

Refocused early childhood education methodology

ERO has commenced work on redesigning its early childhood methodology. In 2011 a first step in this process will be to update ERO’s Evaluation Indicators (Early Childhood Services). The next stage in the project will be to develop the methodology to be used in reviews in early childhood services, reflecting and building on the service’s self review.

ERO’s new methodology for early childhood reviews will ensure that the resources available for ERO’s early childhood reviews are used efficiently and effectively in a growing sector. This work will build on the Schools’ Methodology project, the Evaluation Indicators project, and ERO’s work on self review in early childhood education.

ERO’s reviews assure the Ministry, the sector and the community about the quality of education and care for infants, toddlers and young children. The development of the ERO’s methodology will be well aligned with Ministry initiatives and current policy streams with respect to early childhood education.

Promoting successful learning outcomes for Māori

He Toa Takitini is ERO’s strategy to support the education sector’s themes of engagement, participation and raising achievement for Māori students. ERO has developed a work programme that promotes Māori input and reinforces its commitment to upholding the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Included in ERO’s initiatives are strategies to build ERO’s internal capability, and to use ERO’s partnerships and relationships to build the evaluation capacity of Māori and the sector.

Specific projects that are part of this strategy include working in partnership with Māori to develop the methodology for reviewing kura kaupapa Māori that operate in accordance with Te Aho Matua. ERO is also consulting with Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust to develop its approach in ngā kohanga reo. ERO will develop national reporting frameworks for Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and Ngā Whaneketanga Rūmaki Māori.

ERO is also revising its approach to evaluating how effectively schools promote success for Māori. ERO considers that no school can be regarded as high performing unless there is evidence that Māori learners are actively engaged in their learning, are progressing well and succeeding as Māori. In early childhood settings ERO will review how well services promote participation and engagement of Māori children and whānau.

Providing independent system-wide evaluations of the impact and outcomes of government education policy

By seamlessly integrating national reporting priorities with its evaluation processes, ERO is well positioned to report on the implementation of current education priorities and to provide information to inform future policy development.

ERO will produce high quality evaluative information on significant education issues and publish reports on education sector performance and good practice. In particular, ERO will provide information for individual schools and the Government on how well schools are assisting students to achieve educational standards and qualifications, using assessment, and promoting the educational success of students, particularly Māori and Pacific. This information will be used by government education policy agencies to determine the effectiveness of current initiatives and to establish priorities, and by schools and early childhood services in their self review.