Teachers' development questioned

Nearly half of all secondary schools are squandering cash on ill-chosen training courses for teachers, the Education Review Office (ERO) says.

Chief review officer Graham Stoop said last night that two new ERO reports were "a wake-up call for schools".

"What we're asking schools to do is to make sure that the money they are spending on professional learning and development is expended appropriately that is to say, value for money," he said.

The Ministry of Education pumps about $200 million into professional development initiatives for schools each year.

The ERO found 43 per cent of secondary schools reviewed had "significant weaknesses" in the way they managed their teachers' professional learning and development (PLD).

"In most of these schools, the ERO found only a few instances where PLD had improved the quality of teaching and student achievement outcomes," the report said.

It said an important feature of this group was the emphasis on one-day courses and teacher conferences often at the expense of school-wide PLD.

A further 30 per cent of the 44 secondary schools reviewed last year had at least one "significant area" of their performance that needed improvement.

Only 27 per cent of secondary schools managed their PLD well.

Many of the worst-performing schools spent more in PLD than the best-performing schools, indicating poor decision-making, Stoop said.

"We would have liked to have seen more progress in how schools have managed professional development," he said.

Primary schools did better, with performance below standard in 22 per cent of the schools reviewed.

In last month's Budget, the Government made a total of $35.8 million in cuts to professional development in schools.

A new investment of $23.4m was directed to professional development for Maori education and rewarding top-performing teachers.

- © Fairfax NZ News