Raising Literary Achievement in New Zealand: A Research Partnership Among Researchers, Schools, Ministries, and Policy Makers

• In Event: Research and the Nature of the Collaborative Partnership: Insight on What Was Learned

Abstract

We will discuss how researchers worked with stakeholders in three national projects throughout New Zealand helped raise student achievement. New Zealand has a persisting high performance-low equity profile in international tests, with indigenous Māori students and immigrants from the Pacific Islands most at risk of underachievement and of leaving school without qualifications. Policy has aimed to address this issue largely through provision of high quality professional development to enhance effectiveness of practice. The notion of a continuum of collaboration is proposed; examples are presented that are positioned at different points on this continuum. These examples represent models or ways of working and the analysis captures both the varied nature of the interface that researchers have with policy makers, ministry officials, deliverers of professional development and schools, and the affordances and tensions that accompany each model. Student achievement outcomes are also noted.

Author

• Judy M. Parr, University of Auckland