One hundred schools have signed on to pilot a new leadership programme, He Kakano, which aims to improve education for Maori.
Waikato University's faculty of education and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi have a three year $7 million contract to deliver advice, support and professional development to schools in the programme.
Professor Russell Bishop says it draws on what's been learned from the classroom-based Te Kotahitanga programme about how Maori students learn, and how schools can take the identity, language and culture of their students into account.
He says, He Kakano (The Seed), is for boards of trustees, principals, heads of department down to the individual teacher level. he told Waatea News:
"We're offering them a model which is based on the seven points in a book called Scaling Up Education Reform."
Professor Bishop says schools benefit for having outside groups like the university or wananga to help them critically analyse what is going on in the classroom.
