The Education Review Office (ERO) is a government department, set up to evaluate and report publicly on the quality of education provided in New Zealand schools and early childhood services. Its role encompasses accountability (including compliance with regulatory requirements), education improvement, and knowledge generation.

An ERO review looks at how an early learning service reaches positive learning outcomes – knowledge, skills, attitude and habits – for all children and young people.

When ERO visits they use a framework of indicators to externally assess the quality of our services. These indicators can be found in Te Ara Poutama – indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most (2020) and are designed to focus early childhood services and ERO evaluators on the things that matter most in contributing to children developing knowledge, skills, attitudes, dispositions and working theories that support lifelong learning. AKA uses the indicators in their internal evaluation and planning for improvement also.