A Model of School Change for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in New Zealand: A Summary and Evidence from Systematic Replication

Source: Teaching Education, Volume 20, Issue 1, March 2009 , pages 55 – 75.

A model of school change has been designed and implemented in a systematic replication series. Key principles are: that teachers need to be able to act as adaptive experts; that local evidence about teaching and learning is necessary to inform instructional design; that school professional learning communities are vehicles for changing teaching practice; that educative research-practice-policy partnerships are needed to solve problems; that instructional leadership in schools is necessary for community functioning and for coherence; and that effective programs in schools are built by fine tuning existing practices. A three-stage model has been tested across three clusters of schools: two groups of urban schools serving Māori and Pasifika children from low socio-economic status communities. The third group comprising all the primary schools in a rural and remote region of New Zealand. The model has been extended to different academic areas (writing as well as reading) and to secondary schools since its initial testing. Evidence is provided for effectiveness for Māori and Pasifika children in urban schools and Māori students in rural and remote schools.