Our research

This report presents the findings of ERO’s evaluation of the Ministry of Education's initiative, Achievement 2013-2017.

These booklets 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.

Your child's education is an overview of education in New Zealand, from early childhood education through to secondary school. The information and questions are a useful insight into what education looks like in New Zealand and the opportunities available to your child.

The Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health Project aims to improve the mental health of young people aged 12 to 19 years. One initiative of this project is a national evaluation of the current provision of guidance and counselling in schools.

The Education Review Office (ERO) evaluated how well 44 schools and five wharekura provided guidance and counselling for students.

This report discusses secondary schools where Pacific learners are achieving at or above the national norms for all students. It includes details of initiatives and good practice and how these work together to get great results.

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 presents the findings of three online surveys about the current provision of guidance and counselling in schools with students in Years 9 to 13. This is the first phase of work being undertaken by ERO as part of the Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health Project.

This report is the second in our Evaluation at a Glance series. It is a synthesis of material from 15 national evaluations and reports of good practice published in the last four years that, taken together, reveal three key issues facing New Zealand’s education system. 

This evaluation looked at how effectively schools use literacy and mathematics achievement information to improve learning for Years 9 and 10 students. The evaluation found that improvements are needed in most secondary schools’ practice with these students. It identifies the actions which school leaders, boards of trustees and teachers can take to help Years 9 and 10 students to be engaged, active and successful learners.

This is ERO's third report on the progress of schools in promoting Pacific student achievement. It tells a similar story to ERO's two previous reports with little evidence of system-wide improvement.

Includes two reports: Secondary Schools and Alternative Education and Good Practice in Alternative Education

In late 2015, the Cabinet Social Policy Committee asked ERO to assess ‘the current status of food, nutrition and physical activity in schools and early childhood services’ and to report on Health Promoting Schools that were included in the sample. We visited 202 early learning services, 46 primary schools and 29 secondary schools in the first half of 2016.

We asked: How well does the service/school promote positive attitudes to physical activity, and food and nutrition to benefit children?

This 2010 report evaluates how schools have promoted success for Māori students since ERO’s previous national report in 2006. The success of Māori students at school is a matter of national interest and priority. ERO has published five national evaluation reports on this topic since 2001. These have identified system-wide issues and recommended steps to be taken by schools and by the Ministry of Education to promote success for Māori in education.

This is one of two national reports by the Education Review Office (ERO) on how well schools manage teachers’ PLD. This one is about PLD in secondary schools and the other is on primary schools.

This report discusses how well secondary schools:

• plan for PLD;
• build a culture in which teachers learn and develop; and
• monitor the effectiveness of teachers’ learning and development.

Assessment informs an early childhood service’s programme and educators’ teaching practices. ERO evaluated the quality of assessment in all the early childhood services reviewed in Terms 3 and 4, 2006.

Services were at varying stages in their understanding and implementation of assessment practices, as not all had yet participated in professional development.

ERO evaluated the collection and use of assessment information in schools in 2006. The evaluation concluded that more work can be done to improve assessment practice in schools. This complementary report aims to help secondary schools review their assessment practice. It highlights characteristics common to high quality assessment practices and includes examples of good practice.