State and State-integrated schools/kura

This page explains how we work with you to review your English-medium school/kura.
ERO has been working with schools/kura to put in place a new evaluation approach. This approach, called Te Ara Huarau, was introduced in 2021 and continues to be developed as it is implemented across the motu.

How we work with you

We are interested in what is working well in your school/kura and what can improve.
We work differently with each school/kura according to its context, culture and needs.
We work with you to evaluate how well things are going in your school/kura, then we help you to use the findings to decide your improvement plans and actions.

We support you to strengthen your internal evaluation practice to evaluate and report on your own progress.

How much and how often we work with you will reflect your strengths and focus for improvement.

We work with you over time

We will use our evaluative expertise to support your school’s continuous improvement journey. How we do this will depend on your school’s individual context and needs. We seek to work with your strategic and annual plans, internal evaluation and continuous improvement priorities.

We will work alongside you to build your evaluation capability, undertake evaluation and assist in the use of evaluation findings. Our evaluators work with you as an evaluation partner over time and in different ways. They will work with you to build an evaluation-based, professional relationship focused on improving outcomes for all learners. They, like you, will be mindful of equity and excellence as we work together to make a bigger difference for all learners. Your evaluation partner will be your key ERO contact person.

Our evaluation approach is based on your participation and framed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi

As we work with you through the evaluation process, we are committed to the Māori concepts of:

Whakawhanaungatanga: Supporting each other to grow and learn
Mahi tahi: Doing the best for each other
Poutokomanawa: High-quality trusted evaluation for improvement.

These values underpin the way we seek to work with you and your communities.

We will work alongside you and others participating in the evaluation process. We will use evaluation to support school improvement, so that all learners have equitable and excellent opportunities to be successful. An important feature of this approach is Māori succeeding as Māori.

Supporting your internal evaluation practice

We will support you to strengthen your internal evaluation practice. How we do this will be tailored specifically to your school. It will include ways to:

do evaluation;
use evaluation findings to plan and work on improvement over time; and then to
find out what difference this has made for your learners

Keeping your school/kura and community well informed

We will work with you to keep everyone in your school and community well informed. There are several different ways of reporting and in some cases the audience for reports will be different.

The public has an interest in ERO’s reports. Some reports will be published on ERO’s website and others shared with a specific audience, for example, your school community.

Keeping stakeholders informed is an expectation of the review process. Together we will ensure that they know about the evaluation, what we are finding and the priorities moving forward. ERO intends to take a collaborative approach to reporting.

Te Ara Huarau 2022

ERO has received valuable feedback from a range of sources. We are building on what we have learned. Looking ahead, we expect to continue to improve Te Ara Huarau as we learn more. For those schools already involved in Te Ara Huarau, your evaluation partner will discuss any improvements with you. Fundamentally our approach has not changed. Te Ara Huarau recognises school leaders as key agents for change. Te Ara Huarau is centered on the role of the school in:

developing a sound strategic direction towards equity and excellence in outcomes for all learners
embedding evaluation cycles which focus on using evaluation to monitor progress towards lifting school performance to achieve equity and excellence.

ERO’s role is to support every school’s continuous improvement journey with our evaluative expertise. Our goal is to provide tailored support and work with you in a way that demonstrates our values of poutokomanawa, whakawhanaungatanga and mahi tahi.

One improvement introduced this year has been to simplify the model and provide more clarity about ERO’s role in working alongside your school

The original five phases have been streamlined into three

Evaluation for improvement
Planning for improvement
Implementing for improvement

ERO has clarified how it can best support schools at each phase of the cycle, depending on the circumstances of each school. ERO may offer more, or less support through one, two or all three of the phases above. Your evaluation partner will talk with you more about what this means for you, giving due regard the unique circumstances of your school.

International students

If your school is a signatory to the Tertiary and International Learners Code of Practice, we will ask you to discuss this with us at a suitable point during the review process.

We are interested in how you support any international students in your school.

School hostels

If your school has a hostel for students, we will ask you to check your compliance with hostel requirements and discuss this with us at a suitable point during the review process.

We are interested in how you support students in your hostel.

Evaluation resources you can use

We published these resources for you to use for evaluation for improvement in your school/kura. We will use them as we work with you.

Published: 16 Mar 2022

Audience:: Education; Schools

Topics:: Integrated schools; State schools; school improvement framework