8. Partnership Schools—PerformanceCHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of EducationPartnership Schools—Performance8. CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Does she believe that partnership schools should report NCEA results using the same methodology as state schools; if so why hasn't this been the case so far?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Kia ora kia ora kia ora.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Kia ora. It is not a question of belief; it is a question of fact. The member opposite is incorrect in stating that State schools are required to report their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) results; they are not. Partnership schools have a higher accountability framework in exchange for a higher level of flexibility and are therefore required to report their results. As there was no reporting regime for schools when the partnership school model was developed the Ministry of Education provided an initial accountability model to take into account the point-of-time reporting regime required. As per the education report released under the Official Information Act which the member has a copy of the calculation has been reviewed and round-three contracts that were recently signed calculate the performance measure for partnership schools on the same basis as provided on the Education Counts website. Chris Hipkins: Why did she award performance bonuses to partnership schools last year on the basis that they had achieved their performance targets given the Ministry of Education has now advised her that had their performance been measured using the Education Counts methodology which every other State school in the country is measured on at least two of them would not have met the criteria to get their performance bonus? Hon HEKIA PARATA: They are not performance bonuses; they are an amount held back. They were awarded on the basis that at Vanguard Military School 91.4 percent achieved NCEA level 1 and 60 percent achieved level 2 and Te Kura Hourea o Whangarei Terenga Parāoa achieved 77.8 percent and 55.6 percent respectively.Rt Hon Winston Peters: What about Whangaruru?Hon HEKIA PARATA: The Whangaruru partnership school did not meet its performance standards and has been closed. Partnership schools are characterised not only by their flexibility but by a requirement in the contract that 75 percent of their roll should be the kids who are least served by the existing education system. They are also characterised—as all other schools are—by choice. No parent is forced to send their child to a partnership school but they do so because they fear that their children have not been successful in the other options. Their children are doing better on average. There is more work to do. But if we looked at State schools as well—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Bring the answer to a conclusion.Hon HEKIA PARATA: —we would also find failure there. We do not give up on any child.Chris Hipkins: Why does she have confidence in the integrity of the information being supplied by partnership schools in their performance reporting given that one school which reported that 93.3 percent of its leavers had achieved NCEA level 2 found that its results dropped to just 6.7 percent when it was assessed using the same methodology on the Education Counts website that State school performance is measured on?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I want to answer that question in two parts. The particular school that the member is referring to failed. We have closed it. In terms of the first part I have no indication that the sponsors are deliberately misreporting their results and secondly—Carmel Sepuloni: Waste of money and using kids as guinea pigs.Hon HEKIA PARATA: —we have a unit in the Ministry of Education dedicated to working with them—and the member next door to the member asking the question should know that Pasifika kids are actually getting a good deal with these options.Carmel Sepuloni: Really? Not many of them.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Really—ask the parents who have chosen to send them there rather than having the Opposition deciding where they should be sent.Chris Hipkins: Why does she have confidence in the performance information being supplied by partnership schools when one of the partnership schools which reported a 100 percent NCEA pass rate at level 2 and thereby exceeded its performance target in its contract was reassessed and found to have only a 60 percent pass rate at NCEA level 2 and therefore had not met its performance contract?Hon HEKIA PARATA: The reason that the member can ask these questions is the utmost transparency with which we run all schools in New Zealand and every 3 months we release this data. If the member looks closely at the table on page 6 he will see reported results—Chris Hipkins: Yep—got it right here. Right there.Hon HEKIA PARATA: —exactly right—and there is a further column that has those recalibrated against the Education Counts website. So I can assure the member we have a Ministry of Education working with sponsors to ensure that they are indeed reliable data and that they are comparable.Chris Hipkins: Why should the public have confidence that partnership schools' performance is being rated on the same basis as State school performance when the criteria that she used to award their performance bonuses last year was different to the criteria that State schools are measured by and schools that had been deemed to have met their performance criteria did not meet their performance criteria when assessed on the same basis as every other school?Hon HEKIA PARATA: First of all it is different from" but anyway to go to the substance of the question this is a model evolving in the same way as other models—kura kaupapa for instance and ngā whanaketanga e pā ana ki ngā take mātauranga [about developments on matters regarding education]. We are developing performance data with them as well to better capture it. I have confidence and the public should have confidence because we report very clearly on what is happening. We account for every dollar. Actually partnership schools have a much higher accountability framework. They are contracted. They are required to report quarterly. We provide that information for the Opposition because it is the only issue they seem to have questions on in education."