"Windy" would be an understatement

I am guessing I will adjust to the time difference a day or so before going home. Again, I woke up too early…around 5:00 am. I passed the time by reading the two daily newspapers.

One interesting article indicated that New Zealand was rated as the fifth most prosperous country in which to live by the 2013 Legatum Prosperity Index. The same rating placed Canada in third place behind Norway and Switzerland. The index assesses 142 nations on their wealth and well-being in eight categories including health, education, safety, security, and economy.

New Zealand did rank first in the education area, based upon their access to education, quality of education, and human capital in the education sector. In the study, 82% of Kiwis were satisfied with the quality of education, compared with a global average of 66.3%. Nearly 90% of Kiwis indicated that their children had the opportunity to learn, compared to 70.2% globally.

First thing this morning, we blew across a few blocks for our first session of the day. I would have said we “walked’ were in not for the wind gusts that apparently were reaching 110 km/hour.

We visited the Education Review Office (ERO) and met with their acting national manager, Stephanie Greany. She provided an overview of how she and her staff of 200 assess the quality of instruction and learning in every school in New Zealand.  She joked about how her agency was the Department of Parties because schools have parties after ERO visits them. From my limited time in the country, I have learned that this actually is not the case. While some schools apparently have anxiety about ERO assessments, the organization is quite well regarded. Ms. Greany did say that the assessment that her agency provided some schools was clear and direct and often not something that the school leaders were eager to hear. She said that that was the nature of education. If our collective mission is to focus on what is best for children, occasionally we have to say things that might upset some adults.

The purpose of ERO’s reviews is to give parents and the wider community assurance about the quality of education that schools provide and their children receive. An ERO school report answers the question “How effectively is this school’s curriculum promoting student learning, engagement, progress, and achievement?" Individual ERO school reports are public information.

Ms. Greany talked about how her country has a high quality of education but continues to be challenged by equity issues. She said that while New Zealand schools do quite well for the majority of students, they need to do better at supporting students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. This is especially true for indigenous students. She stated that the country is quite good at doing quite poorly for their neediest students.

When we asked about future areas of focus, we learned that ERO is developing processes to assess student well-being using our own Manitoba framework as a reference point.

During the afternoon, we returned to the Ministry of Education where we had a chance to present to a number of officials on what is happening with Manitoba education. I was privileged to have a chance to speak about the unique partnership that Park West School Division has with Waywayseecappo First Nation.

At day’s end, we returned to our hotel where we were able to catch the last few innings of the final game of the World Series. Unfortunately the Cardinals lost. Congrats to the Boston Red Sox.

This evening we are going to get together for some discussion and planning. Hopefully the wind goes down for tomorrow’s three hour ferry ride.