Middle Years Teacher Credentialing in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Prepared by Penny A Bishop, EdD | July 2008 with funding from the sponsors
of the Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowships in Public Policy
Penny Bishop is Director of Middle Level
Teacher Education at the University of Vermont, where she teaches
and conducts research on schooling for young adolescents. Prior
to this, she was a middle grades teacher and an assessment consultant
for the Vermont Department of Education. She is the author of four
books and numerous articles on middle years schooling.
During Penny's Ian Axford Fellowship exchange to New Zealand she
was based at the Ministry of Education, where she researched teacher
credentialing and the education of young adults.
Abstract
New Zealand has earned an international reputation for educational excellence,
regularly scoring in the top four OECD countries for academic achievement.
At the same time, New Zealand faces relatively high early-school leaving
rates and relatively low tertiary attendance. Keeping students in school
is an essential step toward the governmental priority of fostering an
intellectual economy. Schools Plus is a recent policy aimed at students
in senior secondary years, providing flexible learning opportunities to
increase student engagement. Yet New Zealand data demonstrate that students
who leave school early often disengage in the middle years, earlier than
senior secondary school. These data mirror US findings, which identified
four powerful predictors of later school drop out as early as sixth grade.
This study examined teacher credentialing in New Zealand in relation
to the educational needs of young adolescents. Based on six months of
participant observation, over seventy hours of interviewing, and extensive
document analysis, the report illustrates general agreement across stakeholder
groups regarding a common skill set necessary for effective teachers of
the middle years and the need for specialised middle years preparation.
Policy recommendations include:
a) heightening awareness of Years 7-10 as a key area;
b) expanding the role of the Middle Schooling Steering Group;
c) reviewing policy settings related to promoting engagement in the middle
years; and
d) creating new evidence-based policies that increase young adolescent
outcomes, including a pilot of specialised middle years teacher preparation.
Table
of contents
Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
Introduction
1. Middle years schooling as key policy lever
2. Context and background
3. An emerging evidence base on effective practice for middle years learners
4. Teacher education and the missing middle
5. Voices from the field
Conclusion
Bibliography
axford2008_bishop.pdf (460kb)
