Our approach to Akarangi | Quality Evaluations

We will undertake an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation of your service when ERO is satisfied that you do not meet the criteria for an Akanuku | Assurance Review

 

What we focus on 

In an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation we evaluate the extent to which your early childhood service has the learning and organisational conditions to support excellent and equitable outcomes for all learners. 

  

Indicators of quality and the ECE Improvement Framework  

In an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation we use our indicators and ECE Improvement Framework to evaluate your service’s performance. 

Te Ara Poutama explains the indicators. 

Read Te Ara Poutama | Indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most

The ECE Improvement Framework (teacher-led services) (PDF, 100.42 KB) has been developed based on the indicators. 

You can use the indicators and the framework as tools for your internal evaluation. 

 

Where do we start? 

We will discuss your progress on the improvement actions identified in your last ERO report with you. 

Our reviewers also discuss your service’s recent reviews and internal evaluations and what you know about: 

  • the process your service has in place for reviewing policies and practices 
  • how well your service is doing in terms of improving quality and achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for learners 
  • the extent to which learning and organisational conditions in your service support improvement. 

 Our reviewers use all the available information, including discussions with you, to design the evaluation. 

 

 Gathering information 

We gather information by reading documents, meeting with key people, and observing aspects of your curriculum in action.  

 

Using the indicators and the ECE Improvement Framework  

We use Te Ara Poutama indicators of quality when we make judgements about what is happening for the children in your service, and the extent to which you are providing learning and organisational conditions that support their learning. 

Read Te Ara Poutama | Indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most

We use the ECE Improvement Framework (teacher-led services) (PDF, 100.42 KB) to determine where your service is at on its improvement journey. 

 

We discuss what we are finding with you 

At the conclusion of our visit to your service, the reviewers will meet with key people in your service to share and discuss what the emerging and tentative findings. 

 

We write our draft report 

The Akarangi | Quality Evaluation report includes our judgements on a four-point scale in relation to the domains | Ngā Akatoro: 

  •  The learner and their learning | He Whāriki Motuhake 
  • Collaborative professional learning and development builds knowledge and capability | Whakangungu Ngaio 
  • Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement | Kaihautū 
  • Stewardship through effective governance and management | Te Whakaruruhau 

It also reports our judgement on 

  • Children’s health and safety 

Other sections include: 

About your service 

  • Progress since the previous ERO report 
  • EROs findings in relation to the judgements  
  • Areas of concern 
  • Where to next for improvement? 

  

The draft report 

We email you the draft report about 20 working days after we complete the evaluation visit at your service. 

You have 15 working days from the date we email the report to: 

  • ask about the evidence we based our findings on 
  • tell us in writing about any errors of fact or anything that is missing 
  • provide extra documents or evidence. 

We’ll consider your response. If the evidence justifies a change, we’ll update the report. ERO will not consider any evidence related to addressing areas of concern in the draft report. Areas of concern identified while ERO was onsite remain in the report.  

 

We publish the report 

We confirm the report and email a copy to you within two weeks. We invite your feedback and will include a link to a short questionnaire in the report confirmation email.   

We publish the report on our website two weeks after we email you the confirmed report. 

The audience for ERO reports includes the public, parents and whānau, the Government and people in the early childhood education sector. 

  

What happens after the evaluation 

We want you to use the evaluation indicators in Te Ara Poutama and the ECE Improvement Framework in your internal evaluation. This will help you to decide and focus on where you need to improve. 

You decide how you will address the improvement actions for your service in your planning. 

 

You can give us feedback about your review 

We’re interested in your experience of the review. Please take the time to complete our Akarangi questionnaire online