Changing the professional culture of school review: The inside story of ERO

This is the story of our part in and perspective on a significant and profound change process in New Zealand’s education evaluation agency – ERO. We are two public service managers who work in the government agency charged with reviewing and reporting on the performance of the pre-tertiary education institutions in New Zealand. We were part of leading what has become the transformation of ERO and its approach to evaluating school performance over the last few years. Many skilled and talented colleagues contributed to and lead different aspects of this transformative process. While we present this intertwined and reflective narrative we realise that there are many other stories that could be told about the events that unfolded, the challenges experienced, the achievements realised and the ways forward.