ERO’s Evidence and Insights provide in-depth studies of different aspects of education in New Zealand, make recommendations for improvement and share evidence-based good practice. 

Our work

We work to understand and report on system performance, evaluate initiatives, promote good practice, and identify emerging challenges and opportunities. 

We produce a range of resources, including research reports, short summaries, good practice guides, and short sector insights. We do this across three main areas: 

Our Team

ERO’s team of education experts are based across New Zealand and work closely with schools and ECE services every day. Our Evidence and Insights are led by:

Nicholas Pole, Chief Review Officer

Nicholas Pole

Chief Executive/Chief Review Officer

Nick has been New Zealand’s Chief Review Officer since 2017, and has responsibility for the review of education services and programmes across Aotearoa New Zealand. In this role he has fundamentally reformed the way ERO works with early learning services and schools, with an increased focus on building sector capability in self-review and introduced a performance review and improvement cycle.

He has been involved in educational research and administration in New Zealand and Victoria, Australia for a period spanning more than 30 years. In this he has headed up a broad range of areas including policy, service delivery, research, and evaluation. While working in Australia, in addition to overseeing the performance of the Victorian state school system, he also had responsibility for Victoria’s child and maternal health services. In the early 2000s he established the Centre for Social Research and Evaluation overseeing world leading studies into the living standards of New Zealanders.

Ruth Shinoda – Deputy Chief Executive – Head of the Education Evaluation Centre

Ruth Shinoda

Deputy Chief Executive – Head of the Education Evaluation Centre

Ruth is responsible for ERO’s Education Evaluation Centre and policy work programme. Her role includes setting the Centre’s strategy, direction and research and evaluation work programme.

Prior to joining ERO Ruth worked in education research and policy in New Zealand (including as Associate Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Education), in England (for the Department of Education and Private Equity Foundation) and in Japan (as a Daiwa Foundation Scholar).