2013/14 Annual review of the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office Report of the Education and Science Committee Contents Recommendation 2 Introduction 2 Improving the education system for priority learners 2 Investing in Educational Success 4 PISA ranking 4 Partnership schools kura hourua 4 Novopay 5 Christchurch school reorganisation 5 Early childhood education 5 National standards 6 Tertiary evaluation systems 6 Appendix 7
Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office Recommendation The Education and Science Committee has conducted the annual review of the 2013/14 performance and current operations of the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office, and recommends that the House take note of its report. Introduction The Ministry of Education is the lead advisor to the Government on the education system, covering early childhood, primary, secondary, and tertiary education. It acts as steward of the education system, working to raise the performance of the system as a whole. The ministry prioritised two particular areas in the year under review: improving the performance of the education system for Māori and Pasifika students, those with special education needs, and those from low socio-economic areas; and maximising the contribution of education to the economy. Three of the Government s Better Public Services goals relate to the education system: to ensure that 98 percent of children starting school in 2016 will have participated in quality early childhood education (ECE), to increase the proportion of 18-year-olds with NCEA Level 2 or equivalent qualification, and to increase the proportion of 25 34-year-olds with advanced trade qualifications, diplomas, and degrees. The Education Review Office (ERO) is a government department established under the State Sector Act 1988. ERO operates independently of schools and early childhood services, as well as from agencies that set policies and standards, to assure the Government of the quality of education provided and system-wide performance. ERO s total revenue for the year ended 30 June 2014 was $28.212 million, an increase of $322,000 from the year ended 30 June 2013. Improving the education system for priority learners The ministry is committed to achieving the Government s Better Public Services target for 85 percent of all students to achieve NCEA Level 2 in 2017. The ministry said it is working individually with schools to tackle specific obstacles to achieving NCEA Level 2. We were particularly interested in how the ministry is helping ensure that the groups of learners it has prioritised can achieve NCEA Level 2. We were told that NCEA Level 2 is considered a critical qualification, because it equips non-academic students to enter the workforce. The ministry said there are vocational pathways for non-academic students, including trade academies that straddle the secondary and tertiary systems. Trade academies are very successful in their NCEA Level 2 achievement rates. The ministry is also working with other government agencies, particularly the Ministry of Social Development, to reach students who are going through the family group conference process. The goal is to provide children entering the justice system with a feasible educational pathway that includes NCEA Level 2 if possible. We heard that education 2
officers from the ministry now attend some Youth Courts, and are getting outstanding results by working with judges and Corrections department staff. We heard that students who achieve NCEA Level 2 are less likely to reoffend, and have much better life prospects. Māori and Pasifika student achievement We are aware that 67 percent of Pasifika students attend schools in income deciles 1 to 3; and 52 percent of Pasifika students who leave high school do so without any qualifications in academic subjects. The ministry agreed that the significant disparity between the achievement of Pasifika and Māori students and others is unacceptable. Substantial progress has, however, been made in lifting Māori and Pasifika achievement in relation to the Government s target. The ministry expects to meet this target by working with all schools on their charter process; and through targeted interventions and programmes that are specific to Māori and Pasifika students. We heard that achievement data shows a 7 percent increase between 2009 and 2013 in students achieving NCEA Level 2. The greatest growth and progress has been measured in decile 1 to 3 schools, and particularly among priority learner groups. The number of Māori students leaving school with NCEA Level 2 increased between 2009 and 2013 by 10 percent; Pasifika students, by 12 percent. Results measured against the Better Public Services target at age 18 indicate a 2.4 percent gain for Maori and 3.3 percent increase for Pasifika learners, while the increase across the board is 1.4 percent. We were told that the Resource Teacher Māori service is being redesigned, with work expected to be completed by the end of 2015. It is expected that this service will focus on supporting Te Reo Māori immersion schools and settings at immersion levels 1 and 2. Building on Success We asked for a comparison between Te Kotahitanga, which was a professional development programme that helps teachers to improve Māori students learning and achievement, and Building on Success, a programme which combined elements of a number of successful programmes. We heard that while Te Kotahitanga significantly improved Māori students achievement, and was considered successful, cost and capacity obstacles meant it could not be scaled up to cater for all secondary schools. The ministry told us that Building on Success combines the successful elements of three existing programmes: Te Kotahitanga, the Starpath programme, and the He Kākano programme. It emphasised the need for school leadership and governance buy-in at an early stage. The ministry said that this programme had greater capacity, and would be available to a larger number of schools than Te Kotahitanga. Tertiary completion rates We are aware that completion rates for Māori in the tertiary system, especially in universities, are lower than for the general population. We heard that the margin of that difference has decreased, as Māori students have been completing university Bachelor s degrees at a greater rate than their peers. This is a reflection of efforts made by the Tertiary Education Commission to ensure that institutions set more ambitious targets, and find ways of meeting them. Children with disabilities We are aware that improving the performance of the education system for students with special education needs is a priority for the ministry. The ministry acknowledged that there 3
is still some variability in schools application of inclusive practices for children with disabilities. We were pleased to find a recent ERO review of schools performance in this area has found that 75 percent of schools have mostly inclusive practices, a 25 percent increase on a survey conducted in 2010/11. We were told that ministry staff work with individual schools and children with disabilities, to ensure that wherever possible a disabled child will find an inclusive environment in their local school. Where it is not possible to find a solution with a child s local school, the ministry can arrange transport to a school that is equipped to meet the child s needs. The ministry agreed that attitudinal problems sometimes underlie a school s failure to provide adequate support for disabled children. We hope to see further improvement in ensuring a welcoming environment for all students at their local schools. The Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) provides support for students with the highest level of need for special education to participate alongside other students at school. Many children with special needs do not meet the criteria for ORS funding. We are aware that none of the first four charter schools established in 2014 had ORS students on their rolls, and were told that this reflected the geographic distribution of ORS students. Investing in Educational Success In January 2014 the Government announced that it was investing $359 million in funding a new initiative, Investing in Educational Success (IES), to raise students achievement by raising teacher quality. IES is intended to enable the most effective teachers and principals to share their knowledge and expertise with multiple schools. We heard that the ministry has received 504 expressions of interest in trialling the new model from community clusters comprising more than 490 separate schools. On 8 December 2014 the Minister announced the first 11 Communities of Schools, formed from 82 schools. We were told that ministry staff are working with schools and their communities on the mechanics of creating a community of schools. ERO and ministry staff are devising workshops to help cluster schools boards and leaders set up joint achievement challenges that are appropriate to their schools and their communities. We heard that a big advantage of the IES school cluster model will be its workable scale: best-practice knowledge can be disseminated personally to 250 cluster leaders, but not to 2,500 school principals. PISA ranking The Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) is a continuing worldwide study by the OECD of 15-year-old school pupils performance in mathematics, science, and reading. We are aware of a statistically significant decline in the performance of New Zealand 15-year-old students in mathematical literacy, and to a lesser degree in reading literacy, from 2009 to 2012. However, New Zealand s performance in both areas is still above the OECD average. The ministry told us that the IES package would allow teachers to share effective teaching practices; coupled with programmes to support mathematics and literacy teaching and learning, this should address New Zealand s fall in international rankings. Partnership schools kura hourua We heard that the partnership school model is focused on meeting the needs of priority learners and especially on achievement outcomes. Those running partnership schools enjoy 4
more flexibility but are more accountable, via the political system, for the achievement of their specified outcomes. In this context, we asked about the poor performance of the year-old Whangaruru partnership school. We heard that 38 percent of Whangaruru s roll consists of students who were not previously enrolled in any school in New Zealand; they are some of the most challenged students, with the highest level of need. The ministry is working with the school s board of trustees and its sponsor to resolve issues concerning management systems and the monitoring of educational outcomes. If they remain unresolved, the school s status means that further options are available to the Government. We heard that the first-quarter reports for the first five partnership schools were released on 20 November 2014, and the second and third quarter reports are due to be released in April 2015. The fourth-quarter reports are being processed by the ministry, and are scheduled for release in June 2015. Novopay We heard that Talent2, the company contracted by the ministry to provide the Novopay school payroll system, had breached its contract numerous times. Negotiations over its unsatisfactory performance led to a substantial settlement in the Government s favour. However, the net additional cost to the Crown of the Novopay payroll system was $45.41 million. This was spent on remedying the system and getting it fit for purpose. On 17 October 2014 the responsibility for payroll processing and service centre activities passed to Education Payroll Limited, a Government-owned company. We heard that the end-of-year processing for 2014 started in September 2014, and was completed successfully by November. This meant that Education Payroll Limited has demonstrated that it can perform well in the start-of-year peak load period. However, inaccurate leave balance calculations, a legacy of the previous Datacom system rather than Novopay, remains problematic. Christchurch school reorganisation Asked about progress on school land disposals in Christchurch, the ministry said that it was retaining school land until it could be sure that it was not needed for any educational purpose. Some sites that were closed after the earthquakes are being retained against the possibility of rebuilding and the return of students to the site. Adjustments are being made to demographic predictions in the 2013 business case regarding the super-schools at Aranui and at Rolleston. Aranui is likely to have a much larger roll by 2020, but immediate building is not necessary. The ministry is keeping a close eye on development in the east of Christchurch, but does not expect to have to change its assumptions about roll growth in the city substantially. Early childhood education One of the Government s Better Public Services targets is to ensure that 98 percent of children starting school in 2016 will have participated in quality early childhood education (ECE). We heard that over the last four years, 11,000 children who otherwise would not have attended ECE have been enrolled, and that New Zealand now has one of the highest ECE participation rates in the OECD. The ministry said that street-by-street community engagement, in conjunction with data from schools, is its first step to lifting participation in early childhood education. Parents 5
also receive help to find a place that suits their needs and circumstances. The ministry also works with providers, for example by providing grants to establish 6,250 new ECE places where they are needed. Professional development is given to providers who are not meeting the needs of the community they serve. Quality indicators and a new methodology for evaluating the quality of home-based ECE providers will ensure that providers in this sector are satisfactorily delivering the curriculum, Te Whāriki. We heard that home-based ECE providers are monitored closely, and that most are meeting the required standards. We heard that New Zealand s ECE curriculum is worldleading, but that there is scope for more uniform application of the curriculum. National standards We heard that a new Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT) for monitoring performance against National Standards is now available to all schools, but its use is not compulsory. PaCT helps teachers make judgments about students progress and achievement in relation to the New Zealand Curriculum National Standards. We expressed concern that children s ranking against their classroom peers was being made known to parents and to their peers. We were told that this was not recommended. While the ministry supports early recognition and targeting of a child who is struggling, it was firmly opposed to the public display of a child s classroom rank. Tertiary evaluation systems The Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) assesses the research performance of degree-granting tertiary education organisations in New Zealand via that of individual faculty members, and allocates funding on the basis of research performance. On 5 March 2014 the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment announced changes to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the PBRF, to be implemented by the next quality evaluation in 2018. We were briefed on how the evaluations process will be streamlined. We heard that the number of other research outputs that count towards evaluation has been dramatically reduced. Requirements for contribution to the research environment and peer esteem have been merged, to make the submission document briefer and more targeted. The peer esteem measure has been retained, instead of a proposed move towards entirely bibliometric assessment. The PBRF will continue to assess researchers performance individually rather than by faculty. Asked whether the compliance demands of the PBRF evaluation system risk diverting academics from research, the ministry said that triangulated bibliometric analysis of New Zealand s research performance is encouraging. New Zealand s share of indexed prestige publications has risen and so has the share of citations. Relative to the world, New Zealand researchers and universities are doing well. 6
Appendix Committee procedure We met on 18 February and 25 March 2015 to consider the annual reviews of the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office. We heard evidence from the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office and received advice from the Office of the Auditor-General. Committee members Dr Jian Yang (Chairperson) Hon Judith Collins Hon David Cunliffe Catherine Delahunty Paul Foster-Bell Hon Paul Goldsmith Chris Hipkins Melissa Lee Tracey Martin Jenny Salesa Hon Maurice Williamson Evidence and advice received Office of the Auditor-General, Briefing on the Education Review Office, dated 6 February 2015. Office of the Auditor-General, Briefing on the Ministry of Education, dated 16 February 2015. Education sector briefing paper, prepared by committee staff, dated 11 February 2015. Education Review Office, Responses to written questions received 30 January and 3 March 2015. Ministry of Education, Responses to written questions received 2 February, 6 March, and 12 March 2015. 7