- ERO evaluates and reports on the education and care of children and young people in early childhood services and schools.
The Education Council came into existence on 1 July 2015. Under the Education Act 1989 (as amended by the Education Amendment Act 2015), one of its functions [s382 (1) (i)] is:
‘to ensure that appraisals made by professional leaders for the issue and renewal of practising certificates achieve a reasonable and consistent standard, by auditing and moderating the appraisals made for at least 10% of the practising certificates issued or renewed in each year.’
ERO has been contracted to carry out this work on behalf of the Education Council.
The audit/moderation process is intended to ensure that appraisals for the issue and renewal of practising certificates achieve a ‘reasonable and consistent standard’. The endorsement process, completed by a professional leader, provides assurance that a certificated teacher has met all of the Practising Teacher Criteria (formerly known as the Registered Teacher Criteria).
From Term 3 2015, ERO will carry out audits in schools/kura and teacher-led early childhood services that for the most part are due for a scheduled review.
This is a system audit not an audit of individual teachers. It will be used to bring about improvements and greater consistency at the system level.
The audit will examine the process where practising certificates were endorsed in the twelve months prior to the ERO audit. This includes the endorsements of principals and service leaders who hold a practising certificate. It will include the endorsements for practising certificates of teachers and professional leaders who are no longer at the school/service but whose practising certificates were endorsed by the specific school/service.
The audit includes certificated teachers in state and state integrated schools, specialist facilities such as teen parent and alternative education units, independent schools and Partnership Schools|Kura Hourua. It also includes teacher-led early childhood services (kindergartens, education and care services, and coordinators of home-based services).
The audit will be generally be completed by one reviewer at an early stage of the review.
Before the review, you will be asked to:
To assist with the audit, it would be helpful if you had the following information available for ERO during the audit:
During the audit, a Review Officer will:
On completion of the audit, Review Officers will discuss with you any significant areas where improvement is required to your process or practice. Any matters you need to attend to will be included in ERO’s communication to the board/management. As with any review, there may be other matters associated the quality of appraisal that could arise as part of the general review. If significant or material to the quality of performance or education, these will be included as part of the overall review findings.
Good practice in appraisal
ERO and the Education Council have developed an agreed set of endorsement and appraisal Evaluation Questions and indicators of good practice in appraisal to support judgements by Review Officers in relation to the two broad investigative questions in the audit:
ERO recognises that much of the material viewed will be confidential. Review Officers will not copy or remove any individual appraisal documents.
All confidential material including information referring to individuals will be treated with care and in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1993 and Official Information Act 1982.
If you would like further information about the auditing process, please contact Julie Foley at 0274379361, or email julie.foley@ero.govt.nz.
