The Education Review Office (ERO) has announced changes to its school reports system, which it says aims to empower parents and whānau to better understand how schools are performing.
In a media conference on Tuesday, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the new format of the three-part reports to provide a ‘snapshot’ view of schools’ performance, as well as a summary table and full, written review.
Read the latest print edition of School News online HERE
The new reports, which will be in use from Term 2 this year, offer insight on 14 or 16 different areas of school performance; 14 for English-medium schools and 16 for Māori immersion and bilingual schools. Areas include student achievement, reading and writing, mathematics, leadership, equity and attendance.
Related School News article: PLD for teachers in New Zealand needs strengthening, says ERO
The first section will be a colour-coded snapshot for an at-a-glance understanding of performance, followed by a table summarising the overall findings, then the full-format written report with more detail.
The approach, frequency, scale and judgement framework of the ERO’s reviews will not change, but the previously-used school evaluation and profile reports will be scrapped, with all reports now following the same format.
Families need more clarity, says Minister
Minister Stanford said the changes were in response to direct feedback which suggested parents had been turning to communities and social media for information, rather than ERO reports, as they were “overly complex”.
“I’ve heard it for years and it has been a bugbear of mine that ERO reports have been complex, they’ve been difficult to understand.”
“If we are serious about creating this world-leading education system where every child can reach their full potential, we do need to be able to celebrate the success of schools, but also to be able to be open and honest about where we need to improve.”
“You will see that [the new reports] are clearer, they are easier to understand, they provide more detail about what parents want.”
Stanford said the ERO had worked closely with parents and principals to ensure the reports worked for whānau and schools.
Technical jargon to be scrapped
ERO Chief Review Officer Ruth Shinoda said the new reports provide parents with clear, useful and accessible information about schools in the areas that matter most to their child’s education.
Ms Shinoda said that feedback suggested parents were struggling with technical terminology in previous reports, which was something that would change with a new focus on clearer, simpler language.
“For example, the word ’embedding’, which is one of our judgements, it means a lot to us in education. Parents have no idea what this word means.”
“So, we’ve changed it to ‘doing well’, so that schools that are doing well, can tell their parents and community that they’re doing well.
“We wanted to make sure that parents and whānau can easily understand our reports, so they are empowered to ask good questions, make good choices, and get involved in their child’s education,” said Ms Shinoda.
“We talked to parents all over the country, and they told us that our reports needed to change – that they need better, clearer information about school quality.
“We heard them and have overhauled our school reports, making them much easier to understand.
“Crucially, they are more sharply focused on the things that make the biggest difference to learner success and wellbeing – including attendance, progress, achievement and assessment.”
