This report details the findings from a 2-phase study investigating students' decision-making concerning tertiary study and other post-school destinations.

In phase 1 students from 5 schools, who intended to leave school at the end of 1999, completed a questionnaire concerning their work and study plans for 2000. In late 2000 in phase 2, follow-up interviews were undertaken with 321 students to ascertain their actual destinations; their satisfaction, with hindsight, with ...

The Competent Children, Competent Learners project is a longitudinal study which focuses on a group of about 500 young people from the greater Wellington region (Wellington, Hutt, Kapiti, and Wairarapa). It is funded by the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

The project started in 1993, when the young people were almost 5 years old and in early childhood education. Its original purpose was to ...

The main aim of the Competent Children / Competent Learners project is to chart the development of competencies (in the context of home, leisure, and educational experiences) that may account for differences in patterns of development and young people’s performance.

At age 16, we have data for 448 young people. These data include results from literacy, numeracy, and logical problem-solving (pattern completion tasks), and ratings from subject teachers (English, their ...

This report documents the stories of a group of “at risk” young people who have been expelled from mainstream schools and who attend alternative education facilities. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the research carried out in mid-2008.

The report is based on one-to-one interviews with 41 young people in five alternative education centres. Another 9 students were consulted on the research design, questions and analysis.

The ...

This report is the first to be released from the age-16 phase of the Competent Children, Competent Learners project. It looks at how students' cognitive competencies (numeracy, literacy and logical problem solving) and their attitudinal competencies are related. The predictability of students’ current levels of performance in relation to earlier levels of performance is also explored. A longer technical report has been written to accompany this report, which provides more detail ...

The Ministry of Education began funding the Competent Children project in 1992. The first stage was a pilot study to try out the interviews, observations, and record-keeping for the main longitudinal study. Researchers observed 7 boys and 12 girls, aged between 4 and 5, in their early childhood education setting. The children did a series of tasks designed to evaluate their skills in a range of areas, and their parents ...

This is a report on a study exploring changes in the role of the primary principal since the New Zealand education reforms began in 1989. It looked at principals' own perceptions of their role, in the context of their schools, their work with boards, their experience of the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office, their own professional development and support, and their workloads.

The report shows that the ...

This is the third project report. It describes the competencies of 523 children at age 8, in the context of their schools and homes. It compares the data for age 8 with the data gathered when the children were 5 and 6.

What makes the most difference to competency levels?

• Family resources - especially family income and mother's education - show the strongest associations with competency levels. Low income in ...

This is the second report in the Competent Children longitudinal study.

This full report on the children at age 6 found that maths and reading showed the main gains in competencies since age 5. Only 10% could read at age 5. By age 6, only 10% could not read. The first year at school narrowed the age 5 gaps in mathematics and literacy scores between children from mainly low-income early childhood ...

Results of the 2007 NZCER national survey of ECE services

This is one of three reports from NZCER’s second national survey of the early childhood education sector, carried out in late 2007. The others are:

• Provision of ECE services and parental perceptions, and
• Early childhood education services in 2007: key findings from the NZCER national survey.

The survey reports the views of teachers/educators from education and care centres ...