The
Ministry of Education has developed a tool that measures school
risk and, as a consequence, shows school improvement. The School
Support Factor (SSF) is a Ministry of Education calculation
of the risk profile of a school. At any one time, approximately
20% or 500 schools in NZ require some type of support or intervention.
The SSF helps the Ministry measure risk and assess what type
of assistance is needed and when. A SSF higher than 7 is a signal
that a school requires assistance. A declining SSF over time
is a sign that things are improving.
In the mid to late nineties, the Māori boarding school collective
had a number of issues, including problems in their hostels
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and
dramatic roll decline. This is evidenced by the red and white
lines in the chart increasing over time. However, by 2002, the
lines had declined showing improvement.
More specifically, the
average SSF for these schools grew until 1998, but then showed
continual improvement up to the end of the period of review.
Underlying the improvement was the positive performance of four
of the schools during the period. The biggest area of improvement
for schools was in roll decline. At the end of the period none
of the schools was experiencing roll decline. Schools had also
made improvements in the area of community relationships. |
