This report presents a summary of results from a 2024 survey of School Boards, developed by NZCER in collaboration with Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa—New Zealand School Boards’ Association, and with assistance from the Kōkirihia Collective.
NZCER plans to use the findings to inform the school professional learning and development (PLD) and advisory support we provide during our current assessment refresh programme.
The survey focused on four areas related to the work of School Boards:
- equity (including streaming practices) in education
- assessment and data use
- student attendance
- climate change.
A final section on areas for development and learning was also included.
He kitenga | Findings
Equity
There was clear agreement with all three of the statements about equity in the survey suggesting that most respondents were committed to equity in education. Most agreed or strongly agreed that:
- as a Board, our decisions reflect a strong commitment to equity in education (90%)
- I know what equity in education means and what it looks like in practice at my kura (89%)
- I am confident that my kura is addressing equity in its policies and practices (85%).
Boards and schools have a range of areas that could benefit from more support. The top three were: a need for more funding, resources, and PLD; a need for more focus on community and diversity; and a desire for more focus on student needs.
Streaming
- almost two-thirds (67%) were aware of Kōkirihia, the plan for removing streaming
- many schools did not have ending streaming as a strategic goal (84%)
- many Board members (70%) had not been part of a Board discussion on streaming/ability group practices
- respondents were reasonably evenly spilt (41% yes; 59% no) about whether ending streaming is a priority for their school.
Assessment and data use
In terms of the assessment knowledge questions, which were about the data presented to the Board, most respondents reported they:
- had sufficient data literacy to ask questions about the data (89%)
- felt confident in understanding what the data meant (87%).
Most respondents (over 80%) also reported that assessment data were presented to the Board in ways that:
- allowed them to see patterns by group (92%)
- clearly highlighted or explained patterns and trends (90%)
- were aggregated so they could see overall patterns (87%)
- made it easy to feed into decision making (84%).
There was one statement where less than 80% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with “I am familiar with assessments like Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs), e-asTTle, Te Waharoa Ararau and their purpose”, suggesting this could be a key focus area for PLD.
Attendance
Replies to the three questions about attendance showed nearly all schools and Boards were prioritising this area. Nearly all respondents reported:
- attendance was a school-wide priority (92%)
- their Board received sufficient, timely information about student attendance patterns (92%)
- their current school plan for tracking and monitoring attendance was effective (94%).
In an open-ended question about additional ways of improving attendance, Board members suggested a wide range of strategies that included more community messaging and collaboration, more funding and resourcing, better measuring and reporting, and the use of positive strategies to engage students.
Climate change
Most respondents (78%) thought that climate change would have some form of impact on their local community in the lifetime of students, and 53% thought this impact would be moderate or major.
However, it was less common to find schools taking climate action. Compared to the other focus areas in the survey, respondents showed less agreement with the statements about possible climate change actions occurring at their school, with only around half agreeing or strongly agreeing that:
- our Board actively supports a focus on sustainability and climate change (52%)
- our school has provided support to our community during and after climate-related events (48%).
Respondents were least likely to agree that their school:
- was taking active steps to reduce carbon emissions (43%)
- had a school-wide focus on reducing emissions associated with how students and/or staff get to school (31%).
Areas for development and learning
Board members have a wide range of professional development needs, with the most pressing being:
- effective practices to improve school attendance (48%)
- understanding and promoting equity (46%)
- effective use of assessment data (45%).