Our research

This report explains strategies for supporting secondary students’ engagement during the Covid‑19 pandemic. These strategies include re-engaging students who present with wellbeing concerns or show signs of disengagement. The report also includes some innovative actions schools used to promote student engagement after the first lockdown in 2020.

This report shares some of the strategies and approaches used by schools who had focused on improving achievement in writing. It also shares some simple strategies used in classrooms where achievement in writing had been accelerated.

This Education Review Office (ERO) report is one of a series of reports on teaching strategies that work. It features strategies and approaches that we observed in 40 primary schools selected from across New Zealand. These schools came from a database of 129 schools, all with rolls of 200 or more, in which the proportion of students in the upper primary years (Years 5 to 8) achieving at or above the expected standard had increased. In each case, achievement levels were also above average for the decile.

The Education Review Office (ERO) has released the latest in its Teaching Strategies that Work series. “Keeping children engaged and achieving in reading” is a description of strategies used by primary schools which have significantly improved their students’ achievement in reading.

This Education Review Office (ERO) report is one of a series of reports on teaching strategies that work. It features strategies and approaches that we observed in 40 primary schools selected from across New Zealand. These schools came from a database of 129 schools, all with rolls of 200 or more, in which the proportion of students in the upper primary years (Years 5 to 8) achieving at or above the national standard had increased. In each case achievement levels were also above average for the decile.

Until recently children with behavioural and social needs were referred to and attended one of six health camps situated across New Zealand. Each of the six health camps had an associated school attached. In 2008 ERO evaluated the quality of provisions for children at the health camps and identified significant areas that needed to improve. ERO recommended that the Ministry of Education examine the role of health camps and their schools within the wider network provision of services for students with moderate to severe behaviour difficulties. 

ERO evaluated how well 35 secondary schools were using Vocational Pathways. While most schools knew about and were using the pathways, they were not fully realising the initiative’s potential. Vocational Pathways can be a valued part of a school’s curriculum for all students when used as more than just an add-on to careers education or course selection processes.  

The report examines how well 15 of New Zealand's Secondary-Tertiary Programmes (STPs or Trades Academies) are meeting the needs of students at risk of not staying or succeeding in education.

The report focuses on good practice and showcases 10 secondary schools with high quality careers education. It identifies factors that contribute to high quality careers education and guidance in New Zealand secondary schools.

This ERO evaluation reports on primary schools' progress in relation to the Government's Success for All policy. Success for All is about getting all schools to demonstrate inclusive practice for students with special needs.

This report follows on from ERO’s 2012 report on careers education, Careers Information, Advice, Guidance and Education (CIAGE) in Secondary Schools. This second report investigates how well 74 secondary schools have prepared their students for future opportunities in education, training and employment.

From Education to Employment is about how you and the school can help prepare your child for life beyond school. It will be useful for parents, families, trustees and students at secondary school.

ERO guides for parents have been written for everyone who parents a child - those who have care and responsibility for children attending a school. The booklets include questions you can ask, as well as general information that you may find useful. Click on the booklet to read and download.

This is ERO’s first national report on CIAGE since The Quality of Career Education and Guidance in Schools in 2006. In this evaluation ERO examined the approach of 44 secondary schools to CIAGE.

This report discusses the performance of 16 service academies funded by the Ministry of Education. These are located at 16 predominantly low decile secondary schools across the country.

This ERO report has been written to help schools develop enterprise learning. Seven case studies present the challenges and benefits of enterprise as authentic teaching and learning. Each of these studies show what students have achieved in different enterprise activities. They discuss what leaders and teachers have done; both those who have been supportive of an enterprise learning approach and those who have been hesitant in adapting the way they teach.

ERO evaluated how well schools included students with high needs. Approximately three percent of the student population have significant physical, sensory, neurological, psychiatric, behavioural or intellectual impairment. ERO’s evaluation showed that approximately half of the schools in the study demonstrated inclusive practice, while 30 percent had ‘pockets of inclusive practice’ and 20 percent had few inclusive practices.

This report complements ERO’s major evaluation, Partners in Learning: Schools’ Engagement with Parents, Whānau and Communities, published in May 2008. It presents case studies of eight schools, identified during ERO reviews, that were successful in engaging with their parents, whānau and the wider community. The report also discusses key factors that contribute to the success of this engagement.