He Whakaaro: Education Insights Publications
Publication Details
This is the home page for a series of short, easy to read papers, which look across the range of New Zealand education system evidence. They provide interesting and useful insights and highlight latest findings, new analysis or ways of looking at issues. They will provoke further thought and discussion on key issues such as; student progression and attainment, the factors that support learning and patterns and trends across education.
The series will be useful to policy analysts, people working in the programme and intervention area or frontline educators interested in knowing a little more about education evidence and data and how to use that in their work.
New papers will be available as they are developed. If you have ideas for, or questions about the series, please email: Requests Data and Insights
Author(s): Various
Date Published: Various
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If you have any questions about education data please email us at Requests Data and Insights
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He Whakaaro: An exploratory analysis of ECE funding, parent income and child attendance
This report presents a proxy measure of the affordability of early learning services for parents. It details the findings of an analysis conducted using the Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which explored the relationship between parental income and children's…
Author(s): Oindrila Bhattacharya and Rory Sudfelt, Data and Insights, Ministry of Education
Date Published: July 2025
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He Whakaaro: Estimating ECE teaching staff pay - 2018 to 2022
This report provides a detailed description of an analysis undertaken by the Ministry of Education in the Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), investigating Early Childhood Education (ECE) teaching staff pay. The analysis was undertaken as part of the Ministry’s…
Author(s): Oindrila Bhattacharya and Rory Sudfelt, Data and Insights, Ministry of Education
Date Published: February 2025
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He Whakaaro: Geographical Mobility of the New Zealand Teaching Workforce
This paper discusses some analyses of the mobility of the continuing teaching workforce, specifically focusing on teacher movement statistics between regions and movements involving significant distances. We looked at regular teachers (ie, full-time, non-relief teachers) who moved to another school
Author(s): Oindrila Bhattacharya and Sophie Koster (Evidence, Synthesis and Reporting) and Ong Su-Wuen (Workforce and Strategic Analysis), Data and Insights, Ministry of Education
Date Published: September 2023
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He Whakaaro: Does streaming work? A review of the evidence
This He Whakaaro describes the evidence relating to fixed ability grouping, and in particular, streaming practices in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world. These practices are widespread and longstanding in schools. This report summarises existing research literature on the…
Author(s): Ariarne Davy
Date Published: December 2021
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He Whakaaro: Teacher turnover and Equity Index: does socio-economic status drive turnover?
This report explores trends in teacher turnover to assess whether socio-economic status, as measured by the Equity Index, is a notable driver of teacher turnover from schools. The intent of this report is to inform policy decision-makers.…
Author(s): Andrew Pruchniewski, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: September 2021
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He Whakaaro: Student learning during COVID-19: Literacy and maths in Years 4-10
The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the country, and the education system is no exception. Whilst individual experiences of learners, parents, whānau and educators vary greatly, end-of-year English-medium progress data for students in Years 4-10 suggests the learning…
Author(s): Andrew Webber, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: June 2021
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He Whakaaro: What are 15-year-olds’ qualification expectations and are we helping to fulfil them?
All learners should feel confident and be equipped to pursue their aspirations, including in their qualification and career choices. This paper uses PISA data to compare 15-year-olds’ qualification expectations with their qualification outcomes nine years later and examines differences between…
Author(s): Emma Medina and Ryan Sutcliffe, with analytical contributions by Dee Earle and David Scott, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: March 2021
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He Whakaaro: What do we know about bullying behaviours in New Zealand?
This paper summarises what we know about bullying in the education system. Bullying has widespread implications not only for the students exposed to it (those who are bullied, those doing the bullying and the observers), but to their family wellbeing…
Author(s): Mercy Mhuru, Ministry of Education
Date Published: January 2021
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He Whakaaro: How COVID-19 is affecting school attendance
This He Whakaaro is part of a series, exploring impacts of COVID-19 on the education system. This report uses data collected during 2020 to determine the extent to which COVID-19 is impacting on whether students are attending school.…
Author(s): Andrew Webber, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: December 2020
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He Whakaaro: How participation in early learning is affected by COVID-19
This He Whakaaro is part of a series, exploring impacts of COVID-19 on the education system. This report uses emerging data collected during 2020 to explore children’s patterns of participation in early childhood education (ECE), and how it is being…
Author(s): Andrew Webber, Evidence Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: December 2020
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He Whakaaro: Is COVID-19 making students leave school?
This He Whakaaro is part of a series, exploring impacts of COVID-19 on the education system. This report uses data collected during 2020 to determine the extent to which the COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns are impacting on whether students are…
Author(s): Andrew Webber, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education
Date Published: December 2020
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He Whakaaro: School principals in New Zealand
Strong and stable school leadership is critical to the success of our schools and kura, but little is known about the rate at which principals leave and move around the workforce. This paper provides new insights into trends in turnover and…
Author(s): David Jagger, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: July 2020
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He Whakaaro: The educational experiences of disabled learners
New Zealand is committed to providing an inclusive education system, ensuring that disabled students are supported to achieve their potential, and can participate fully in society. To what extent have we achieved this? This research uses Statistics NZ’s Integrated Data…
Author(s): Mercy Mhuru, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: June 2020
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He Whakaaro: The importance of identity, language and culture for ākonga Māori
This paper summarizes the findings of recent research completed by researchers at Kōtātā Insight using the Te Kupenga survey of Māori wellbeing. The research creates a new measure of Māori identity, language and culture, and links Te Kupenga respondents to…
Author(s): Mercy Mhuru, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: March 2020
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He Whakaaro: Who exercises school choice? An analysis of out-of-zone-students
Most families in Aotearoa New Zealand have the choice of which school to attend, and many opt to attend schools other than their nearest school. This paper uses linked administrative data from Statistics NZ’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) to examine…
Author(s): Andrew Webber, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: March 2020
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He Whakaaro: How does school type impact on student outcomes?
The question of what structure of schooling works best for students in the middle years is the subject of debate, but has been less studied by researchers. This report aims to find whether some school types are better or worse…
Author(s): Marian Loader and Andrew Webber, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: March 2020
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He Whakaaro: School attendance and student wellbeing
Student wellbeing is a key priority of the education system, as well as the government as a whole. The government’s new Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy aims to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a…
Author(s): Alexandra McGregor and Andrew Webber, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: February 2020
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He Whakaaro: What is the relationship between attendance and attainment?
School attendance is the most crucial prerequisite for quality education - students cannot learn if they are not in school. Attendance is included as a key educational measure of wellbeing in the government’s Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy (DPMC, 2019),…
Author(s): Andrew Webber, Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: February 2020
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He Whakaaro: How can teachers and whanau effectively teach and support reading?
This report is mainly based on major meta-analyses that have been conducted on how to teach reading, as well as some literature reviews and individual studies. Meta-analyses and literature reviews both aim to summarise the research literature on a topic,…
Author(s): Emma Medina and Andrew Webber, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: December 2019
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He Whakaaro: What affects how often mothers read books to their pre-schoolers?
This insights paper uses data collected by the 'Growing Up in New Zealand' (GUiNZ) study1 to examine what affects how often New Zealand mothers read books to their pre-school aged children. The GUiNZ study has collected a wide range of…
Author(s): Steve Thomas and Kane Meissel, University of Auckland and Professor Stuart McNaughton, Chief Education Scientific Advisor, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: December 2019
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