Stand-downs from school
Stand-down rates have fallen for the second consecutive year. Schools continue to stand-down more Māori students than any other ethnic group. Male students are almost two-and-a-half times more likely to receive a stand-down than their female counterparts.
Date Updated: August 2009
Indicator Description
Age-standardised proportion of students enrolled who receive a stand-down from school.
What We Have Found
Stand-down rates have fallen for the second consecutive year. Schools continue to stand-down more Māori students than any other ethnic group. Male students are almost two-and-a-half times more likely to receive a stand-down than their female counterparts.
Why This Is Important
As a consequence of a serious breach of school rules, a school principal can order a student to stand-down from school for a period of up to five school days. A stand-down, for any student, can total no more than five school days in any term, or 10 days in a school year. Students return automatically to school following a stand-down.Quantity of instruction or potential 'opportunity to learn' strongly influences student outcomes. The New Zealand Smithfield study found student attendance during Year 11 to be one of the most significant variables influencing student achievement in senior secondary school. Hattie (1999) reported instructional quantity to have the fourth highest effect size (0.84) of any instructional variable. The practice of stand-downs cuts short, or interrupts, potential opportunities to learn at school.
While stand-downs impact on actual opportunity to learn they are also associated with a wide range of concerning youth behaviours including drug and alcohol abuse and violence that are disruptive to the learning of the individuals concerned and disruptive and unsafe for peers in the school community.
International research emphasises the importance of pro-active partnerships with parents and a strategy focused on both achievement and behaviour. Approaches that are focused only on disciplinary or pastoral responses have been found to be ineffective for positive outcomes for the students involved in U.K. and Australian research.
How We Are Going
The age-standardised stand-down rate increased from 25.9 students per 1,000 in 2000 to 31.3 students per 1,000 in 2006, but has decreased by 8.8% from 2006 to 28.5 students per 1,000 in 2008.There were 20,279 stand-down cases in 2008, which were received by 15,930 different students. Statistically this equates to 2.2% of the student population receiving stand-downs and 78.6% of stand-downs being single instances.
Age-standardised stand-down rates, by ethnic group (2000 to 2008)
In 2008, 49.0% of all state and state integrated schools did not hand out any stand-downs. When looking at just secondary schools, the peak age for stand-downs, the picture changes considerably. Only 2.8% of all secondary schools did not hand out any stand-downs.
Schools are standing-down more Māori students than any other ethnic group. In 2008, the age-standardised stand-down rate for Māori students (53.6 students per 1,000) was 59% higher than Pasifika (33.7 students per 1,000), and 2.6 times as high as European/Pākehā (20.8 students per 1,000). The stand-down rate for Asian students is the lowest in New Zealand.
Age-standardised stand-down rates, by ethnic group and school quintile (2008)
There is a clear correlation between the socio-economic mix of the school the student attended and age-standardised stand-down rates. Schools in the lowest quintile (deciles 1 and 2) draw their students from communities with the highest degree of socio-economic disadvantage. Students from these schools are four times more likely to be stood-down from school than students in the highest quintile (deciles 9 and 10).
When considering age-standardised stand-down rates by quintile the general pattern for the different ethnic groups largely remains. Age-standardised stand-down rates are highest for Māori and Pasifika in each quintile, with the exception of quintile 1 schools where the European/Pākehā rate is higher than that of Pasifika.
Male students receive stand-downs far more frequently than female students. In 2008, the age-standardised stand-down rate for males was 2.4 times higher than the female rate.
| Year |
Behaviour - Continual Disobedience | Behaviour - Drugs (Including Substance Abuse) | Behaviour - Physical Assault on Other Students | Behaviour - Physical Assault on Staff | Behaviour - Verbal Assault on Other Students | Behaviour - Verbal Assault on Staff | Behaviour - Smoking or Alcohol | Behaviour - Theft, Vandalism or Arson | Behaviour - Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 24.8 | 5.0 |
23.0 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 16.1 | 10.2 | 8.2 | 8.3 |
| 2001 | 25.3 | 5.5 | 23.7 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 15.7 | 9.8 | 7.6 | 8.1 |
| 2002 | 25.9 | 6.0 | 22.3 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 16.0 | 9.3 | 7.2 | 8.9 |
| 2003 | 24.8 | 4.7 | 23.6 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 17.3 | 7.6 | 7.9 | 9.3 |
| 2004 | 25.2 | 4.8 | 24.9 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 15.6 | 7.4 | 7.7 | 9.8 |
| 2005 | 25.8 | 5.8 | 24.9 | 2.6 | 2.2 | 15.2 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 9.6 |
| 2006 | 26.1 | 4.4 | 24.4 | 2.6 | 2.1 | 15.1 | 7.5 | 7.7 | 10.0 |
| 2007 | 25.5 | 4.9 | 25.3 | 2.8 | 2.2 | 14.1 | 7.8 | 8.0 | 9.4 |
| 2008 | 25.1 | 5.8 | 25.8 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 14.9 | 7.0 | 7.6 | 9.1 |
Physical assault on other students and continual disobedience were the main reasons for stand-downs accounting for 25.8% and 25.1% of stand-downs respectively in 2008. Along with verbal assault on staff (14.9%), these three behaviours made up two-thirds of all stand-downs. The proportion of stand-downs for physical assault on staff has increased gradually since 2000, from 2.1% to 2.8% between 2000 and 2008.
Stand-downs, by age (2008)
The majority of stand-downs occurred for students aged 13 to 15, accounting for 61% of all stand-downs. The peak was age 14 years, which had a rate of 84.3 students per 1,000 stand-downs. Hence, analysis is undertaken using age-standardised rates.
Where To Find Out More
To obtain information about other forms of student disengagement, consider indicators:
- Suspensions from School
- Exclusions and expulsions from school
- Truancy from school
- Early leaving exemptions
The Ministry of Education has established an Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, analyse, synthesise and make accessible, relevant evidence linked to a range of learner outcomes. Evidence about what works for this indicator can be found in:
- Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis
- The Complexity of Community and Family Influences on Children's Achievement in New Zealand: Best Evidence Synthesis
References
Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Biddulph, F., Biddulph, J. and Biddulph, C. (2003). The Complexity of Community and Family Influences on Children's Achievement in New Zealand: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Hattie, J. (April, 1999). Influences on student learning. Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Auckland, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Hughes, D. et al. (1999). Do Schools Make a Difference?: Hierarchical Linear Modelling of School Certificate Results in 23 Schools: The Smithfield Project, Phase Three: Eighth Report to the Ministry of Education.
Partington, G. (2001). Student suspensions: The influence on students and their parents. Australian Journal of Education, 45, (3), 323-340.
U.K. Office of Standards in Education, (2001). Improving Attendance and Behaviour in Secondary Schools: Strategies to Promote Educational Inclusion. London: Office for Standards in Education.
Related Pages on Education Counts
The Student Engagement data collection page provides links to data, publications and indicators based on that collection.