‘Tailored for parents’: Will new school ratings inform families or stigmatise schools?

Sunday, 7 June 2026

New government reporting measures will make it easier for parents to see how schools are doing. But principals fear it will stigmatise schools and have a knock-on effect on communities grappling with complex needs. Amy Ridout reports.

The work happening at Porirua College cannot be measured by a colour, says principal Ragne Maxwell.

Yet under the Education Review Office [ERO]’s new reporting system, that’s exactly what will happen as schools across the country are graded from green to red.

While the assessment itself won’t change, the Government says the new way of reporting the results will make it easier for parents to understand how a school is achieving. But Maxwell, and other principals, say it’s a blunt tool, that does not capture the challenges going on outside the school gates.

Maxwell believed labelling a school as “red” (requiring improvement) could deepen the stigma faced by communities grappling with complex challenges.

“You will get middle-class flight, white flight from those schools, even though they're doing a good job,” Maxwell said. “And those schools will therefore become worse as a result of this reporting.”

‘Tailored for parents’

Until now, ERO’s reports have been organised around evaluation questions and focused on strengths, findings and improvement areas.

The new reporting system will instead offer an at-a-glance snapshot of a school’s performance, with 14 indicators (including student achievement and progress, attendance, reading and writing) rated on a scale from dark green (excelling) to red (requiring improvement).

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In a March announcement, Education Minister Erica Stanford said the way schools were assessed had not changed: just the reporting, which would be “tailored for parents”.

'To date, reports on school performance through ERO have not sufficiently focused on the details most relevant to parents and have been dense and complicated to read and understand,' she said.

Stanford said the reports would help the Education Ministry target support to the schools that need it.

'Overall this is really about good data and making sure that we are targeting resource to the areas we need it the most so we can raise achievement standards across the board,' she said.

Ghettoising communities

Porirua College is high on the equity index, which means its students face extra challenges that affect their attendance and achievement.

However, Maxwell said blunt measures like numbers on a scale or colours on a chart did not reflect the work her school did to build trust and relationships in a “safe caring environment where [students are] looked after”.

The school emphasised community, with students spending time together: eating lunch, doing karakia. Older students supported younger and teachers worked to help students plan their pathway out of school.

“We are seeing rising attendance rates, rising achievement rates, and we're really proud of what is happening,” Maxwell said.

But ERO reports did not capture this, which meant that schools working well in challenging environments could be flagged as a concern, while less effective schools within more resourced communities escaped intervention, she said.

The impact of a “red” label was potentially huge, Maxwell said.

“[It will] stop principals and teachers wanting to work in schools with high levels of need, because they are going to be judged as failing, because of the levels of need within the community.

“And these are exactly the communities that need our best principals and our best teachers.”

She feared that red-labelled schools would create no-go zones, “ghettoising poor communities”, she said.

“It will be like a red flag. Don't go to that area, don't go to those schools, no matter how good the job they're doing. Those areas will become more stigmatised.”

Instead, more support was needed for communities to tackle the problems that were far beyond what a school could tackle, Maxwell said.

“Our kids are gorgeous and we are so privileged to work with them, but the things they face in their lives just make you go home and weep some nights.”

Whangārei Intermediate School tumuaki (principal) Haley Read said the new system would “absolutely crucify Te Tai Tokerau” (Northland), where social challenges placed extra pressures on schools.

“Anybody who’s poor, impoverished, dealing with deprivation of soul, of spirit … you're automatically going to be branded with blood red.

“There's 165 schools in Tai Tokerau. Maybe 20 might survive with green. I reckon the majority of us will go red because you can't compare apples with oranges.

“You cannot compare Tai Tokerau schools with schools in Remuera. You just can't, but they're going to.”

ERO chief review officer Ruth Shinoda has said the new reporting would allow parents and whānau “to ask good questions, make good choices, and get involved in their child’s education”.

The move echoes that of the UK school inspection body Ofsted, who last year introduced their own five-point, colour-coded scale, a move that one union spokesperson there said would result in “more of the same. More pressure. More ranking and competition. More labels.”

For the parents, not the schools

Daniel Birch has lived through many reviews during his two decades as principal at Hobsonville Point Primary School in Auckland.

“It's always been about partnership, and the review was for the school. Now the review is for parents.”

The concept of parents being able to “make good choices” based on the colour-coded scale were irrelevant when zoning took away options to choose.

“So what do they do?” Birch said. “Do they just get grumpy that their school has a colour that means what?”

The use of an Oftsted-inspired system was “a little bit terrifying” when applied to Aotearoa’s “complex” schools, he said.

The spectre of a red grading was added pressure for schools with complex social challenges, he said.

“It's a pretty pretty strong stick to hold over schools when we're working in really challenging times. To have someone come in and go, this is what we think because we had boxes to tick and we can't look outside those boxes, is pretty tough.”

Hobsonville Point School sits low on the equity index, which means Birch’s students are less likely to face the socio-economic barriers that affect achievement.

“My situation compared to a school down the road is very different. A one-size-fits-all view … is very problematic.”

Birch had no idea what colour his school will be awarded.

“My staff work incredibly hard. And we put the child at the centre of every decision we make, and we will celebrate that with ERO. If they see it, they see it. If they don't, they don't.”

Stephanie Madden is the principal of Abbotsford School in Dunedin and chairperson of NZEI Principals’ Council.

She agreed parents deserved clear information about their child’s school. But she advised parents to look beyond the colour ranking to the whole report.

“We're really concerned that areas like well-being, inclusion, cultural response are going to be far less visible to parents than they were previously.”

Madden feared the reports presented a “oversimplified” view of schools’ performances that did not reflect the “complex work of learning” that went on, and that curriculums would narrow as schools focused on meeting indicators.

“Reading, writing, and maths… are really important …but it isn't the whole picture of the school, and it certainly isn't the whole picture of learning for children.”

She was also concerned the new reporting would create more division: league tables and rankings, and the stigmatisation of “red” schools.

“This new system will set us up to make comparisons about very unique communities and very unique schools that are problematic.”

With school zones meaning children would inevitably be locked into the “red” school in their area, Madden was worried the ratings would undermine trust between schools and whānau.

“You are setting up a relationship between the parents and the school where they think they're going to a [lesser] quality school, and that’s just not true.”

An ERO spokesperson said the changes had been developed after meeting with school leaders and whānau across diverse communities.

“Reviewers take into account…challenges in the wider community, and other long-term factors. These things help reviewers understand the evidence, make fair judgments, and explain the school’s situation clearly in the report.”

These would be reflected in statements alongside each judgment to give a bigger picture about a school’s context, they said.

The reports were not intended to be a comparison or ranking tool, but were meant to provide information about each school and improve communication.

“Reports are designed to provide parents and whānau with clearer, more accessible, and more useful information, so they can engage more confidently with their child’s education.”

The spokesperson said ERO would “keep listening and improving… so we can make sure our reporting remains clear, useful, and centred on learners.”