Our research

In responding to its unique context Invercargill Middle School adopted a range of approaches to accelerate learning. Teachers share a collective commitment to making the most of every learning opportunity.

Māori educators and a Māori student draw from their own experiences to discuss the concept of identity and the central role schools play in the identity development of Māori students.

At Otumoetai Intermediate School, Student Learning Leaders learn how to undertake structured classroom observations focused on teaching and learning. The students and staff discuss the process and its impact.

Driven by the conviction that everybody can achieve, leaders and teachers seek to overcome barriers to equity and excellence experienced by individual students at McAuley High School.

The deputy principal at Kerikeri High School describes the process the school leaders went through to develop electronic systems and processes to track student academic success. The principal describes how the tracking tool alerted school leaders when students were at risk of not achieving and led them to consider ways to ensure students had further opportunities to succeed.

At McAuley High School, the use of student achievement data and other evidence is the catalyst for determining who needs to be part of the discussion to seek solutions and establish next steps.

At Otumoetai Intermediate, all teachers are engaged in differentiated professional learning and development. Those with similar goals are ‘buddied’ with another staff member.

In improving the teaching and learning of mathematics, leaders and teachers are working to develop safe, collaborative environments where every learner (teachers and students) can access the thinking of others to strengthen their knowledge and understanding.

This evaluation report illustrates the leadership domain of ERO’s School Evaluation Indicators in practice by:

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 report presents examples of good practice in student engagement and achievement. The examples come from a sample of secondary schools, rated decile 5 or below with rolls of 200 students or more, who had better outcomes for students than other similar schools. ERO visited seven of these schools to find out the secret to their success.

This national report is about how effectively 15 Pacific early childhood services used Equity Funding to increase Pacific children's participation and support them to develop their language, culture and identity.

We have also published a companion report - Use of Equity Funding in Early Childhood Services.

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.

In this evaluation Partnership with Whānau Māori in Early Childhood Education, ERO focused on the extent to which:

• services understood and valued the identity, language and culture of Māori children and their whānau, particularly when the child and whānau enter the service
• managers and educators built positive relationships with the whānau of Māori children; and
• each service worked in partnership with the whānau of Māori children. 

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 Education Review Office (ERO) evaluation focused on how effectively reading and writing was taught in the first two years of schooling, and on how well teachers used assessment information to plan and evaluate their teaching.

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.

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 report builds on this finding by giving examples of good practice in the collection and use of assessment information in primary schools. The report also includes three detailed case studies.

Knowing what students know and can do is fundamental to effective teaching and students’ learning. Teachers need to assess student achievement to know whether or not their teaching is meeting the learning needs of their students.

In 2006, ERO evaluated how effectively schools collected and used assessment information. This report details the findings of that evaluation and recommends what can be done to make assessment practices in schools more effective.