That was a full day!

My day started with a twenty minute walk through the heart of the city. Even though Wellington only has 400 000 people in the region, it has much more of a large city, cosmopolitan feel than Winnipeg. It has many tall buildings packed closely together. Everyone walks so its streets are filled with people. On the ground, it feels as if you are moving through the Exchange District with several stone building fronts and countless unique shops and restaurants. When you look up, however, the stone facades give way to lots of steel and glass after the fifth floor or so.

Once we crossed the city, we made our way to the New Zealand Council of Education Research (NZCER). We had an intensive morning listening to several educational analysts as they provided an overview of their work.

I am getting a sense of how vast the bureaucracy is that supports education in this country. To start with, there are 4000 people who work in the Ministry of Education. Also, there are several other independent agencies that exist to provide different aspects of support. These include the NZCER, the Education Review Organization (ERO), and private businesses that develop assessment tools and school resources. To give you some comparisons to Manitoba, the NZCER has over 60 employees focusing on the analysis of educational research while Manitoba only has a couple of individuals charged with this responsibility.

The NCZER officials provided us with an overview of assessment practices in New Zealand. They said that student assessment is completely a local school responsibility. Consequently, it varies greatly across the country. Teachers and schools individually decide what assessment tools will be used, when they will be used, who will be tested, and how and to whom the results will be reported.

We also learned about some need national programs including one to develop leadership skills among new principals. It seems like they use data to analyze everything in New Zealand education, and this principal training program was no exception. Their Educational Leadership Survey revealed that school leaders were rated lowest in supporting teacher Professional development and in enabling aboriginal (Maori) student success. I suspect many people in Manitoba would suggest that these are similar challenges for us.

One particular item on the Leadership Survey demonstrates the extent to which education in New Zealand is an analytical enterprise. According to this survey, high performing principals lead staff meetings which “contain serious conversations about how to improve teaching and learning’. 

The NZCER also had a really neat perspective on what we in Canada often reference as 21^st Century Skills. They are asking what capabilities will today’s young people need if they are to become proactive future builders. Researchers are looking into their daily newspapers for what they deem to be “wicked problems”. They then work backwards, imagining the types of skills and competencies that

During the morning session, I mentioned that we were heading north to Masterton in a rental vehicle later in the day. One of the ladies then said “Be careful, it sometimes gets pretty windy going over the Rumatuckits”. She then said that sometimes when the wind is really high they close the highway to high-sided vehicles. Of course, we were going to making the trip in the van.

Well, the trip was interesting to say the least. Imagine a steep and extremely windy road that rose over 500 metres rather quickly and then continued on along the side of steep mountains for about forty minutes. It was difficult to unclench my hand for the roof handle when we finally came through on the other side.

When we eventually made it to Masterton, we visited a wonderful rural school just outside of the town limits. The Fernridge School kids were outside in their uniforms and all were wearing similar hats.  I even met a young girl from Toronto whose family had moved there recently.

Next we stopped by to learn about a regional program called REAP.  There are 13 REAPS in New Zealand. The first was set up in 1979 and the last in 1982. REAPs provide what they refer to as “cradle-to-the-grave” educational resource support to rural communities. They support preschool initiatives, public schools, community colleges, and adult education programs.

On our way back, we stopped in a small place called Greytown for great supper prior to tackling the mountain goat trail again.  It actually went much better on the inside of the road…although all of us were giving thinks when we came out on the other side.

It was a long and productive day. We got going shortly after 8:00 am and didn’t get back until almost 8:30 pm. Tomorrow we return to the Ministry of Education where we will present on the Manitoba educational system and our work with the mRLC.

To everyone back home, I am sorry to hear that the weather has turned wintery. The forecast for the city tomorrow is rain with gusts over 100 km winds. Apparently this is one of the windiest springs in recent memory. Hopefully it calms down a bit before our three hour ferry ride to the south island on Friday.