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Early childhood education has been an important focus for the Education Review Office for over 20 years. This report uses findings from ERO's national evaluations of early childhood education and individual services' education reviews to highlight the factors that contribute to high quality early childhood education and care, as well as those that contribute to poor quality. The report provides a good starting point for further discussion for anyone involved in early childhood education including education providers, policy makers and teachers.

This report complements the national evaluation report, Success for Māori Children in Early Childhood Services, March 2010. It presents examples of good practice from nine early childhood services, identified during their ERO reviews, which had practices that were working for Māori children and their parents and whānau.

This evaluation also raises questions about the links between implementing a bicultural curriculum and reviewing its impact for Māori children. This is the next step for services that already have strong bicultural curriculum. Reflecting on and questioning the extent to which Māori children experience success as learners is part of the challenge for managers and educators in early childhood services. The findings of this evaluation indicate that many services have some way to go in working with parents and whānau and enabling Māori children to become competent and confident learners.

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.

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

This report discusses how well primary schools:

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

The Education Review Office (ERO) undertook a national evaluation of the implementation of self review in 397 services in Terms 1, 2 and 3, 2008. The evaluation focused on how well self review was understood, supported and implemented in each service and the extent to which it led to improved management and educator practice. 

This Education Review Office (ERO) report is based on the findings of a study involving 16 early childhood services and one umbrella organisation undertaken as part of each service’s regular education review during Term 4, 2007.  

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.