Our research

At Invercargill Middle School, the way in which school trustees and leaders work together fosters an appreciative and respectful environment that acknowledges the contributions of everyone in the learning community.

Clarity of expectations within a supportive environment are key to scaffolding children into the behaviours of effective learners. Those expectations are realised through structures and processes that ensure everyone knows what to do to achieve success.

This document is a separate report from the effective practice report, Food, nutrition and physical activity in New Zealand schools and early learning services intended to provide an overview of ERO's findings.

This report documents the findings of ERO’s 2013 evaluation of how well 40 secondary schools analysed and responded to their NCEA data.

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 is ERO’s seventh report about international students. This evaluation included 95 schools (both primary and secondary) and focused on five aspects in relation to international students – integration, progress and achievement, education programme, pastoral care, overall approach and self review.

This resource can be used with the School Evaluation Indicators. It brings together findings from ERO’s recent national reports to outline what works to accelerate progress for Māori students at-risk of underachieving in primary schools. We share approaches schools have taken where progress was accelerated and schools were able to extend their practices to help more students succeed. Innovative schools focus on inequity within their student population, resulting in improved outcomes for Māori students.

This national report is one of two reports that present the findings of a 2012 national evaluation about curriculum priorities. 

This national report is one of two reports that present the findings of a 2012 national evaluation about curriculum priorities.

This report is one of a series of evaluations ERO has undertaken on how schools are working with the National Standards within The New Zealand Curriculum. In this evaluation ERO used the mathematics learning area and associated standards to look at what schools were doing to raise the achievement of students in Years 4 to 8.

This is ERO’s second national evaluation report looking at the extent to which the principles of The New Zealand Curriculum are evident in schools’ curricula and enacted in classrooms. The curriculum principles are intended to be the basis of curriculum decision-making at schools. 

This is ERO’s second national evaluation report on the extent to which schools have processes in place to support teaching as inquiry. It also looks at the specific inquiry approaches teachers use in classrooms.

ERO has released a series of reports about the National Standards since their introduction in 2010. This latest report focuses on eight schools that are working well with the standards. 

In 2011, ERO evaluated the quality of science teaching and learning, its place within the curriculum and its relationship to literacy and numeracy teaching. The evaluation focused on Years 5 to 8 in 100 schools. This report documents the findings of this evaluation.

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.

In November 2007, a revised curriculum was launched for use in New Zealand schools. The New Zealand Curriculum is a statement of official policy related to teaching and learning in English-medium schools in New Zealand. The requirement for schools to implement The New Zealand Curriculum came into effect on 1 February 2010.

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?

ERO evaluated preparedness to work with the National Standards within The New Zealand Curriculum in 228 schools during Terms 1 and 2, 2010. ERO found that most schools were well prepared or had preparation under way, and in many cases the preparations focused on aligning existing benchmarks and expectations with the standards.

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 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.