The New Zealand Ministry of Education expects secondary schools to make effective use of assessment information (Ministry of Education, 2011) to guide student learning and achievement. This expectation is not unique to New Zealand. The quest for more effective data use in schools has been growing in popularity throughout the globe. My study investigates how New Zealand secondary schools are responding to the challenge of using data from the New Zealand Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) to shape their teaching and learning strategies.

A pragmatist paradigm is applied to my study. This includes a mixing of both qualitative and quantitative research methods including a national online survey and semi-structured interviews. This required a form of paradigmatic pluralism, a mixing of both qualitative and quantitative methods, achieved by engaging in an explanatory sequential mixed method research design. This approach enabled a broad view of the landscape of assessment information use across a wide range of New Zealand schools. This is then followed by a narrowing of focus to explore the process of assessment information use in greater detail by focussing on a small number of case study schools.

The findings reveal inconsistent use of NCEA assessment information and considerable frustration and dissatisfaction from school leaders and teachers. Challenges such as data literacy, the tension between accountability and professional development, and capacity to engage with NCEA assessment information are interrogated. The layers of leadership and the impact they have on NCEA assessment information use in New Zealand are also examined.

My study aids in expanding understanding of how the process of NCEA assessment use is complex and multifaceted. NCEA assessment information use is perhaps even more complex than the education sector is currently aware. Recommendations are presented to guide practice, including a model to assist school leaders in New Zealand make effective use of NCEA assessment information. This model is built upon the foundation of the DIKW hierarchy and uses data conversation protocols, along with a visual representation of the contributing factors, to show how NCEA assessment information can be transformed from data to actionable wisdom. Although my study is firmly rooted in a local context, the results have implications for the wider challenges that school leaders face in terms of expectations to leverage nationally collected data for enhancing student learning and achievement.