Starpath has education impact  

A research project is dramatically transforming educational outcomes for students who are under-achieving at secondary school and under-represented in tertiary education.

November 2011

The Starpath Project, a Partnership for Excellence run by The University of Auckland, has conducted extensive research and implemented strategies in partnership with five pilot schools since 2005 and is now working with over 20 schools throughout Auckland and Northland.

During phase one, the Project saw dramatic increases in NCEA results in each of the pilot schools.  One school has increased its Level 3 NCEA results by 18%, while another has taken its Level 1 pass rate from 40% to 60% and its Level 2 rate from 40% to 58%.

The Project’s redesigned parent-student-teacher conferencing has also had a significant impact, with parent attendance increasing from around 20% to between 70% and 86% in each pilot school and feedback from parents being overwhelmingly positive. In addition, students have made at least one year’s gain in literacy levels.

Starpath has been running since 2005 and received $1.55m in funding support from ASB Community Trust in 2006. Now, under the Trust’s Maori and Pacific Education Initiative (MPEI), a further $1.5m has been committed to support the project over the next five years.

Statistics show that one in five New Zealand students leave school with no qualifications, for Pacific students it is one in four and for Maori, one in three. However, the Starpath project has identified key changes that can be made to help turn those statistics around.

This includes:

• A longitudinal database to track student achievement
• Ways to use evidence-based decisions about a student’s progress, such as target setting and academic support
• Using an evidence-based approach to literacy interventions.

In the next stage Starpath will extend its programme to 40 schools in Auckland and Northland, develop a toolkit for other schools who want to use the model, providing them with a strategic, evidence-based approach to improving educational outcomes. It will work with schools in analysing and using data to provide academic counselling and enhance achievement. It will also work with school leaders in bringing parents and whanau into the process of setting educational goals for their children.  

Starpath is the first project to be funded under stage two of MPEI, but three other projects will soon be announced.

Stage one of MPEI saw six organisations funded so they could work to improve educational outcomes for the Maori and Pacific communities. Over the past three years the Trust has committed in excess of $13 million to this initiative.