Our team

Michael Absolum

Director

Michael is the director of Evaluation Associates. He has held positions as a teacher, a psychologist, and with the education review office. For the last 15 years he has consulted to schools and the wider education system. He has led many highly successful professional development programmes.

Currently he is directing the Consortium for Professional Learning (CPL) Leadership and Assessment PLD in the Ministry of Education's Southern, Central South and Northern regions. This is an innovative whole school programme designed to support school leadership to accelerate student achievement, particularly for Māori, Pasifika and students with special education needs.

Michael is a thought leader in assessment for learning. He is the author of ‘Clarity in the Classroom’ which is recognised by teachers as the best New Zealand text on assessment for learning. He has a deep knowledge of the education system and a profound understanding of what it takes to lead an effective school, create inspired and inspiring teachers, and enable students to become powerful, engaged learners.

Michael has a master’s degree in science and a post-graduate diploma in educational psychology from Auckland University.

He is currently learning about what it takes to ensure a cohesive, engaged, stable, scientifically literate, technologically advanced democracy.

Michael is passionate about addressing inequality in educational delivery. The question occupying his mind at present is: How do we get the best teachers to work with the kids who find it hardest to learn?

When he switches off he hits golf balls, cycles, drinks good wine and catches fish. And laughs.

Michael's three key skills are

• programme evaluation and organisational problem analysis
• building understanding of the belief framework behind all effective teaching and learning
• coaching others to be courageous in their conversations.

Garry Taylor

Facilitator

Garry has a background in primary and intermediate teaching including middle management and principal experience. Before working for Evaluation Associates, Garry was a facilitator for the Assess to Learn programme for six years, and he has also been an adviser in ICT.

He has excellent understanding of assessment for learning, data analysis and use of assessment tools. He is co-national coordinator for e-asTTle professional development.

Garry’s strengths in facilitation and analysis enable him to work closely with schools to develop practical and coherent systems, processes and programmes to promote and support student learning. He is able to link theory and research to practical application.

Garry has a Dip Teaching, B Ed, Dip of Ed Management and has recently completed a Master of Education. He is currently focussing on improving his knowledge and skills in building relational trust and educational leadership with an emphasis on developing effective strategic plans, targets and charters.

Garry loves going on caravanning holidays with his wife and family. His two sons are currently at primary school. Garry has a number of sporting interests. He loves football despite playing it poorly, catches the odd trout on the fly rod, and has been a keen golfer since the age of 8.

Garry's three key skills are:

• shaping and personalising learning with schools
• developing and sharing practical ways of using formative assessment
• making sense of data and using it to improve learning.

Allan Powell

Facilitator

Allan is an experienced educator who has worked as a classroom teacher, senior teacher and music specialist in the primary sector. He has supported the learning of students, teachers and leaders as a facilitator for Evaluation Associates for the last seven years.

Allan is an astute thinker who works collaboratively to find sensible ways to effectively meet the learning needs of schools and their communities. He works with schools and clusters of schools in a number of areas including assessment for learning capability, leadership capability, effective communication and feedback, and school review. He has expertise in analysing student achievement data and writing data reports and he has a particular interest and strength in literacy teaching and learning.

Allan has a Bachelor of Music Education from Auckland University. He is currently enrolled in post-graduate studies in facilitation at Auckland University. He has worked as a tutor and marker for post-graduate papers in Open-to-Learning conversations.

Allan hails from the north, growing up in Whangarei. He has, however, lived in Auckland for 15 years now, and calls the North Shore home. He’s renowned for his effective use of annual leave, often disappearing to international destinations. He is also a keen (if not skilled) golfer.

Allan’s three key skills are:

• analytical thinking
• establishing positive, supportive relationships
• coaching in effective communication.

Ann Anaru

Facilitator

Ko Tauhara te maunga, Ko Taupo te moana, Ko Onekeneke te awa, Ko Ngati Tuwharetoa te iwi. Ann also has iwi affiliations to Te Arawa and Ngati Kahungunu.

Ann has a strong background in facilitating professional learning. She has previously held positions as a professional development director in USA and a primary school deputy principal.

Building strong learning communities within and across schools is a high priority for Ann, particularly when the focus is on low achieving students. She is skilled at supporting schools to collect and analyse student achievement data and to use it to inform teaching and learning.

Ann has a Dip Ed and Dip Teaching from Waikato University. She is currently learning more about facilitating professional learning conversations with teachers and principals using research-based theory and practices.

When she’s not walking to keep fit, Ann enjoys delving into her family whakapapa and discovering interesting stories and family connections.

Ann’s three key skills are:

• supporting teachers to become more culturally responsive
• coaching and mentoring
• supporting schools and kura to gather, analyse, and use assessment information to improve learning.

Barbara-Anne Alexander

Facilitator

Barbara-Anne’s teaching background is in primary education. She has taught all primary year levels and has held the position of team leader.

Barbara-Anne has worked as a facilitator for the past six years, supporting schools in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty to enhance teacher practice.

She is passionate about using evidence to inform teaching and learning, and building learning-focused relationships at all levels of the school. Her strengths are in literacy and assessment for learning. She has helped teachers achieve excellent results in increasing student engagement and raising achievement in literacy.

Barbara-Anne has a Bachelor of Education and is currently working towards a post- graduate diploma in facilitation. She is a reflective practitioner, continually up-skilling to ensure she remains current with the latest educational research.

Barbara-Anne is an avid reader. She enjoys all manner of crafts and spending quality time with her family.

Barbara-Anne’s three key skills are:

• building professional learning communities in and across schools
• designing intervention strategies to raise and maintain student engagement and achievement
• supporting teachers to strengthen their teaching of literacy.

Sue Leslie

Manager North Island

Sue’s background is in science teaching and leadership in secondary education. She is currently the Programme Leader for CPL’s Leadership and Assessment professional learning and development programme.

Sue has excellent understanding of effective pedagogy for secondary school teachers. She supports teachers to examine and improve their pedagogical approach in all curriculum areas.

With a keen interest in data, Sue leads professional development in the e-asTTle assessment tool throughout the country. She uses her deep knowledge of data analysis to support schools to use evidence for reporting to boards of trustees and senior leaders. More importantly she supports teachers to use data to inform their planning for teaching and learning.

Sue has a BSc (Hons) from Victoria University and a Post Grad Dip Bus Admin from Massey University. She is currently completing her Masters in Management at Massey University, investigating the professional learning of leaders. She is a registered teacher.

Her interests lie in sport and recreation and she is an avid follower of netball and rugby. She walks, cycles and swims and has completed a triathlon. She is also a keen reader – both fiction and nonfiction.

Sue’s three key skills are:

• an ability to engage people in a project and/or professional learning
• focusing on both the big picture of a project and the detail which supports it
• analysing, interpreting and presenting data in a manner that is meaningful to the client.

Steve Edwards

Manager South Island

Steve has worked in both primary and secondary schools, facilitating leadership and assessment based PLD programmes. His previous positions include: primary school principal, Assess to Learn (AtoL) Director and MoE National Assessment Senior Adviser.

Steve has recently established our Christchurch branch of Evaluation Associates. He is currently delivering leadership and assessment PLD programmes to schools across the South Island.

Steve’s knowledge and understanding of formative assessment, the NZ Curriculum and school leadership enables him to work with schools across a range of areas. Using these abilities he tailors each school's PLD programme to meet its needs. Steve has contributed resource material to the MoE on topics including the National Standards and successful PLD projects.

He has a Trained Teachers Certificate and is completing his B.Ed. He holds a Teacher's Registration Certificate. Currently he’s been learning from Viviane Robinson (University of Auckland) about Open to Learning Conversations. This has had a practical impact on his facilitation role.

Steve has an interest in many sports and actively participates in motor racing, basketball coaching and distance running. Having two sporty teenage children means family time involves competitions, tournaments and sports practices.

Steve’s three key skills are:

• strategic planning and systems development
• linking education research to school and teacher practice
• coaching leaders and teachers to improve student learning and achievement.

Adrienne Carlisle

Facilitator

Adrienne’s background is in secondary English teaching and middle management. She has an abiding interest in language and literature and an unshakeable confidence in their educative value.

For the past several years she has been working with secondary schools in the Auckland, Waikato and Northland regions to develop their assessment for learning and leadership capabilities, providing theoretical learning and practical support for classroom teachers, middle managers and senior leadership teams. She also provides skilled support for schools in the use of the e-asTTle assessment tool and the analysis of student achievement data. 



Her writing and editing skills have led to her role as facilitator for Assessment Online on the Ministry of Education network of websites, Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI), under contract to CWA New Media. This involves researching and writing content, editing all material and on-line communication. The emphasis is on clarity and accessibility. Other current involvement is with a National Standards resource for Gifted and Talented TKI, and the new e-asTTle writing tool under development. 



Adrienne is an analytical thinker who is at ease with both abstract ideas and their practical application. She sees her role, in all its facets, as helping schools to translate the accumulation of educational policy and research into practice and so support them to improve teaching and learning. 



Adrienne likes to read and to talk, and spends some time thinking about exercise. 



Adrienne’s three key skills are:

• analytical thinking and writing
• the practical application of abstract ideas
• deep knowledge of language and literature

Judy Munro-Keene

Facilitator

Judy comes from a background which includes teaching and managing at primary, intermediate and secondary levels. Now in her ninth year with the company, she provides professional development in Assessment for Learning in Auckland and the Waikato, in mainstream and special schools. Her recent work includes leading the Narrative Assessment Project for ORRS students. She is recognised by schools she has worked with as having excellent facilitation skills, broad curriculum knowledge and a deep understanding of Assessment for Learning.

Judy has a B.Ed from Waikato University and a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management from UNITEC Institute of Technology. She presented a workshop at the 2010 ACEL conference in Sydney.

She is secretary of NZEALS Auckland, a non-profit organisation that supports the development and networking of leaders in education. 

Judy is interested in the arts, and in leading a healthy life. She is a keen sailor and rues the day she and her husband sold their yacht. She enjoys travel and takes a keen interest in opportunities to broaden her horizons in this direction.

Judy’s three key skills are:

• deep understanding of Assessment for Learning theory and practice
• facilitating teacher learning in Narrative Assessment and e-asttle
• broad curriculum knowledge.

Brenda Weal

Facilitator

Brenda is an experienced facilitator who is currently working with schools in the areas of leadership and assessment. She has facilitated programmes in Technology Yrs 1-10, the implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum, and inquiry learning, and she has provided support for provisionally registered teachers.

Brenda has an excellent understanding of how children learn. She has taught all levels and areas of the curriculum from early childhood to Year 8. She has also taught technology as a specialist in Years 7 – 10.

Brenda has an MSc from the University of Waikato. Her thesis researched educational partnerships between full primary schools and technology providers. She has presented findings from her thesis at conferences in New Zealand, Australia and Wales and has had papers published internationally. Recently, she co-authored a paper on National Standards that explains, in plain English, how the wider curriculum can be used to support the standards. This has been published in New Zealand and Australia. Brenda is currently enrolled in post-graduate studies in facilitation.

Brenda’s great loves are food, fabric and family. She is known for creating memorable food for others, crafting original works from fabric and sharing special times with family.

Brenda’s three key skills are:

• a deep understanding of how children learn
• the ability to form learning-focused relationships with a wide range of people
• seeing potential in others and actively supporting them to succeed.

Melissa Nelson

Facilitator

Melissa is a part-time facilitator in the Bay of Plenty region. She is a practising teacher and school leader who brings current classroom experience to her role at EA.

Melissa has an excellent understanding of quality classroom practice and the systems school leaders need to develop the capabilities of their teaching staff. Her curriculum strengths are in literacy and numeracy in the primary sector.

Melissa is skilled at engaging teachers in new learning and has the ability to ‘cut to the chase’ to find practical, research- based solutions to problems.

Melissa recently completed her Bachelor of Teaching and is undertaking further study towards a Masters degree in Educational Leadership in 2012.

Melissa enjoys life with her four active kids and spends her spare time taxiing them from one sports field to the next. She loves camping and boating at the lake in the summer.

Melissa’s three key skills are:

• establishing positive and supportive relationships to support assessment for learning
• finding practical evidence-based solutions to problems
• developing teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical skills in literacy and numeracy.

Jasmine Teina

Office Manager

Jasmine comes from a background in the advertising/media industry. She has held the position of Advertising Coordinator at Fairfax Magazines and at an independent media agency, before taking a year off work after the birth of her first child in 2010.

Jasmine is very enthusiastic about the service Evaluation Associates provides to schools throughout New Zealand. She enjoys the front-line work and day to day organising of the EA office.

In her spare time Jasmine runs a fashion website. She loves playing indoor netball and summer touch.

Jasmine’s three key skills are:

• creative marketing
• communication
• planning and organising.