EDUC 323: Attendance, school pushout, and the STPP

NCEA Level 3 attainment (2025)

59% of school leavers achieved Level 3 or above, an increase of 2.7 percentage points from 2024.

NCEA Level 3 attainment by ethnicity (2025)

Asian: 75.8%; European/Pākehā: 59.7%; Pacific: 53.2%; Māori: 41.4%.

NEET

Not in Employment, Education or Training; describes young people not engaged in work or further education/training.

Why does school engagement matter?

It improves employment opportunities, earning potential and health outcomes.

Non-enrolment

When a school-aged student is not enrolled or attending school and is being monitored by the Ministry of Education.

Criteria for an active non-enrolment case

The student is of enrolment age, has not attended for 20+ days and is actively monitored by the Ministry of Education.

The student is of enrolment age, has not attended for 20+ days and is actively monitored by the Ministry of Education.

Māori learners are over-represented in active non-enrolment cases relative to their proportion of the school population.

School dropout

Suggests students voluntarily choose to leave school, placing responsibility on the individual.

School pushout

Recognises that school practices and systems contribute to students leaving education.

Why use the term school pushout instead of dropout?

It shifts blame from individual students to institutional practices and structural inequalities.

Factors contributing to school pushout

Poor resourcing, overcrowding, punitive discipline, lack of support, low teacher expectations, standardised testing and bullying.

Implicit bias

Conscious or unconscious stereotypes that influence how teachers perceive and treat students.

Conscious or unconscious stereotypes that influence how teachers perceive and treat students.

Students receive unequal support and encouragement, potentially reducing their confidence, self-esteem and engagement.

How can students internalise low teacher expectations?

They may begin believing they are less capable, reducing their academic confidence and self-efficacy.

Turner et al. (2015): Research method

Studied 15 mathematics teachers and 361 students across five lower-decile Auckland secondary schools.

Turner et al. (2015): Teacher expectations

Teachers held higher expectations of Pākehā and Asian students than Māori and Pacific students.

Turner et al. (2015): Teacher explanations for achievement gaps

Teachers attributed differences to students' personal and family backgrounds rather than recognising their own potential biases.

Turner et al. (2015): Expectations and achievement

Teacher expectations did not necessarily match students' actual academic achievement.

Turner et al. (2015): Streaming and teacher perceptions

Teachers reported that streaming influenced how they perceived students' academic abilities.

Streaming

Grouping students into different classes according to perceived academic ability or achievement.

How can streaming reinforce inequality?

Higher streams may receive better-resourced classrooms and more experienced teachers, while lower streams face reduced expectations.

Pomeroy et al. (2024): Research method

Reanalysed interviews with Year 9 students and a focus group of seven Māori and Pasifika Year 13 students.

Pomeroy et al. (2024): Experiences of streaming

Students described racialised experiences of entitlement in higher streams and shame in lower streams.

Pomeroy et al. (2024): Racialised streaming

Māori and Pasifika students described lower-stream placement as labelling them less capable, damaging confidence and self-esteem.

How does streaming resemble the Native Schools Act?

Both can reproduce educational separation and different expectations about the future roles and opportunities of Māori and Pākehā.

Racism and teacher expectations

Racism can influence teachers' perceptions of ability, behaviour and potential, contributing to unequal educational experiences.

Microaffirmations

Small actions or comments that communicate encouragement, recognition, inclusion and respect.

Turner-Adams et al. (2025): Research question

What factors push young people out of mainstream schools and into alternative education?

Turner-Adams et al. (2025): Research method

Action research involving 15 rangatahi in alternative education settings.

Turner-Adams et al. (2025): Key findings

Students described exclusion, alienation, microaggressions, relationships, identity and teaching approaches; they experienced more encouragement in alternative education.

What wider factors influence teachers' behaviour?

Historical racism and ableism, school culture, inadequate funding, workload and institutional expectations.

School-to-prison pipeline (STPP)

Systems and policies that push marginalised students, particularly students of colour, out of education and towards the criminal justice system.

How does the school-to-prison pipeline operate?

School exclusion → disengagement → reduced educational opportunities → increased vulnerability to offending and justice-system contact.

Low-decile schools and suspension (Gluckman & Lambie, 2018)

Students at low-decile schools were 6.7 times more likely to be suspended than students at high-decile schools.

How can school security measures contribute to the STPP?

Security enforcement shifts responsibility for managing student behaviour and risk away from educators towards punitive systems.

Reil et al. (2022): Research focus

Examined how systems fail young people who offend and how offending could be prevented.

Examined how systems fail young people who offend and how offending could be prevented.

Examined how systems fail young people who offend and how offending could be prevented.

Reil et al. (2022): Expulsion

Nearly half of those expelled before age 14 offended as both children and young people.

Reil et al. (2022): Multiple school enrolments

The odds of offending increased 1.6 times for each additional school enrolment.

What does the relationship between school decile and offending suggest?

Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with greater offending risk; offending cannot simply be explained by individual behaviour.

School exclusion and NEET

Students who are suspended or expelled are more likely to become NEET.

Why can it be difficult for excluded students to return to school?

Schools may refuse enrolment because of students' disciplinary or offending histories.

What can happen when young people offend after being pushed out of school?

What can happen when young people offend after being pushed out of school?

What can happen when young people offend after being pushed out of school?

70% experienced some form of housing deprivation.

Youth19: Food and period poverty

35% experienced food insecurity and 42% experienced period poverty.

What do Youth19 findings reveal about NEET young people?

Many experience overlapping poverty, violence and discrimination, challenging the idea that disengagement is simply an individual choice.

Why are relationships important in education?

Positive teacher-student relationships increase belonging, engagement and the likelihood students remain at school.

Restorative practices

Approaches that focus on repairing harm, rebuilding relationships and taking responsibility rather than simply punishing students.

How can restorative practices reduce school pushout?

They address conflict while maintaining students' connection to school and supporting their reintegration.

What is the relationship between school pushout and the STPP?

School pushout removes students from education; the STPP describes how this exclusion can contribute to justice-system involvement.

How can racism contribute to the STPP?

Racial bias can influence teacher expectations, streaming and discipline, exposing Māori and other marginalised students to greater exclusion.

How can socioeconomic disadvantage contribute to the STPP?

Students in under-resourced schools face greater exposure to punitive discipline and fewer educational supports.

What is the central argument of the lecture?

Educational exclusion is structurally produced, not simply caused by individual students' choices or behaviour.