Our research

This short guide is for Board of Trustees for schools. It covers what we found from talking to both Boards of Trustees and schools in 2020 about the impact of Covid-19. The guide shares suggested actions for continuing to support students, parents, whānau and staff in a Covid-19 world.

How well were school leaders determining Professional Learning and Development priorities and evaluating its impact?

ERO spoke with school leaders responsible for planning Professional Learning and Development (PLD) and looked at a variety of documents in 242 state or state-integrated schools (excluding kura) reviewed in Terms 3 and 4, 2018. ERO made an overall judgment about how well school leaders were determining PLD priorities and evaluating the impact of PLD.

New Zealand schools have one of the highest rates of bullying among OECD member countries. In this evaluation, ERO looked at the extent to which schools were effectively working towards an environment in which students feel safe and free from bullying.

A companion report to this one, Bullying Prevention and Response: Student Voice focuses on ERO’s survey of students on their experience and understandings of bullying and effective bullying prevention and response.

High quality assessment and evaluation allows us to focus on student progress and outcomes at classroom, school and system levels.  It helps teachers, schools and systems to report on student achievement across points in time, and provide information for parents, trustees and the public about the quality of education. 

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.

At McAuley High School, leaders and teachers actively model learning behaviour for the students including eliciting student feedback on a regular basis

ERO has written this booklet for boards of trustees. It is one of many tools available to help you in your role as a trustee. It focuses on student achievement and wellbeing, and the role the board plays in these two areas. The booklet includes questions and information that will guide you in your discussions with school leaders and as a trustee.

This report presents the findings of ERO's 2013 evaluation of principal appraisal in primary and secondary schools.

This report presents the findings of ERO's 2013 evaluation of how schools ensure student safety when recruiting and managing staff. ERO focused on four key areas in this evaluation. To make this report easier for school staff and trustess to consider, the findings, recommendations and self-review tools have been grouped under each of the four headings below:

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 national report presents the findings of ERO’s recent evaluation about the extent to which primary schools were using effective strategies to improve outcomes for priority groups of learners. In this report ‘priority learners’ refers to Māori, Pacific, special needs, and students from low income families, who are not achieving at or above National Standards.

This is the first in a series of evaluations related to principal and teacher appraisal in New Zealand schools. These evaluations are intended to provide information to help boards and school leaders strengthen appraisal practice and links with school development to improve outcomes for their students.

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.

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.