‘Simplistic’ colour-coded school reports get mixed reviews from principals

By John Gerritsen of RNZ

The publication of the first Education Review Office reports using colour-coded tables to depict schools’ performance has done little to allay principals’ fears.

The tables use four colours to show how schools are going in 14 areas, including attendance, reading and writing and teaching.

The colours show if schools are judged to be excelling (dark green), doing well (light green), working towards (orange) or improvement required (red).

Some principals worry the tables are too simplistic and will unfairly stigmatise schools in poor communities, where achievement and attendance is often lower than average.

The Education Review Office acknowledged the concern, and told RNZ it was particularly important people read the full reports of schools in poor communities and not base judgments just on the tables.

Westlake Girls’ High School was among the first schools to receive one of the new reports.

Its table was mostly dark-green squares, with some light green and one orange, meaning the school was “excelling” in most areas, “doing well” in others and “working towards” in just one area – attendance.

Principal Jane Stanley said it provided a better overall picture of the school’s performance than previous reports – but only if people read the full document.

“It’s certainly much more comprehensive than the previous ones were, and I think gives a really good picture of the school and what’s going well, and things that might need to be added to or improved.”

Stanley said many parents would likely only read as far as the table.

“It’s a really short summary of the work behind the full report.

“Unfortunately, people will probably go to that, and be drawn to that and not read behind.”

Beaconsfield School, near Timaru, also received one of the new reports. Its table was mostly light-green squares, plus some dark green and two orange – for attendance and school governance.

Principal Hamish Brown says the table said a lot, but it did not tell the full story.

“The boxes are okay,” he said. “They’ve indicated what they’ve found, but there’s two steps behind those boxes and we feel that anybody reading it is not going to go deeper into the report.”

For example, he said Beaconsfield received an orange rating for governance, because the school board had three new members, not because of any particular problem.

As for attendance, Brown said, with 120 pupils, a small number of children could have a big effect on the school’s percentages.

Brown said he knew other schools were apprehensive about the new reports.

“There is a bit of nervousness simply because it is very black and white, and sometimes communities, local people, papers, local media like to grab the short story without getting the full story.”

New Zealand Principals’ Federation president Jason Miles said the tables were confronting and could be misleading if people didn’t read the rest of the report.

“It is very easy for someone to look at those colour ratings, without reading the details behind it to get a certain impression of some schools,” he said.

He said the federation was worried that the attendance rating in particular was more a reflection of a school’s socio-economic status than how good the school was.

“A school that may have had 40% attendance and worked really hard to increase it to 60%, but will still be marked in the ‘working towards’ area, rather than be rated on the hard work and support that they’ve put in to raising that attendance.”

The Education Review Office understood the concern that some people may look only at the colour-coded snapshot.

“The snapshot is only one part of the report,” it said. “It is designed to help parents and whānau navigate the report, not replace the full report.”

The office said reading the full report was particularly important for schools serving communities with high levels of need.

“Where a school is making strong progress from a low base, or where teaching and leadership are effective, that will be recognised in the report,” it said.

“Each judgment is supported by narrative commentary explaining what the school is doing well, where improvement is needed and what actions will support better outcomes for learners.”

It said the purpose of the reports was to support school improvement, and the changes were aimed at making reports clearer, more accessible and easier for parents, whānau, schools and boards to use.

“We will continue to listen to feedback from schools, parents and whānau as the new reports are used, so that our reporting remains clear, useful and centred on learners.

“We acknowledge that it will take time for people to adjust to the new format.”

  
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz