Kerikeri High School
Joan Middlemiss, one of two principals at Kerikeri High School in Northland, is leading the Te Kotahitanga pilot project in her school with the aim of improving educational outcomes for Māori students.
Te Kotahitanga is a Ministry of Education research-based professional development project run through the University of Waikato. The project is led by Russell Bishop. The professional development is centred on an Effective Teaching Profile that has been developed from extensive research and literature. It requires teachers to engage in observations of classroom relationships with professional support. It aims to enhance the quality of their interaction with their Māori students and improve the students' educational achievement.
Addressing needs
We were attracted to Te Kotahitanga pilot project as we were looking at ways to better meet the needs of our Māori students. Kerikeri High School is a surprisingly large rural school of 1300 students from year 7 to 13. Our bicultural school has 20 percent Māori students and a community that is focused on academic achievement.
We knew that our Māori students were not achieving at a satisfactory level. We had already tried a range of strategies. We had employed more Māori staff so there would be positive role models for our students. We had initiated a bilingual class. We had looked at strengthening te reo Māori and several other strategies, but we just weren't making the breakthrough that we wanted.
So we were delighted to be invited to participate in the programme as Te Kotahitanga looks at the teaching and learning relationship in the classroom. The programme was well researched and it seemed to have both integrity and validity.
As principal, my role in the project is two-fold. I believe that I am a sponsor for the Te Kotahitanga project at Kerikeri High School. I am the public face and I do the traditional leading from the front. It's my role to try and facilitate any structural changes that are needed.
My second role is to be part of the team working on the ground to make sure that this project works in the school. This involves problem solving, analysing data, and reflecting on progress along with the other team members and this is a crucial role in the project.
Initial implementation
To start with, the project team trained us on how to implement the Te Kotahitanga process effectively in our school.
At the end of 2003 we appointed the facilitation team and I believe that facilitators have a vital role in this programme. They work closely with the project research team and have the professional knowledge to assist teachers in their professional development. They are also on the ground supporting the teacher in the classroom and giving feedback based on objective data that they collect.
At the beginning of 2004 we held our first hui at a local marae, and at that stage we had around 30 staff who volunteered to be part of the process. It was an incredible experience to see the staff working in that environment and taking on the learning and skills that they were going to need to effectively lead the changes in their own classrooms.
During 2004 we started to implement the programme. These included using strategies such as ongoing observations in the classroom, one-on-one feedback meetings, and co-construction group meetings.
Professional development occurs on several layers. Facilitators will observe the staff member in the classroom, and together they will talk about the goals that the teacher wants to set. The facilitator will then shadow-coach the teacher towards achieving those goals.
Facilitators also work with groups of teachers around a target class, and again they set goals. At co-construction meetings groups of teachers who are working around a target class talk about shared goals for those target students. The facilitator will work with teachers on ways through which they might achieve those goals.
In addition staff involved in the project undertook professional development every second week, so that they could practise and reinforce the actual strategies. We have whole-staff professional development in which the facilitators give teachers tools to help undertake changes and then help them understand how those tools will make a difference in the classroom.
Finally, as a team we have had intensive and high-quality professional development provided by the team from Waikato University. This takes place in Hamilton, so all of the facilitators, RTLBs, support staff, and principals, get together two or three times a year, and we have intensive two or three day professional development led by the Waikato team.
Cross-school integration
In 2005, having reflected on the programme so far, we decided that it was going to be important for us to have our middle managers participating in the process. So our pastoral leaders, deans, deputy principals, and our academic leaders, heads of departments, and heads of faculties are in the project too. We needed them to be leading in their own areas of influence within the school if Te Kotahitanga was really going to be embedded at Kerikeri High.
To help integrate Te Kotahitanga into the life and culture of the school we also explained our expectations to prospective staff. We asked them if they were prepared to be part of the pilot programme and outlined how important it is that all our staff have a willingness to make this move with us. So this year we invited our new staff into the programme. It was an amazing experience for them to begin their year at a hui along with the rest of our staff.
Feedback and feedforward
At the start of our training, we looked at narratives that had been collected from Māori students about what constituted effective teaching. One of the key things that emerged was effective feedback on student academic performance, and effective feedforward on how to improve.
So we are trying to provide effective feedback and feedforward. For example, our facilitators have to be able to give effective feedback and feedforward to staff. As a school, we have to communicate with the project team about what the reality is for us, about implementing Te Kotahitanga into a real school environment. The team in return provides us with effective feedback on how we are performing as a school and gives suggestions about our future training.
To provide useful feedback we require valid data. So we have collected student baseline data around pastoral indicators such as absenteeism and retention levels. We collated statistics on discipline, detentions, stand-downs and suspensions. We also looked at the achievement levels of educational attainment of our Māori students. To do this we used essential skills testing and in-school testing. So we looked at our common achievement tests and at examination results from our year 9 and year 10 students. This year we moved into asTTle testing.
Facilitators also collect a range of data while they are in the classrooms. For example, they look at on-task behaviour of students and they feed that back to the teacher. But they also look at the teacher's teaching methodology. They observe how the teacher is giving feedback and feedforward academically, whether the teacher is teaching to the whole class or to a group. That information is fed back to the teacher by the facilitator in a one-on-one situation, and is also forwarded to the project team at Waikato University. We then receive an analysis of how we are progressing as a school. That has been very empowering for us, because everybody likes to see that they are making progress and that they are making a difference.
Changes
Te Kotahitanga is making a difference at Kerikeri High School as we have evidence of this in both our recorded data and anecdotally. There are ups and downs, and there are some hiccups, but we are seeing significant movement.
For example, we are noticing that Māori students' attendance levels are increasing and there has been a significant reduction in stand-downs and suspensions. There has been an attitudinal change among our Māori students. Facilitators are noticing that there is more on-task behaviour in the classroom, and that students are more engaged in their learning at a higher level.
Most importantly, we are seeing an increase in academic achievement, and in some of those target classes we are seeing the Māori students rising to the level of the non-Māori students in that classroom.
We have noticed that people are losing their self-consciousness and Māori language has become a natural means of communication for more people in our school.
We see an increase in professional conversations about teaching and learning. Within departments we have teachers discussing teaching and learning, and discussing student achievement, and that is a huge forward move.
Leadership
Te Kotahitanga has taught me several things about leadership. Firstly I have learnt that leadership does matter. Sometimes with other projects I have felt that leadership was really just a rubber-stamping, it was really just the principal saying, "Yes, I support this, now go and do the business."
I've learnt that leadership is not always comfortable. With Te Kotahitanga we are talking about a huge change of culture within a school. At times there is resistance to change and that is uncomfortable for a leader.
I have learnt that real leadership needs to be shared. When I meet with the facilitation team it's very much a meeting of equals – shared leadership. It's about each of us knowing what we are bringing to the project, and each of us being a leader within our own right in that project. The key shift for me is not talking about what I believe as a principal, it's talking about what we believe as a school, and what we believe as a team. So it's taught me a huge amount.
I found it exciting to see staff working collegially over three days at the hui. To watch the shift in positioning for some of the staff, and to see the commitment that they had to making the change for Māori students was an empowering and an emotionally uplifting experience. They were working with absolute focus on quality teaching and learning. That, for me, was a real highlight.
I've had an opportunity to take what was essentially a research project, and make it work in a real school. That's been an intellectual challenge. I'd have to say that it has been the highlight of my career.
