The Herald has crunched the University Entrance and NCEA Level 3 data for every high school in the country and clear patterns emerge, as well as the types of schools that stand out. Derek Cheng and head of data journalism Chris Knox explain what the numbers mean and our interactive chart shows how well your school and others have done.
In a perfect egalitarian world, student achievement would have nothing to do with social disadvantage. But an analysis of the latest available data for every high school shows a striking pattern: good outcomes are strongly correlated with social advantage, and poor outcomes with social and economic deprivation.
The Herald plotted the 2022 results for every secondary school, which are shown on an interactive graphic below, allowing students and parents to see how they compare and which type of schools seem to do best.
NB: The figures in this graphic may differ from results reported by some schools as they are based on all school leavers, not just Year 13 students.
The main finding was a strong link between social privilege and educational success but a few schools bucked the trend - notably three kura that design their teaching around the needs of their Māori students.
Almost all of the school leavers at Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae attain University Entrance every year - last year, they all did - even though they come from socially disadvantaged homes, as indicated by the school’s high Equity Index score of 492. (Unlike the old decile system, which ranked schools 1-10 from poorest to richest, the new EQI increases by deprivation, so scores range from 344 for the least deprived schools to 569 for the worst-off).
Principal Arihia Stirling said the school’s results were a byproduct of looking after their students’ wellness - “of our ability to get our kids to see a different world”.
That meant laying the foundations - including physical and mental health, high attendance, and good nutrition - so the doors to academic achievement were wide open. It helped, too, to have motivated staff and whānau with high levels of trust built over generations.
In the interactive graphic below, data editor Chris Knox gives a walkthrough view of what the chart above can tell us about student achievement across different schools, starting with where the information comes from.
The EQI data uses a combination of factors to judge student equity, such as the parents’ incomes, qualifications and ages at the birth of their first child, along with any criminal record, time spent on a benefit, social welfare interventions for their children and the number of times the family has moved home.
Despite the stand-out exceptions above, it broadly shows student success still mostly matches wealth and social privilege and the same correlation seems to apply even more strongly when comparing state schools with integrated and private schools, which charge fees.
- Of the 3000 private school students, 79 per cent achieved NCEA Level 3, while for the 6000 students leaving integrated schools (a special character or former private school that’s been integrated into the state school system), it’s 70.8 per cent.
- The national average is 52.8 per cent, while only 48.8 per cent of the 52,000 state high school students left school with NCEA Level 3.
- A stronger correlation exists for UE, though the national average is much lower (38.9 per cent).
- The proportion leaving private schools with UE was almost twice that, at 76 per cent, while for integrated school leavers it was 58.9 per cent.
- For state school leavers, it was a shade over one in three (34 per cent).
This pattern is well documented in the Ministry of Education release of 2022 school leaver data, which showed falling education standards in every measure including the poorest student retention rate since 2009, and steeper declines for Māori, Pasifika, disabled, male, and decile 1 and 2 students.
“Signs of continued inequity are apparent,” said an Education Counts report accompanying the data.
Many girls-only schools perform well relative to their EQI score, including Columba College (91.4 per cent attaining UE), Iona College (89.1 per cent), Baradene College (92.6 per cent), Woodford House (87.5 per cent), Craighead Diocesan School (85.5 per cent), St Hildas Collegiate (88.6 per cent), Carmel College (86.2 per cent), and Marist College (84.1 per cent).
A cautionary note about the data: trends can be observed, but nothing definitive can be inferred. The school leavers in those particular schools did well, but it doesn’t necessarily mean, for example, that girls do better academically in girls-only than in co-ed ones.
St Peter’s College (94 per cent), in the wealthy suburb of Epsom, bucked the trend as a boys-only school, and with a high number (171) of school leavers. Pacific and European/Pākehā students also left St Peter’s with an above-average proportion attaining UE, relative to its EQI score.
Auckland Girls’ Grammar School stood out for high-performing Asian school leavers, 84.4 per cent of whom attained UE.
Schools in rural or small town areas were among those with the lowest proportion of school leavers with UE, including Murchison Area School (6.7 per cent), Karamea Area School (14.3 per cent), Inglewood High School (11 per cent), Putāruru College (1.3 per cent), Lytton High School in Gisborne (0.8 per cent), and Piopio College (4.5 per cent) near Te Kuiti.
But all these schools more or less fit into the overall pattern of students from wealthier households doing better and those from poorer homes doing worse.
Particular schools stand out as exceptions for high-achieving students despite high levels of social disadvantage - notably, three kura.
Secrets of success
A third of the Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae’s 300 students (from Year 0 to Year 13) live in solo working-parent households, while one in six have grandparents as their main caregiver or living in their homes.
So it’s vital, principal Stirling says, to break the intergenerational cycle of unwellness and teach students what it means to be well: “A quiet mind so they can think, a flourishing spirit so they know their worth, and a body fit for purpose, not a body that’s fit for social media. How do we go about that? Your BMI is irrelevant. Are you moving? Feeling a physical experience that makes you feel well in your mind and your heart?”
The co-ed kura has extraordinary buy-in from the community, which translates to a unique level of trust.
“We’re three generations going into four now. Ninety per cent of staff are ex-pupils or have family members in our school. I’ve been here for 35 years and I’ve been the principal for 28 years. Even though we come from different areas of Māoridom, this is our little tribe here,” she says.
“We have what we call a tripartite agreement. Sometimes it will be the parent and the child coming to the kura to say they need something to change. Or it might be the child and a teacher saying to Mum and Dad, ‘You need to change something at home’ because this will make their learning experience better. Or it could be the parent and the teacher saying to the child, ‘Pull your socks up, get out of bed because Mum needs to go to work.’”
There’s also a willingness among staff to go above and beyond.
“We spend probably a good 20 hours a week looking for funding, over and above our jobs, so our kids can have experiences they can’t afford. Learning how to scuba dive? That’s $1000, $1500 per kid. Spirit of Adventure? $2000. We sent 12 of our kids there last year. We find every cent so our kids don’t miss out on experiences, so they know some of the world outside of here,” Stirling says.
“If you can’t afford uniform, if you can’t afford books, we’ll find the money. Money is never a reason why you can’t be at school. I tell the parents all I expect is that they make sure the children get at least seven hours of sleep, and that they come to school. We’ll do the rest.”
The school offers more than education. A doctor spends four hours a week at the school.
“Seventeen per cent of our community are grandparents raising children, so those grandparents can come in - and if we need to pick them up, we’ll pick them up - and have their own wellness checks. Anything that their children might need a check for, it’s all free,” Stirling says.
And nutrition, courtesy of a school chef.
“Our marks have continued to rise over the last 15 years, but the trajectory has been astounding since having food in school. And with the Ka Ora Ka Ako programme [which is currently funded to the end of 2024] our academic success has become extremely sustainable,” she says.
“On Monday, our kids go for extras, and on Friday they stock up. Without that food, we’ve got 300 hungry kids. You’re not going to get academic success on empty stomachs.”
The proportion of its school leavers with NCEA Level 3 in 2020 was 81.8 per cent, rising to 92.3 per cent in 2021 and 95.2 per cent in 2022.
“I constantly say to my students, ‘you know, the more education you have, the more choices you have, and the more employable you are’. That’s the bottom line,” Stirling says.
“What’s so exciting about the results in 2023 is that the cohort of Year 13, who had to come through the roughest ride of Covid, had 100 per cent UE. When communities mobilise themselves to address the challenges, academic success is a natural byproduct.”
One of the kura’s Year 13 boys went to America last year as a Nasa space cadet, she adds.
“If you work through a lens of improving wellness, you improve everything. It’s not even about being Māori. It’s about understanding the cultural premise that meets and suits the needs of your children. We just happen to be Māori, in a total-immersion Māori school.”
It’s a sentiment shared by another school that stands out - St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College in Greenmeadows, Napier, which has a roll of about 170 students from Year 7 to 13, over half of whom are boarders.
“The school has a long history of producing successful students who happen to be Māori,” says Ash Brown, a former teacher and deputy principal who is currently the acting manager of the school hostel.
The success formula is based on high expectations, not only for educational achievement but in all things including student behaviour, personal appearance and classroom management.
“Academic success comes when expectations are high, standards are high, leadership is strong, students and teachers know what they are present for, and people are celebrated for who they are.”
Brown also cites the school’s ban on personal devices, encouragement to attend and the literacy programme as contributing factors.
“The tikanga of the college enables our students to develop a sense of belonging and identity. Belonging leads to mastery which in turn leads to success. Discriminatory reasons for underachieving are ignored and dumbing down is not acceptable,” he says.
“Expectations are not limited by the factors that contribute to EQI values.”
There are 37 such factors, such as parents’ education levels, income, and conviction history, if any, or the number of times the child’s home or school changes.
St Joseph’s EQI score is 516, higher than Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae, indicating greater social disadvantage. All but one of St Joseph’s 18 school leavers in 2022 had NCEA Level 3, and all but two had UE.
Another strong-performing kura with a high EQI score (498) is Manukura, in Palmerston North, a designated special character school with a focus on high-performance culture and sports, as well as academic excellence.
In 2022 there were 28 school leavers, 24 with UE and 25 with NCEA Level 3.
High expectations also play a key role for the high school’s 200 students, says principal Ilane Durie.
“Money is scarce and our whānau [which include gang whānau] struggle to make ends meet, at times. But our expectations remain the same regardless of the situation: ‘We expect excellence from your children, and we’re prepared to give everything to get those kids over the line.’”
The board of trustees reserves seats for iwi and hapū, and endorses a holistic approach.
“We call ourselves the kaupapa, not a school, because what we know historically is that schools have failed Māori children, and continue to do so today. When you’re a kaupapa, you have a group of people who understand the purpose, the vision, and are heading in the same direction,” she says.
“We employ teachers who reflect that purpose, that vision. Most importantly, they reflect our students so they can see themselves in the teachers in front of them every single day.”
The colonial history of the country is an important feature of school workshops, including “societal factors that have caused historical loss or trauma in local iwi, in their own iwi”.
“What we know is that the most successful movements have not been led by successive governments, they’ve been led by the people. They’re all movements that were by Māori for Māori. Māori know what’s best for their own people.”
What they have in common
It’s not new that kura are achieving academic success despite socio-economic challenges, according to Education Hub founder and former secondary school teacher Dr Nina Hood.
“We’ve seen a number of kura do incredibly well in terms of the proportion of the students who are getting UE. If you go back in the data, you will see that that’s happened for several years,” Hood says.
“I think part of it has to come down to the environment and culture within the school. We know that having a strong sense of belonging is really important for students. My guess is they have very high expectations, and they’re going to have excellent teaching and learning if they’re getting that percentage through with UE.
“The other thing to note is there are relatively small numbers of students. That probably makes a difference to the type of teaching and learning they’re able to do.”
This means there’s likely a better chance of a more meaningful teacher-student relationship, which, along with buy-in for the tikanga approach, would encourage greater student engagement.
Hood cautioned that nothing definitive can be drawn from the data. Not all schools are represented either, and schools that don’t offer NCEA - or offer it alongside an alternative - won’t be represented in the same way.
Another pattern of note in the data was the relatively good results from integrated schools, she adds.
“This is not a new trend at all, either. You could look at some of the same factors that you’re seeing with kura - the strong culture, the strong sense of belonging, the creation of an environment that has a clear set of values associated with it.”
Belonging and nurturing learning environments were recognised in a 2021 Education Review Office report Te Kura Huanui: The treasures of successful pathways. Common conditions for success included tikanga Māori, Whangaungatanga (relationships and connectedness), and visionary leadership.
NZ Initiative senior fellow Dr Michael Johnston says what happens in school has relatively little impact on student achievement, according to research.
“There’s a raft of reasons why, irrespective of what schools do, kids from well-off families are advantaged in education. If you’ve got highly educated parents, they’re more likely to be able to help you with your studies, they’re more likely to be able to afford private tutors,” he says.
But that doesn’t mean it has no impact.
“The job of the public system should be to level that playing field as much as it can. The things I argue for very strongly are that we need to be very clear about the importance of quality teaching, and a high-quality curriculum.
“If you have a weak curriculum or poorly trained teachers, or both, then that disadvantages everybody, but especially those whose families can’t make up for that in some other way.”
Johnston, who is chairing the ministerial advisory group on the curriculum refresh, also cautioned that NCEA is not necessarily an objective measure.
“You do have to be aware that what’s sitting behind the pass rate for NCEA is a very variable thing, depending on the school and its approach.”
He wanted to be clear, though, that he wasn’t detracting from the good work of some kura.
Asked why some of them did well, he said: “I’m only guessing, but they’re a special character part of the education system that caters to Māori kids, whose families are obviously wanting them to have that kind of education in Māori language and culture. And they deliver that very well, the kids are no doubt highly motivated, and have a good sense of belonging there.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford said it was important to identify schools that perform well despite their equity index score.
“We know the importance of good data and evidence to see what is working, what isn’t working, what areas need focus and what areas we can learn from. We can then use this data to identify initiatives that solve a specific and direct need.”
Principal Stirling thanked the minister for checking in on the kura last year after Cyclone Gabrielle.
But she also had a message for the minister, who wants to mandate an hour each of reading, writing and maths in primary and intermediate schools.
“When she [Stanford] talks about the requirements for reading and writing, she comes from her own cultural premise. She asks, ‘Are you doing reading and writing and maths once a day? Who’s doing it?’ As a Māori immersion kura, our outcomes speak for themselves,” Stirling says.
“So just have faith that Māori do know what we’re doing. You just need to trust us.”
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery and is a former deputy political editor.
Chris Knox is the Data Editor and Head of Data Journalism for the Herald.