Improving NCEA Results

James Cook High School

James Cook High School in Manukau South Auckland is a larger school than Waihi College (1200 students year 9-13 as opposed to our 500).  They have had a very remarkable story of turning around their qualification results for their students.

The were featured in the New Zealand Herald in the school holidays (click here for that article).  Some of the interesting comments in that article was what their Principal Vaugh Couillault had to say;

Mr Couillault, who joined the school in 2012, says the results are indicative of serious amounts of work from teaching and support staff, who deal with kids who come to the school usually well below standard.

"At year nine, our kids are up to four years below where they should be," he says. "And it takes a lot of hard yakka to help them from there."

He hints at some of the interventions that James Cook High teachers put into place for their students;

It's about making a real effort to know our learners. Not about just standing up the front. But any teacher worth their salt will be doing that."

They also collect "hard core" data, and can make changes on almost a daily basis around what is and isn't working, he says.

Last night there was a report on TVNZ's One News on the increased results (up from 42% of students in year 11 getting Level One 2014 up to 95% in 2015).

Here is a copy of that report (intellectual property of TVNZ)...[takes a min to load]

James Cook High School is a good example of how a school can work towards a collective goal of increasing the qualification results of their students.  I find myself interested in the finer details around the changes they have put in place.  Here is a summary of the main points...

1. Perseverance - teachers not giving up on the kids (further opportunities) and kids not giving up (coming in in their holidays).
2. Re-looking at the middle management - splitting up teachers into smaller groups to increase accountability around results.  
3. Sense of Pride - looking at giving the student more pride in the community (including uniform etc).  Modernising the look of the school.  
4. Face lift - The school had new building programme (Waihi College is due new block to replace P Block).  
5. Student Centered Learning - getting personalised in the learning.  Identifying the needs of each individual student and getting the learning individualised.  

"I want every student that walks out the gate to simply be in charge of what happens to them next." - Vaugh Couillault

This post relates to RTC #6. "Conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme i. articulate clearly the aims of their teaching, give sound professional reasons for adopting these aims, and implement them in their practice." And RTC #11. "Analyse and appropriately use assessment information, which has been gathered formally and informally i. analyse assessment information to identify progress and ongoing learning needs of ākonga 
ii. use assessment information to give regular and ongoing feedback to, guide and support further learning, iii. analyse assessment information to reflect on and evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching."