Garry Taylor
Garry Taylor is a nationally respected education consultant based in Canterbury, with over two decades of leadership in assessment design, facilitation, and evaluation.
Garry is approved to deliver Ministry of Education PLD in:
assessment
He also supports schools with:
assessment tools
assessment for learning
data analysis
curriculum and assessment development
moderation
Garry’s current role is Education Director – Curriculum and Assessment at Evaluation Associates | Te Huinga Kākākura Mātauranga. He leads a team of more than 20 consultants and oversees multiple Ministry of Education contracts. His work focuses on high‑impact national initiatives that strengthen curriculum and assessment capability to support effective teaching and learning.
Over the past five years, Garry has led and contributed to major strategic projects, including the NCEA co‑requisite pilot evaluation, the Year 7–8 mathematics and pāngarau acceleration trials, and the national support programmes for NCEA co‑requisites (LNSiS and Te Manu Ka Rere). He currently co‑leads the Targeted Assessment and Assessment National Lead projects and manages or sponsors several Mathematics initiatives, including the Year 0–6 and Year 7–8 Maths Acceleration Programmes.
For many years, Garry has led national projects focused on strengthening assessment practice across the system. This includes leading the national rollout of e‑asTTle training and support, Overall Teacher Judgement (OTJ) workshops, and implementation support for the Curriculum Progress Tools. He has authored Ministry‑commissioned reports on e‑asTTle, contributed to the Ministry of Education’s Assessment Position Paper in 2023, and continues to shape national practice through webinars, workshops, and sector publications. A founding member of the New Zealand Assessment Institute, Garry is widely recognised for his expertise in dependable, inclusive assessment practices.
Garry holds a Master of Education from the University of Tasmania, with a focus on curriculum and assessment in the New Zealand context. He also has a Diploma of Education Management, a Bachelor of Education (Measurement and Evaluation), and a Diploma of Teaching. His professional learning includes extensive training with leading assessment and educational thinkers such as Dylan Wiliam, Dr. Viviane Robinson, Helen Timperley, and Dr Selena Fisk.
Outside of his professional life, Garry is married with two sons. He enjoys fly fishing, golf, mountain biking, tramping, and boating.
Below are blog posts Garry has written to share his thinking with the education sector:
Generating accurate and meaningful assessment data on individual students and cohorts is vital to reduce disparity and boost achievement. Follow our top tips to ensure you assess well to reap the rewards that good data can deliver.
Have a think about the last time you deliberately had to learn something. What did you do to help you learn? What helped? What was most useful?
Teaching as inquiry, in my mind, is a relatively simple concept that has been made more complex and less effective by the perceived demands of compliance.