Ministry of Education: Supporting professional development for teachers

The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) has many roles in the design and operation of the parts of the education system relating to professional development for teachers. These roles range from funding providers of professional development to collecting and collating evidence of what is effective professional development for teachers.

The scope of our audit

We carried out a performance audit of the Ministry's role in the professional development of teachers. Our audit covered the professional development that teachers do after they have graduated from a teacher education programme. We examined teacher professional development for teachers in primary and secondary state and state-integrated schools. Our audit looked only at professional development funded by the Ministry, either directly or indirectly through school operational grants.

We did not audit the effectiveness of individual professional development programmes, but we did examine how the Ministry evaluated the effectiveness of these. We also did not audit professional development for school support staff, early childhood or tertiary educators, or special education teachers.

Our findings

We found that, overall, the Ministry was ably doing its job in carrying out multiple roles in providing and evaluating teacher professional development. The Ministry has a strong focus on the use of evidence as a guide for effective teacher professional development, but we considered that the Ministry could make greater use of this evidence. We also thought that the Ministry should consider all of its funding sources as a whole when prioritising the funding of professional development initiatives.

We made 11 recommendations, covering:

• setting objectives, sharing information, and supporting professional development;
• risk management, contracting, and evaluation; and
• funding, prioritisation, and value for money.

The response to our findings and recommendations

We are pleased that the Ministry has accepted our recommendations and is taking steps to address them. These steps are detailed below. We expect that the actions taken by the Ministry so far, and the actions it has planned, will address the issues raised in our report. We encourage the Ministry to ensure that it continues and completes its planned improvements.

Setting objectives, sharing information, and supporting professional development

We recommended that the Ministry better document and share its approach to professional development for teachers. The Ministry told us that it is carrying out a review of teacher professional development, and the results of the review will be communicated to the schools sector in 2010 after they have been communicated to the Minister of Education. This communication will include informing the sector about the Ministry's infrastructure and resourcing of teacher's professional development. The review will also inform publications about the Ministry's prioritisation criteria and contracting intentions for teachers' professional development.

In addition, the sector has been informed of the line-by-line review decisions and the effect they will have on the provision of School Support Services.

We also recommended that the Ministry inform its review of professional development initiatives with evidence of what effective professional development is. The Ministry told us that its 2008 line-by-line review was informed by such evidence, along with the Ministry's own priorities.

At the time of our audit, the Ministry had identified a need for improvement in the capability of providers, schools, and teachers to use student achievement data to inform and track professional development initiatives. We recommended that the Ministry review the range and content of professional development initiatives that it funds for teachers to determine whether it is building enough such capability within the education sector. This was necessary for the Ministry to be able to implement the evidence-based approach to professional development that it was encouraging.

The Ministry told us that its 2008 line-by-line review examined the range and content of professional development programmes, and reduced or terminated those that did not match the Ministry's priorities. However, it is unclear whether this review also allowed the Ministry to determine whether it is building enough capability within the education sector to implement an evidence-based approach to professional development.

We also recommended that the Ministry make information on the professional development initiatives it funds more easily accessible, which it has done through the Te Kete Ipurangi website (in the Professional Learning section).

Risk management, contracting, and evaluation

We recommended that the Ministry document in its contract files the risks to effective professional development for teachers and the associated risk management activities. Risk should also be actively managed, where possible, for each professional development contract. In response, the Ministry told us that it has improved its risk management for professional development contracts through establishing risk management and contract management policies. It has also implemented staff training in templates, risk management, and sign-off processes.

We also recommended that the Ministry better use the information it collects to identify emerging professional development trends, needs, and issues. The Ministry told us that it has responded to this by using a variety of sources, including reviews by the Education Review Office and Professional Development Best Evidence Synthesis, to identify and analyse trends and issues.

Funding, prioritisation, and value for money

We recommended that the Ministry work to reduce the risk of over-commitment by schools to, or waste in the provision of, professional development initiatives. In response, the Ministry is further reviewing the provision of professional development to schools, separately to its line-by-line review. The Ministry has told us that an approach is being tested that is more focused on each school identifying its individual professional development needs.

We also recommended that value-for-money considerations be included by the Ministry when purchasing or evaluating professional development initiatives. The Ministry has told us that it is carrying out an exercise aimed at addressing prioritisation, over commitment and value-for-money for all teacher professional development. The Ministry also told us that staff are taking a more value-for-money based approach to the contracting process than previously.

The Ministry hopes that these actions will help it to address our recommendation that it include all of its spending on professional development for teachers when deciding the priority of initiatives to fund, and when considering the adequacy of professional development funding. The Ministry is yet to establish a process to specifically address this issue.

We recommended that the Ministry ensure that contract monitoring reports by contracted providers of teachers' professional development are useful and do not create inappropriate compliance costs for professional development providers or itself. The Ministry has expressed a commitment to ensure this.

We also recommended that the Ministry prepare clear guidance for staff about using the provisions in contracts to recover funds for undelivered services from the providers of professional development initiatives for teachers, and ensure that the guidance is followed. The Ministry told us that it has put in place such guidance, together with a procedure to ensure that it is followed.