Objective 1:
A detailed understanding of educational dynamics in New Zealand
The Starpath Project aims to achieve a detailed understanding of the dynamics of educational processes in New Zealand, and how and why different groups of students (distinguished by demographic characteristics rather than intellectual capability) currently experience different pathways and outcomes in the education system.The Project will study up to 14 consecutive cohorts, across a minimum of three educational ‘pipelines’ in the Auckland region, examining students’ educational experience from primary to tertiary education, and seeking to apply these findings to the experience of the wider population of students in New Zealand.
Over the five years of the project, the Starpath Project will collect and analyse twenty years of educational data, using an accelerated longitudinal methodology, focusing on understanding and transforming the pathways for different groups of students in these cohorts as they pass through the education system.
Objective 2:
A toolkit of proven initiatives and approaches
Starpath aims to ensure that all students have the opportunity to achieve their educational potential. The Project will study and evaluate a wide range of initiatives and programmes aimed at enhancing student achievement; and examine and evaluate their outcomes.
Starpath will deliver a toolkit of proven initiatives and approaches that transform current patterns of educational under-achievement in New Zealand.
Objective 3:
A strategic approach towards enhancing educational achievement
Starpath aims to ensure that the initiatives and approaches aimed at enhancing student achievement, both within individual institutions and at a system-wide level in New Zealand, are strategic rather than scatter-gun, evidence-based and efficient in their use of resources, and achieve the desired objectives.At present, schools and tertiary institutions collect student information for educational purposes, but use it most frequently to report to the Ministry of Education, and to justify the receipt of funding. Such information is not routinely used to analyse and enhance patterns of educational achievement for particular groups of students. Without such analysis, however, it is impossible to accurately identify the educational challenges actually experienced by particular groups of students, within or between institutions, accurately target initiatives and discover whether or not these make a positive impact on educational outcomes.
In such a situation, initiatives and approaches are devised and targeted largely on the basis of guesswork and delivered in a ‘scattergun’ fashion, both within particular institutions and across the education system. Starpath will enable a change to a system of evidence-based decision making that will increase the effectiveness of investments in education in New Zealand.
The Starpath Project aims to collaborate with institutional partners to develop strategic plans for enhancing student achievement. The Project will develop guidelines for information management systems that allow the ready identification of chokepoints in the learning process for groups of students, the accurate targeting of initiatives and approaches, and rigorous evaluation of whether or not these make a positive difference to patterns of student achievement.
Objective 4:
Improved Methods of Collecting and Understanding Educational Data
The Starpath Project will devise guidelines for improved systems for collecting, analyzing and understanding educational data, both within institutions and across the education system.
Starpath will explore the development of a centralised research database that, under strict conditions of confidentiality, takes data from other organizations for the purpose of developing evidence-based understandings of educational dynamics, and evidence-based interventions to transform current patterns of under-achievement.
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