Description

The Schooling Equity Index (EQI) is a statistical model that estimates the extent to which students face socio-economic barriers to achievement at school. The information that this model provides allows the Ministry of Education to better target resourcing to mitigate the impact of socio-economic barriers.

Too many children and young people face barriers to educational achievement because of their socio-economic circumstances and are not being adequately supported to reach their full potential.  The Ministry provides schools and kura with equity funding, in addition to their core funding, so they can work in different ways to reduce the impact socio-economic factors have on student achievement.  The Ministry has used the Schooling EQI to calculate this funding since 1 January 2023.

The Schooling EQI is not a measure of school quality. Rather, it is a way to understand the relationship between socio-economic circumstances and student achievement.

For more information on the Equity Index visit The Equity Index on the Ministry of Education website.

The Schooling EQI components and how it works

The Schooling EQI uses de-identified data in the Statistics NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI).  It uses 37 variables associated with socio-economic barriers to achievement at school.  These variables fit under four general categories:

1. Parental socio-economic indicators
2. Child socio-economic indicators
3. National background
4. Transience

More information on the Schooling EQI variables is available here.