NCEA Report: Mangere College must do better

John Heyes, Principal of Mangere College, says the lowly statistics fail to explain the full story. Photo / Dean Purcell

On paper Mangere College has some of the lowest achievement rates in the country but principal John Heyes says they only paint half the picture of what is really going on at the school.

According to recently released New Zealand Qualifications Authority statistics, the percentage of Mangere students passing NCEA is lower than the average for other decile 1 schools.

Fifty-one per cent of the school's Year 11 students gained Level 1 NCEA last year, while 46 per cent of Year 12 students gained Level 2 - the minimum desired qualification these days.

Only 20 per cent of the Year 13 students sitting Level 3 passed, while just 12 per cent gained University Entrance.

While the Level 1 and 2 pass rates have improved since 2009, the Level 3 statistics have dropped by 26 percentage points. University Entrance is down by 19. But, Mr Heyes is not unhappy with the 2010 results.

"They are pleasing apart from what happened with Year 13 but when you dig a bit deeper we fully understand how those results did occur."

He said the actual number of Year 13 students sitting Level 3 was so small that the statistics were easily skewed - especially given three of them ended up having issues that "militated against them giving their best effort performance in the externals".

"As soon as you have three students out of that [small group] with performance that is less than expected then the percentages are going to go all over the place."

Mr Heyes added that last year's University Entrance levels were "unfortunate" and previous years had been more on track with the 2009 rate of about 30 per cent.

Mr Heyes said the reason so few Year 13 students sat Level 3 came back to the school's decile rating - a reflection of the low socio-economic community most students come from.

"Our students when they enter at Year 9 are performing anything up to two years below the national cohort on literacy and numeracy indicators," he said. "The thought of the majority of those students being ready by Year 11 to partake in a nationally normed exam is actually a fallacy because they can't make up two years behind in three years."

Last year only half of the 177 Year 11 students passed Level 1. Many will continue trying to achieve Level 1 this year as Year 12 students.

The school does have higher pass rates for older students gaining Level 1 - more than three-quarters of Year 12s passed in 2010, while nearly all of the Year 13 students passed.

Mr Heyes said the Year 11 Level 1 and Year 12 Level 2 statistics had improved since 2009 and that was the result of constant hard work.

The school introduced an academic mentoring trial involving 30 Year 11 students where families and form teachers worked with the students to help meet targets. Results were evident, with many of the merit and excellences the school achieved last year coming from those students.

Plans are in place to involve all Year 11 students this year and have all senior students involved within the next three years.

HOW THEY MEASURE UP
Percentage of students who achieved NCEA in 2010

Level 1 - Year 11
Mangere College: 51%
Decile 1 schools' average: 58%

Level 2 - Year 12
Mangere College: 46%
Decile 1 schools' average: 66%

Level 3 - Year 12
Mangere College: 20%
Decile 1 schools' average: 58%