ERO drops decile rating from its school reports, to correct stereotype

Date: 20/08/2012

A school�s decile rating will no longer be shown on its Education Review Office report, following a decision announced today.

ERO says it has taken the decision to remove the rating from its reports in an effort to correct the stereotype that a school�s decile equals performance.

Dr Graham Stoop, Chief Review Officer for the Education Review Office, says that for some time there has been public confusion about the purpose of the decile rating and what it actually means.

�The decile rating system is a mechanism used by the Ministry of Education to make funding available to schools. Too often it is seen as a rating of the quality of the education which a school provides and this is simply not correct.

�By removing the decile rating from ERO�s reports we hope to help remove this element of confusion and correct this misconception.

Dr Stoop says ERO�s reports are designed to give parents an assessment of the quality of education provided by schools for learners.

�We have decided that decile has no part to play in our reports.�

He says the inclusion of the decile rating in ERO reports is an historical one dating back several years.

The move to not include decile ratings takes effect for reports published by ERO from the beginning of Term 4, 2012. Reports already published will not have their decile rating retrospectively removed.