A change in approach from schools can help turn around students heading for failure, even over a short time, a new study indicates.
There is also a warning that some schools focus too much on students gaining NCEA credits when they are worthless in terms of progression into further education or employment.
The recently published Education Review Office report, Increasing Educational Achievement in Secondary Schools, involved 16 schools who identified a target group of Year 12 students unlikely to achieve NCEA Level 2 by the end of last year.
In Term 3, the schools provided additional support for the 311 students. Subsequently, 189, or 61 per cent, achieved NCEA Level 2.
The ERO then visited some of the schools to investigate how they had attempted to turn around students' performance in such a short time.
It has now recommended that all New Zealand's secondary schools review how they track and monitor student progress, identify students who are struggling, and offer extra support.
Schools should also look at how subjects taken match a student's possible career and the involvement of families of struggling students.
The report's authors concluded that, "a significant focus on the individual student can make a difference, even in a short period of time".
Meanwhile, a principals' council says credits gained through weekend course programmes can be "great or meaningless".
"Extra work to ensure a student can master the literacy standards is entirely appropriate," said Allan Vester, chairman of the NZ Secondary Principals Council. "Picking up credits for riding a quad bike over level terrain for an urban student with no interest in a primary industry is not."
- By Nicholas Jones of the New Zealand Herald
