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Evaluation

We carry out a wide range of evaluations and we provide strategic advice on evaluation for clients wanting to shape their education work. We bring to our evaluation work a deep knowledge of education pedagogy, expertise across a range of education areas, and the latest thinking on assessment.

Our strengths include:

  • Well established relationships and networks in the education sector
  • The ability to bring together large qualitative and quantitative teams
  • Experience with mixed methodologies and utilisation-focused approaches
  • Kaupapa Māori evaluation and monitoring approaches

NZCER also has its own educational tools and resources which can be used in evaluations, including:

  • Assessment tools that can be used to track student learning
  • Surveys such as student engagement, student wellbeing and educational leadership.

We also develop evaluative tools to suit the needs of clients.

We have thought a lot about our approach over many evaluations and have developed some guiding principles. Key among these are:

Quality - we have robust ethics processes and quality assurance guidelines

Building capability - we work alongside clients to strengthen their evaluative capability

Knowledge generation - we want our evaluations to generate knowledge for the organisation and also contribute to the knowledge base across and beyond the education sector.

You can read more in our evaluation brochure.

Recent Evaluation research publications

Author(s): Jo MacDonald, Nicola Bright, Teresa Maguire, Melanie Berg
Research report - 2018
Author(s): Jo MacDonald, Eliza Stevens
Research report - 2017
Author(s): Roseanna Bourke (Massey University) and Jo MacDonald

This paper presents an evaluation that draws on large-scale ‘student voice’ contribution. Using the context of a mental health programme that was piloted in secondary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper explores the importance of a student voice agenda in evaluations. 

Journal article - 2016
Author(s): Jenny Whatman

This report draws on a 3-year evaluation of induction and mentoring in New Zealand early childhood education settings and schools, carried out for the Education Council (previously NZ Teachers Council).

Research report - 2016
Author(s): Cathy Wylie and Rachel Felgate

A summary and three reports have been released as part of NZCER's evaluation of the Incredible Years Teacher programme. The series is available on the Ministry of Education's Education Counts website here.

Research report - 2016
Author(s): Jo Macdonald, Jenny Whatman and Liesje Stevens

This is the third evaluation report of the Teach First NZ programme. Teach First is a pilot, field-based initial education programme run in partnership between Teach First NZ and the University of Auckland.

The report is available here.

Research report - 2016
Author(s): Jacky Burgon, Melanie Berg & Nicole Herdina

Intensive Wraparound Service (IWS) is designed for children and young people with complex mental health, behavioural and special education needs.  This evaluation was designed to contribute to the future development of the service.

The full report can be downloaded here.

A media release about the report from Education Minister Hekia Parata is available here.

Research report - 2015
Author(s): Cathy Wylie and Jacky Burgon

SpringboardTrust is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to improve student outcomes through improving the effectiveness of principals. This is the executive summary of NZCER's evaluation of the short-term impact of its flagship programme, the Strategic Leadership for Principals Programme (SLPP).

Research summary - 2016
Author(s): Sally Boyd, Rosemary Hipkins

The Sport in Education initiative was introduced by Sport NZ in 2013 to demonstrate the contribution that the context and concepts of sport can make to enhancing teaching and learning for schools and students. Eight schools were chosen to demonstrate that this approach is equally valid across genders, geographic locations, roll sizes and differing socioeconomic environments.

This report prepared for Sport New Zealand covers stories based on successful practice from two years of the Sport in Education initiative. The success stories are activities which teachers considered had made a difference.

Research report - 2015
Author(s): Rosemary Hipkins

A  presentation given to the Sport New Zealand Advisory Group, based on the evaluation approach for the Sport in Education evaluation support project.

Presentation - 2012