Michael Absolum is a principal consultant at Evaluation Associates Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand, where he directs a successful professional development program for schools and teachers. The program focuses on shaping and developing teachers’ ability to help students improve their levels of achievement, as well as encouraging positive change in the learning culture of their schools. Before becoming interested in improving student achievement levels, particularly of underperforming students, he spent many years as a teacher, an educational psychologist, and a reviewer with the Education Review Office. send this link