Future Pathways in School and Beyond

So, how do we develop future pathways for students that take advantage of the regional opportunities that exist and ensure they have the necessary skills to take them up. 

This question came about after a discussion with several former students about how they were progressing beyond year 13. It was a little disheartening to find out that they had not continued on with their chosen pathways for a number of reasons:

     1. Lack of knowledge about regional opportunities and how to access them

     2. Employers preferring skilled applicants

     3. Lack of contacts that could get them in the door of employers

One conversation was with a young man that had completed his Computing Diploma and was struggling to find employment because of a lack of skills in the sector. This lead to me talking too our IT provider who was struggling to find suitably trained IT technicians. The video below is the outcome of the conversations. Is it possible for our curriculum to be flexible enough to allow students the time to develop the skills needed regionally whilst completing their NCEA level 3. How would the 3;2 or 4:1 model work and would parents be ok with their kids not being at school for several days a week.

Regional skill ecosystems to assist young people making education employment linkages 

Taking Stock:

Now that the NCEA results are in, how did "Jumpstarting NCEA" for the 2016 cohort of year 10's go.

  

We had the best NCEA level one literacy and numeracy results (roll based) going back 4 years:

In terms of our Kahui Ako challenges around literacy and numeracy it was a good outcome considering most of the students entered college in year 9 at curriculum level 3 for reading, writing and maths. The outcome that is still a challenge is overall NCEA level one achievement (roll based). After working with those students who were close to 80 credits, early in term 1 2018, the final result for the 2017 academic was a 52 % pass rate. A better outcome than previous years but still a long way to go. For those that missed the challenge is now to focus on NCEA level 2. 

NEXT STEPS: Using staff and student voice/feedback,  "Jumpstart" for the year 10's at the end of 2017 was extended to 5 weeks. This resulted in 60% of the students having started the 2018 academic year with credits, fewer students on zero credits than in previous years. An added bonus is a settled start to the NCEA level 1 2018 academic year, with no students wanting to change courses. Staff have implemented firmer deadlines for assessments which are clearly spelt out on teacher learning area websites. A greater focus on literacy strategies to support learning are being implemented school wide with the support of a literacy coordinator. At the end of term one a list of priority learners "students with zero credits" will be compiled with a view to provide them with learning intensives. 

"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week's value out of a year while another man gets a full year's value out of a week." -- Charles Richards

Reflection Time

Create Reflect: So what is the achievement looking like after approx 6 months and 5 weeks. My colleague has thankfully created a website titled "Data Garden", an excellent data repository where I could pick the data to compare NCEA level 1 progress to date over the last 2 years. The data shows that we have arrested the academic credit plunge/crises 2016 and now tracking at the levels of 2015. There are however, several areas of concern and a closer analysis of the data is required to see what interventions can be used to shift the achievement of students lagging behind the 20 credit per term goal. 

NCEA Data Summary for mid August

Level 1

2015		2016		2017
0 -19 credits	33	0 -19 credits	50	0 -19 credits	32
20 - 39 credits	51	20 - 39 credits	48	20 - 39 credits	53
40 - 59 credits	26	40 - 59 credits	24	40 - 59 credits	25
60+ credits	5	60+ credits	1	60+ credits	2
Literacy	72	Literacy	57	Literacy	70
Numeracy	60	Numeracy	33	Numeracy	59

Level 1 Maori

2015		2016		2017
0 -19 credits	16	0 -19 credits	17	0 -19 credits	16
20 - 39 credits	13	20 - 39 credits	15	20 - 39 credits	21
40 - 59 credits	5	40 - 59 credits	3	40 - 59 credits
60+ credits		60+ credits		60+ credits
Literacy	17	Literacy	12	Literacy	16
Numeracy	15	Numeracy	12	Numeracy	14

Level 1 Pasifika

2015		2016		2017
0 -19 credits	17	0 -19 credits	31	0 -19 credits	36
20 - 39 credits	36	20 - 39 credits	32	20 - 39 credits	30
40 - 59 credits	20	40 - 59 credits	21	40 - 59 credits	5
60+ credits	4	60+ credits	1	60+ credits
Literacy	53	Literacy	42	Literacy	25
Numeracy	44	Numeracy	21	Numeracy	28