Performance Measurement of State Secondary Schools of New Zealand: The Teachers’ Perspective

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The performance of State secondary schools in New Zealand is currently measured by the schools’ performance measurement system (PMS) as well as by the Education Review Office (ERO) and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). The schools’ PMS is established by the BOT (Board of Trustees) as per the detailed guideline of the Ministry of Education (MoE).

The ERO audits compliance of the schools with respect to a set of legal statutes and directives of the Government. The NZQA measures the academic performance of the schools’ students on the basis of standards and processes (National Certificate of Educational Achievement; NCEA) established by it. Since MoE, ERO and NZQA are all government entities; performance measurement of State secondary schools at this time appears to be dominated by governmental thinking.

Hence State secondary schools do not measure how they are meeting the expectations of their teachers. This investigation identifies the key performance factors (KPFs) that the schools’ teachers consider significant in defining the schools’ performance and the indicators that they consider best reflect the KPFs.

The potential users of the outcome of this research are expected to be the State secondary school’s management as well as the MoE. This investigation is expected to improve the engagement of the school’s teachers with the school which may lead to better outcomes for State secondary schools, such as improved academic achievement of the students and greater initiation of students into the trades and tertiary education.

Stream: Educational Leadership and Management

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Arshad Ashfaque Malik is an MBA from IESE. He is also a civil engineer with 5 years of project management experience, and a cost and management accountant. He has been a management trainer and consultant for the last 15 years, working in areas of strategy formulation and implementation, accounting information systems and establishment of ISO 9000 certified quality management systems. His research interest is in the area of performance measurement / management of organisations, specially public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals etc which can benefit large number of people, many of whom may not have been so fortunate. He has taught in undergarduate and graduate business programs and has developed a number of programs for training and development of business executives in New Zealand and Asia in the areas of accounting, quality management and business strategy. He has had the opportunity to travel to a number of countries in Europe, Middle East, and Japan on work assignments as well as for leisure.

Professor Howard Davey teaches accounting theory, financial accounting and international accounting. He holds a BA, BBS, MBA (Hons) (Massey) and a PhD (Waikato) He has a background in government and accounting practice and before coming to the University of Waikato in 1986 lectured at Massey University. His research interests are in the areas of external reporting and financial accounting in general, including non traditional measures of performance, as well as taxation and professional issues, and accounting theory. He is also a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.