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Wellington (7 October 2013): While national standards, charter schools, and class sizes have dominated the education debate, research by The New Zealand Initiative shows teacher quality is the most important in-school factor influencing student achievement. But as the World Class Education? Read more
What kinds of things matter for student achievement? Is it class size, school journals, the school building, or a flash new gym? Read more
Should New Zealand be letting inexperienced and unqualified teachers loose on children in our toughest communities? That’s exactly what Teach First is doing. Read more
Before you start thinking that there is a radical new health or safety (or better still, health and safety) measure in place to ban hundreds and thousands biscuits in schools, a more serious matter is at stake: are schools banning hundreds and thousands of students? This matters, because OECD data shows that school systems that transfer disruptive students out of schools, as a system, tend to perform lower and are less equitable. Read more
This week, Massey University Professors James Chapman and Bill Turner released a highly critical report of the Ministry of Education’s strategy for improving children’s literacy. In essence, they argue that the strategy has failed. Read more
It’s a story teachers often lament: Children bringing behavioural and emotional problems to school, without shoes on their feet or food in their bellies. Research in 2005 estimated that 10% of children in New Zealand go without breakfast. Read more
Last week I heard a 60-something-year-old talk about getting some files out of his ‘machine’. I imagined some kind of futuristic filing cabinet but it turns out he was talking about his computer. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative is bringing Nick Cater to New Zealand to launch his book The Lucky Culture on 15 July in Wellington, 16 July in Auckland and 17 July in Christchurch. The Lucky Culture and the rise of an Australian ruling class, published by Harper Collins, is a bold and provocative book about Australia’s national identity and how it is threatened by the rise of an aspiring ruling class. Read more
Last week, the OECD published Education at a Glance 2013, comparing education indicators across 42 countries. Ministers Steven Joyce and Hekia Parata highlighted a few points of interest. Read more
Should children be learning knowledge or skills? People argue as if one is more important than the other. Read more