The world needs great individual educational changemakers capable of identifying problems and creating bold, scalable solutions. But the world also needs Dream Teams--groups of talented administrators, teachers, staff, students, and community members who are passionate about making things better for kids, believe that school-based change is the…

There is a growing call for evaluation capacity building (ECB); although the area currently lacks a rich research base, there are few robust methods and practice through which to define it. The argument in this article is that the impact of evaluation is mediated by program stakeholders' engagement in evaluation activities. This mediation provides…

The design and implementation of the professional development model of the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project has been successful in improving teacher knowledge and practice as well as raising student outcomes. Since 2000, more than 25,000 teachers in English-medium settings have participated in the project. In New Zealand the terms…

The meaning of human rights for children is a contested issue; the notion of rights for unborn babies poses additional complexity. Drawing on data from a prospective case study of a specialist drug and alcohol obstetric provider and the statutory child protection service, this article discusses family engagement within a child-rights framework,…

The E-Learning Maturity Model (eMM) is a quality improvement framework designed to help institutional leaders assess their institution's e-learning maturity. This paper reviews the eMM, drawing on examples of assessments conducted in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the USA to show how it helps institutional leaders assess and compare their…

Research, such as that collated as part of the New Zealand Ministry of Education's (MoE) Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis (BES), indicates that regular Professional Learning and Development (PLD) for educators can have a positive effect on the quality of teaching and, in turn, on outcomes for diverse students. PLD, though, needs to offer…

This article introduces a waka tino whakarawea model for evaluating programmes and services for Maori learners. It is based on a set of underlying principles identified in the author's PhD study (Bevan-Brown, 2002). Explanations are provided for eight principles: kaupapa Maori; importance, relevance and beneficence; participation; empowerment,…

Mentoring has become increasingly popular during recent years and particularly so in the provision of leadership development, including the mentoring of school principals. In New Zealand, many of these mentoring programmes are developed and funded by central government and are mostly designed to meet the needs of those in their initial years of…

Describes a Differentiated Education Program (DEP) for gifted children in inclusive settings in New Zealand, identifies two differentiated curriculum models, and provides implementation strategies and evaluation pointers. The need for a DEP to provide opportunities to develop thinking skills, creativity, and emotional and social skills are…

The New Zealand Correspondence School has taught nearly 750,000 students since it was established in 1922. Indicators of success are student achievement, parental satisfaction, and cost per student. Possible models for basic distance education are as follows: (1) isolated students learning independently; (2) a partial intermediary who provides…

Differing attitudes of researchers and preschool teachers towards research in early childhood are discussed in this paper. These differences are seen as arising from causes such as the special training of each group and the nature of the work they do, the distribution of the sexes in each group and the social institutions which back them. The…