Comparing South Auckland decile 1 schools

Radio NZ report:

South Auckland Middle School asked for a review of its decile rating last year and in June the Ministry of Education decided it was a decile 1C school, meaning it had a high concentration of children from the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Charter schools – which the government calls partnership schools or kura hourua – are funded as if they are decile 3 schools, but can ask for a review once they reach their maximum roll.

Now the unions always say it is unfair to compare decile 1 schools and decile 10 schools as decile 1 schools have the poorest families and poverty is the main cause of educational under achievement.

So now we know SAMS is a decile 1 school, we’ll do what the unions say and compare it to other decile 1 schools in their neighbourhood, plus a decile 7 and decile 10 school.

So SAMS students are achieving at twice the level of the public decile 1 schools. Their achievement level is on par with that of a typical decile 7 school and now too far off a decile 10 school.

So surely the unions would be over the moon that you have a decile 1 school achieving such great results. But no, they go for excuses:

Post Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts said the school’s results were not comparable to those of regular decile one schools.

She said the fact parents had to apply to enter a ballot to enrol at the charter school meant it was enrolling a different cohort from neighbouring schools which accepted whoever turned up, even if it was during the middle of the year.

“The moment you have even a ballot process, you are already in a selection process,” she said.

Oh what crap. It is a random ballot, not a selection process where you can pick the best students. Any impact is at best minor and in no way can explain the massive gulf in performance.