Editorial: Te Kotahitanga gives students real boost

Te Kotahitanga is a professional development and teacher accountability model focused on raising the achievement of Maori students - a long-standing issue of significant concern to our nation.

As a result of research based on listening to the voices of Maori students, a relationship-centred approach to teaching, "Te Kotahitanga", was formulated. Te Kotahitanga focuses on upskilling teachers so that they use strategies which are centred less on teacher talk and more on student activity, thereby engaging Maori students in the learning process. Teachers are coached by in-house experts, have their lessons closely observed and are provided with detailed feedback as well as suggestions for further improvement.

Teachers work together to co-construct common threads and approaches for educating the students in their care. Never before in my 36-year teaching career have I seen teachers provided with more support and also be more accountable for their performance.

It was, much to the chagrin and disappointment of principals that the government has chosen to pull the funding as of the end of this year. With more than 20 years of principalship behind me I was not all that surprised that government funding was withdrawn, despite the obvious gains being made by Maori students in Te Kotahitanga schools. After all, this is the same government that somehow can still find money to bail out inefficiently run private schools, such as Wanganui Collegiate. It is all about priorities, and it is clear to see that private schooling and charter schools are where this government wants to do its spending.

Mr Brown seems to found his criticisms on a cursory analysis of the league tables based on the NCEA results of each school which were put together and published by the New Zealand Herald. Some schools achieve, what on the surface, appear to be spectacularly good results, but they usually have only a handful of students entered for NCEA.

Various practices, such as whether or not results are entered in internally assessed standards where students have failed can also have a dramatic effect on how a school's results appear. Even NZQA suggests there are dangers in comparing schools through the production of league tables.

I know firsthand of Mr Brown's expertise in ki-o-rahi and respect how he has led the spread of this traditional Maori ball game in New Zealand and overseas. He is right to point out the danger of underestimating the influence of poverty in determining student outcomes. However, I disagree very much with his take on the effectiveness of Te Kotahitanga. There is ample evidence, via research conducted with academic rigour and integrity, to show that adoption of Te Kotahitanga practices significantly raises levels of student engagement and achievement. There is no magic bullet in education, but the closest thing to this that I have ever come across is Te Kotahitanga. At Tikipunga High School, our evidence is that since we have been participating in Te Kotahitanga our retention rate for Maori students has risen greatly and this has been accompanied by an increase in the percentage of Maori students who leave school with a Level 3 Certificate - significantly above the national average. Therefore, at Tikipunga High School, regardless, as to whether or not government funding is maintained or the views such as those of Harko Brown are expressed, Te Kotahitanga will continue to be the mainstay of the way that learning and teaching takes place.