Marlborough secondary school principals say they have a strong commitment to raising the achievement of Maori students, contrary to an Education Review Office (ERO) report which says many New Zealand schools are failing to do so.
The report, released by the ERO, about promoting success for Maori students said not enough schools could demonstrate they were making a difference to Maori students.
While the number of Maori students gaining University Entrance increased from 11.7 per cent in 2004 to 20.8 per cent in 2008, the gap between Maori and non-Maori students had widened, with 32.1 per cent in 2004 and 43.6 per cent in 2008 of non-Maori gaining University Entrance.
Queen Charlotte College principal Tom Parsons said five of his year-13 Maori students were attending university next year, which was a high number.
The college, whose roll is 28 per cent Maori, did not focus on getting students into university, but rather getting students to achieve their personal best, he said.
Not all students had the potential or desire to go to university and parents as well as students just wanted a "good meaningful job that will see us through the bad times", he said.
Maori students' attendance levels could also be a factor in the low achievement rates, he said.
Marlborough Boys' College principal Wayne Hegarty said groups of Maori students at the school were performing, noting that the deputy head boy, former house leaders and four out of six student leaders were Maori. All staff received professional development on teaching strategies designed to support Maori students and had adopted Ministry of Education programmes such as Ka Hikitia, which aims to improve Maori achievement, he said.
He and Marlborough Girls' College principal Karen Stewart have also had meetings with Blenheim-based iwi and were in the early stages of creating an action plan looking at ways to keep students at school longer, he said.
What worked for Maori worked for all students, he said. "It's just common sense. As far as raising student achievement, we need to do it for everyone and the Maori students will achieve and develop as part of a whole," he said.
Ms Stewart said the Maori achievement at Marlborough Girls' College was above the national average, but the school was looking at improving that.
Students were working with staff to create a website for Maori students, which would include help with applying for scholarships, she said.
The ERO report, however, did note some improvement in the quality of teaching since 2006 and about half of the secondary schools showed improved NCEA results for Maori students since their previous review.
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