Our research

Principals and school leaders have taken on a lot of responsibility during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Education Review Office interviewed principals and board chairs and surveyed 1777 principals across the country from May through to September 2020 to understand how they have responded. This summary highlights how those school leaders rose to the challenge.

Early childhood education services had to quickly adapt to changing requirements and periods of uncertainty due to Covid-19. During lockdown, services had to transition to supporting children to learn from their homes. After lockdown, they had to support children to return to services and continue their learning in a Covid-19 world. This summary highlights the efforts of early childhood services to support students and their whānau.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused significant disruption for students across New Zealand, due to lockdowns, social distancing and ongoing uncertainty. The Education Review Office interviewed 750 schools and surveyed over 2500 principals and teachers across the country, from May through to September 2020, to understand how they have responded. This summary highlights how schools have supported students and their whānau in the face of Covid-19.

Teacher aides have a wide range of valued roles and responsibilities. They enhance learner outcomes by drawing on positive relationships, good training, collaborative practices, and cultural expertise. This guide shares practical strategies and insights for classroom teachers, to help you work alongside teacher aides to make a real difference for learners, together.

This article originally appeared in ERO Insights - Term 1, 2018 and explores how the ethnic diversity of the primary and secondary school roll has changed in New Zealand since 2009, and whether these changes are leading to more diverse or more segregated schools.

In the days preceding 26 March 2020, Puna Reo / Kōhungahunga needed to rapidly respond to and prepare for a move to distance teaching and learning. We had been informed that at midnight 25^th March 2020 the entire country would go into COVID-19 Alert Level four Lockdown. There was uncertainty about how long the situation would continue. Timely responses were required from Puna Reo / Kōhungahunga to support tamariki and whānau.

In this report, the Education Review Office (ERO) has identified examples of good practice in teaching and learning in kura kaupapa Māori that operate in accordance with Te Aho Matua. In this report ‘kura’ is used to refer to these kura kaupapa Māori.

This report is the reflection of Kura ā-Iwi on their developmental journeys, both as individuals, whānau and as kura. Their collective aspirations are captured within the summary of conditions outlined as Ako: Teaching & Learning, Whānau & Connectedness, Tikanga Māori (Māori process and protocol), and Tuakiri: Identity.

The findings of this evaluation highlight improvements to the quality and consistency of the RTLB service, especially in overall governance and management. 

Language is the foundation for children’s learning and success. Children use oral language to become good thinkers and communicators, and to develop the literacy skills they need to achieve well in school and beyond. This report draws together a range of evidence to look at how well children are developing the oral language skills they need when they start school. We also look at how Early Childhood Education (ECE) can help children to develop these important skills, and recommendations for action.

The Education Review Office looked at the effectiveness of Counselling in Schools, how well it reached the students it is targeted at, the impact it had, and some lessons for counselling programmes in the future. We found that counselling improves students’ mental health, and we also saw some encouraging signs of improved learning and wellbeing more widely. 

Science is important – we rely on science and scientific thinking in almost every endeavour in our modern society. High quality science education at school is essential for learners who want a career in science, but it is also important for all learners to help them understand the scientific issues that whānau, communities, and nations face. Issues such as climate change, healthy living, and innovation all depend on science.

To support leaders and teachers to review and strengthen the science learning opportunities they provide, ERO explored the strategies and approaches that a selection of schools had taken to increase students’ engagement in science. This short guides draws on this work to help primary school teachers think about how they can support stronger science teaching and learning in their school.

This national report presents the findings of ERO’s recent evaluation of the practices used in an initiative to support the improved achievement of a specific group of Year 12 students.

This report combines the findings of individual reviews completed for seven schools located in Child Youth and Family residences. These residences cater for adolescents with serious criminal or welfare issues and education is a very important part of their rehabilitation and support. ERO found that the CYF residential schools provided a good education for students with very few areas needing improvement.The report includes recommendations for how residential schools may extend current practices to further improve teaching.

Members of a school strategic change leadership team  discuss how a significant drop in the NCEA achievement outcomes of their Māori students, which had been consistently tracking upwards since 2009, created a context that required a critically reflective analysis of both cohort and individual data, alongside a review of the current tracking and monitoring processes and tools.

Te Kura Huanui: The treasures of successful pathways and supporting documentaries explore the Māori-medium education pathway, through a rich collection of interviews and research conducted in partnership with early founders, whānau, leaders, graduates, kaiako, kaimahi and kaumatua.

In February 2021, the MOE requested that the Education Review Office (ERO) carry out an evaluation of the professional development programme, Ako Panuku. The purpose of this evaluation, to consider the programme, its content, delivery modes, resources, and support. In addition, report on the strengths, challenges, and future opportunities.

Measuring changes to education systems, let alone performance, is complex. With education systems consisting of many moving parts, there are multiple approaches to assessing education system performance across the world, reflecting the reality of this complexity. This summary explores global practice for measuring education system change.

A principal describes the need to establish the ‘fertile ground for innovation’ by being explicit about the need to be ‘comfortable being uncomfortable’ in order that together they can question, inquire and critique to make things better the learners.