Our research

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. 

This report is part of a series ERO is publishing over three years about National Standards. A consistent theme in all the reports to date is the need for strong professional leadership to effectively implement and work with the standards. 

This is the first in a series of national reports that ERO will publish over the next two years about Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori.

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.

This report, Including Students with Special Needs: school questionnaire responses presents the findings from a questionnaire completed by schools reviewed in the first two terms of 2011. It is based on schools’ own views of how well they include children with special needs.

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 ERO report has been written to help schools develop enterprise learning. Seven case studies present the challenges and benefits of enterprise as authentic teaching and learning. Each of these studies show what students have achieved in different enterprise activities. They discuss what leaders and teachers have done; both those who have been supportive of an enterprise learning approach and those who have been hesitant in adapting the way they teach.

This evaluation investigates how well schools are using the EOTC Guidelines in their provision of EOTC, how well their EOTC activities complement the curriculum, how well they plan for the safety of EOTC activities, and how well the revised EOTC Guidelines support teaching and safety. This report gives examples of effective EOTC teaching and practices that support safety. The report also identifies where the effectiveness and safety of EOTC could be improved.

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.

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

This cluster evaluation highlights improvements in the overall performance of the six kura kaupapa Māori and 12 English-medium schools on the North Island’s East Coast. This report highlights some significant changes in these schools over the last 14 years.

This is the latest report in the series of ERO's national evaluation reports about the implementation of the National Standards in English-medium schools with students in Years 1 to 8.The evaluation involved 237 schools reviewed by ERO in Terms 3 and 4, 2010. The report indicates that schools are still at varying stages of working with the National Standards.

Evaluation at a Glance: What ERO Knows About Effective Schools explores five themes from a cross-section of ERO's evaluations in primary and secondary schools over the past four years:

• A focus on the learner
• Leadership in an inclusive culture
• Effective teaching
• Engagement with parents, whānau and communities
• Coherent policies and practice in a cycle of continuous self review

The evaluation looked at four aspects of international education (schools' self review, pastoral care, quality of education and social integration) and concluded that most schools were highly effective or generally effective in all four aspects.

This is an interim report of findings from 80 schools reviewed in Term 3, 2010.As part of the review process, ERO asked specific questions about each school's use of National Standards, its preparedness for these and how well school leaders, teachers and trustees understood the National Standards. Findings from Term 3 and 4 will be aggregated and published as a national evaluation report in early 2011.

Kiwisport is a government initiative aimed at increasing opportunities for school-aged children to participate in organised sport.

In Terms 2 and 3, 2010, the Education Review Office evaluated the use primary and secondary schools made of Kiwisport funding, and the benefits and challenges of the initiative identified by schools.

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 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.