In this paper, Cathy Wylie examines the history and impact of school choice policies in New Zealand.
Although 91% of primary students and 84% of secondary students attend their first choice school, roughly 30% of students do not attend schools closest to their homes, suggesting there is some competition for students between schools. Low-income schools are less likely to produce qualified students, and competition does not appear to have induced these schools to improve.
This paper discusses why competition has not lead to superior student outcomes. Wylie argues that most schools in New Zealand do not face structural competition, defined as five or more competing schools in close proximity, and most school leaders are not threatened by consistent competition. Out of 157 schools whose principals were surveyed in 1999 and 2003, only 17% reported facing competition in both years.
Wylie concludes that it is important to distinguish between offering choice and encouraging competition.
Purpose
This paper has three objectives:
a) to update the New Zealand picture to see if earlier findings relating to the winners and losers of decentralisation still hold in the light of national policy changes to school admission criteria and the introduction of balloting for oversubscribed schools. In particular, a focus is given to questions related to equity of educational opportunity;
b) to investigate the uneven operation of competition in New Zealand by comparing school actions and changes over time for schools whose principals see themselves competing with other local schools, and those whose principals do not see themselves in competition.
c) to situate the nature of school competition in New Zealand schools within the context of tensions with other policy directions, and tensions with parent and school expectations of parental choice, what programmes and equipment schools should provide, and school self-management. These tensions raise questions about the feasibility of school competition as a central policy tool to improve education and educational outcomes.