Position description
Position / Chief Executive and Chief Review Officer (the Chief Executive)Department / Education Review Office (ERO)
Context / ERO provides evidential based evaluations and reports that help parents, teachers, managers in early learning services, school principals, school Boards of Trustees, Communities of Learning │Kāhui Ako (groups of schools, kura and early learning service providers working together along a whole of learning pathway), and government policy makers to:
· understand the levers for increasing equity and excellence in a devolved education system;
· create learning environments that address the needs of all children and young people;
· understand how they can make a real difference to the learning outcomes for their children; and
· identify best practice teaching and leadership so that it can become common practice.
Through its role, ERO has the ability to influence quality at every point in the education system. ERO must use this influence well and support this through a continuous evolving of its own evaluative practice and capability and through helping to grow evaluative capability across the education system.
The Government is committed to lifting educational achievement for all young New Zealanders. To meet this goal, the education system, under the stewardship of the Secretary for Education and the Ministry of Education, needs to ensure a seamless learning pathway from early learning services through to tertiary education with the learner at the centre of this experience. An education sector plan for system stewardship (which is under development) will set out how the education agencies intend working together to ensure that every learner succeeds and New Zealand prospers.
Key external relationships / Government and Parliament:
The Chief Executive’s key working relationship is with the Minister of Education.
The key education agencies are: The Ministry of Education, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Tertiary Education Commission (which Careers New Zealand functions are to be folded into), Network for Learning, Education New Zealand and Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu - The Correspondence School.
Sector:
The Chief Executive, must influence, support and collaborate with Communities of Learning │Kāhui Ako, early learning services and schools. The Chief Executive must establish effective relationships with the profession (including through and with their various bodies).
Communities and the public:
The Chief Executive is required to engage and work with the parents, caregivers and communities with an interest in early learning services and schooling, especially through the whole of learning pathway that Communities of Learning │Kāhui Ako are set up to drive.
Performance Profile
Accountabilities / The Chief Executive is accountable to the Minister of Education. The Chief Executive must perform the duties set out in the State Sector Act, the Public Finance Act, the Education Act and other relevant statutes and legislation.
The Chief Executive is accountable for ensuring the effective delivery of ERO’s functions, which are to:
· evaluate the quality of education and care in schools and early learning services;
· evaluate the quality and impact of whole of pathway learning in Communities of Learning │Kāhui Ako;
· build and measure self-review and evaluative capability and practice within and across the education sector;
· evaluate the implementation of government education priorities across the system; and
· inform and advise the Minister on the development of future priorities and identify emerging issues.
ERO administers an appropriation of about $28 million. ERO has 216 staff of which 150 are designated review officers located across five regions. Further information about ERO can be found on its website www.ero.govt.nz.
Medium-term priorities / To support the Government’s educational achievement goal, the medium-term priorities for the Chief Executive are to:
· maintain and enhance ERO’s reputation for providing evidence based evaluations and reports with clear actions for performance improvement;
· assist coherence across the system with initiatives to support Communities of Learning │Kāhui Ako;
· work with the Ministry of Education in relation to school and early childhood performance and interventions;
· continue to evolve ERO’s practice and capability as evaluators within and of the education system;
· articulate a vision, culture and set of values for ERO that attracts, motivates and retains a diverse, highly-skilled, high-performing staff; and
· build bench strength and succession for the ERO leadership team and the Chief Executive role.
Security Clearance / Appointment will be subject to a New Zealand Government Confidential security clearance.
Person profile
Leadership and stewardship service / Excellent leadership by Public Service Chief Executives is essential for a high performing, professional and world class State sector. Underpinning chief executive leadership is the requirement to adhere to the Standards of Integrity and Conduct and the higher bar expected of chief executive behaviour.
Chief executive stewardship responsibilities reinforce that chief executives administer their agencies on behalf of others; serving current and future Ministers and meeting the needs of all New Zealanders.
The stewardship responsibility requires chief executives to plan and actively manage for the medium term and long term interests. This applies to all aspects of the agency including capability; information and privacy stewardship; legislation administered; and managing assets and liabilities on behalf of the Crown that are used by or relate to the agency.
Chief executives are also stewards of the system and are required to achieve cross-agency, sector and system results by leading, collaborating and exerting their influence in a cohesive way across boundaries and ensuring their staff have both the authority and motivation to do likewise.
Profile / The appointee to the position:
· must be able to sustain the trust and confidence of the Minister and the Government;
· will have specific education sector experience or have the ability to quickly build credibility;
· will have expertise in evaluation and review theory and practice;
· must be able to engage with, and deliver expert advice to early learning services, schools, Communities of Learning │Kāhui Ako and communities where ERO’s information and leading practice synthesis would make the biggest gains for student achievement;
· needs to demonstrate the ability to exert effective system level leadership through the right balance of direction and influence, working with peer chief executives;
· needs to demonstrate cultural sensitivity and an understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi;
· will work with ERO’s executive leadership team to endorse and drive and continuously improve the professional practice model and growing evaluative capability;
· will continue to build change awareness into ERO, so that it is flexible and capable of dealing with wider system change;
· must have the leadership and management skills to effectively lead a highly skilled and educated workforce drawn from senior positions in the education sector and to manage a distributed delivery model across a regional profile; and
· will have the ability to leverage ERO’s evaluative capabilities to benefit the wider education system and cross-sector initiatives.
Position specific competencies
Enhancing system performance / Work collectively across boundaries to deliver sustainable and long-term improvements to systems and customer outcomes.
Leading with influence / Lead and communicate in a clear, persuasive way; to convince others to embrace change and take action.
Enhancing organisational performance / Drive innovation and continuous improvement; to sustainably strengthen long-term organisational performance and improve outcomes for customers.
Developing talent / Coach and develop diverse talent; to build people capability required to deliver outcomes.
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Leadership Success Profile
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