The Place of Faith, Purpose and Culture in Education Success
In August each year I receive a large raw data-set from the Ministry of Education – and process it into a highly informative and useful form for schools, families, politicians and other education interested entities.
This data set is of all of the LEAVERS for every school each year and is far more important/definitive than those that schools put out in February as that only covers the students per year group.
In a time of great proposed change in our education system, being fully informed on the state-of-play is essential.
One aspect that seems clear from the data is the place of students feeling that they belong to a form of wider collective – as well as having individual aims. Wealth is clearly an advantageous aspect for many of the top performing schools but there are others – e.g. doing well as “young women”, having faith/purpose based foundations, having cultural belonging.
This is the top 20 schools, by % of students gaining University Entrance for Leavers in 2024
Manukau Christian School
Diocesan School for Girls
St Cuthbert’s College
Rangi Ruru Girls’ School
Iona College
Pinehurst School
Kristin School
Craighead Diocesan School
Baradene College
ACG Parnell College
Marist College
Saint Kentigern College
Woodford House
St Mary’s College (Ponsonby)
St Oran’s College
King’s College
Christchurch Adventist School
Columba College
Waikato Diocesan School For Girls
Wellington Girls’ College
The apparent advantage of the faith, purpose and culture does not stop with that group either. If you break the set of 430+ schools into 10ths based on the Equity Index Numbers (which replaced “deciles”) the top schools in those divisions are:
1st 10th: Manukau Christian School
2nd 10th: Iona College
3rd 10th: Liston College
4th 10th: Christchurch Adventist College
5th 10th: Zayed College for Girls
6th 10th: Southland Girls High School
7th 10th: Auckland Girls Grammar School
8th 10th: Manukura
9th 10th: TKKM of Hokianga
10th 10th: Te Wharekura o Te Kaokaoroa o Patetere
NB: The first 10th are the lowest EQI numbers – having, according to govt. data, the least “at risk students”.
I have the full data set – showing the NZ School LEAVERS’ outcomes for 2024 – available now.
For every high school the process looks at in ranked order (including their Equity Index Number – which replaced “deciles”)
– School size
– NCEA Level 2 and 3 for Leavers (for all schools)
– University Entrance (UE) for Leavers (for all schools)
– The gap between L3 and UE (for all schools)
– The gaps – by school and aggregate – between ethnicities.
– Retention until 17 years of age (for all schools)
– Progression to Degree Level study (for all schools)
– Data split between the EQI 10ths (for all schools)
– Data that shows which schools are thriving above their demographics
– Case study data on the Super 8 Boys’ Schools and the 13 Boys’ Schools in the South Island seeking improvement
– System wide data gender, ethnicity, etc.
(NB: The UE statistics include equivalents for Cambridge and IB).
For those who would like the data set please email me: [email protected]
- if it is for personal use – a donation is appreciated.
- if it is for professional/business/school use – the costs is $350 (plus GST) I will send the data set with an invoice.