Navigating equity & excellence in education through academic counselling & parent/student/teacher conferences: Lessons learned from the Starpath Project

Abstract

The importance of effective home-school partnerships is well documented, however less is known about how secondary schools develop these with diverse groups of indigenous whānau (families) and other non-dominant caregiver groups. This presentation critically analyses results from a research and development project that aimed to improve Māori and Pacific Island student achievement through improved parent/student/teacher (PST) conferences, coupled with enhanced data utilisation for academic counselling purposes across 34 New Zealand secondary schools. The overall evaluation employed a mixed methods approach, utilising both qualitative and quantitative data within an interpretative methodology (Mertens & Biber, 2013) to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of activities on student achievement outcomes, family engagement and teacher/school practice. Analysed data included student achievement records, interviews (students, teachers, school leaders), school records of whānau/parent/caregiver attendance at PST conferences and direct observations of academic counselling. Whilst findings highlighted many positive results, there was considerable variability in the academic attainment and/or achievement results across ethnicity, gender and school decile (socio-economic status) and in whānau/family engagement across schools. Findings are discussed alongside recommendations for improving home-school partnerships for culturally diverse groups.