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Moving towards quality
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1. Moving towards Quality Evaluation of Independent Schools School Self Review
Geoff Fretwell
2. Moving towards quality – a practical workshop for promoting quality and monitoring progress in Independent schools
3. Objective of workshops Consider the aspects and processes of school self review and your role in this;
Consider the effective use of quality and performance indicators as part of school self review;
Enhance your knowledge, skills and confidence in the use of quality and performance indicators;
Enhance your data collection, analysis and data usage skills ;
Enable you to introduce SSR into your school
4. Programme DAY 1 Understanding School Self Review
Understanding performance and quality
indicators
DAY 2 Using performance and quality indicators, rubrics and a school implementation profile
The school improvement cycle and
putting SSR into action in your school
5. DAY 1 What is school self review?
What are the purposes of school self review?
What are the expected outcomes?
How can we use school self review to improve and develop our schools?
6. Evaluation = School Self Review School Self Review (SSR) is an innovative approach to promoting and supporting school improvement in Independent Schools, placing self-evaluation at the heart of the process.
Schools are encouraged to draw on the results of their own evaluation of their practice and performance to assess the level of support they need.
7. The main purposes of SSR is to: Enable each school, with support from the SA’s or their SSO’s, to run an annual check on the standards and quality of education provided, based on continuous monitoring by the school during the preceding year;
Identify and build on each school’s strengths, as a means of helping every school get better and contributing to the learning of others;
Help the Independent Schools Office and the Professional Development Office identify Continuing Professional Development needs and to generate effective support for schools, and for individuals at differing stages of career development.
8. Encouraging all schools to raise standards; Encouraging schools to review what they are doing systematically, and to proceed to action on the basis of that analysis; Help schools to take greater control of the way they work and plan their future more independently; Embed habits of enquiry and reflection into the culture of the schools; Encourage schools to engage in a rolling programme of specific evaluations that will provide an accurate picture built up over time; Help self evaluation to have a direct impact on classroom practice.
9. SSR should support effective development planning by: Focusing on student progress and achievement;
Being manageable and realistic – as the process is planned and implemented by the school;
Enabling the Principal and senior staff to explain the school to the Operator and the Board of Trustees;
Connects individuals and teams to overall school self-evaluation – which is a pre-requisite of successful performance management;
Helping schools to plan to achieve realistic and genuinely challenging targets for improvement both inside and outside the classroom.
10. Additionally, SSR should help schools to identify, promote and disseminate good practice amongst their own staff as well as promoting and disseminating good practice for the benefit of the whole community of independent schools
11. The Expected Outcomes of School Self Review In order for Independent Schools to manage an effective change process, they need to know the stage of development that their school is at.
Through the school self review procedures; the operator, principal, senior staff and the Board of Trustees will be able to decide which of the categories that their school fits into at any one time.
12. Replies to these questions lead to the first step in re-energising the school’s shared vision; How well are our students progressing and achieving?
What will our students need to know and what skills do they need to develop for the 21st century?
How well do we meet our students’ needs now and in the future?
How do we change our current system to meet the potential needs of all students?
13. Introducing indicators Gathering together information about the quality of a school through the use of quality and performance indicators enables a school to focus on continuous improvement, to organize effective improvement plans and to sustain shared vision by building leadership capacity.
Therefore, teachers and leaders of Independent Schools will use a combination of the Performance Indicators (which measure performance at classroom and department level) and the Quality Indicators (which measure quality at school level) which will enable and assist the school in deciding whether they are:
14. The SSR approach concentrates on building capacity in schools It is about encouraging all schools, not just those causing concern, to raise standards;
It also encourages school to:
Review what they are doing systematically and to proceed to action on the basis of that analysis;
Take greater control of the way they work and plan their future more independently;
Embeds habits of enquiry and reflection into the culture of the schools;
Encourages schools to engage in a rolling programme of specific evaluations that will provide an accurate picture built up over time;
Helps self evaluation to have a direct impact on classroom practice.
15. SSR supports effective development planning Helps the Operator and Principal to choose priorities that:
Focus on pupil progress and achievement;
Prove manageable and few in number;
Are realistically planned over time.
16. SSR provides an explanatory tool Helps the Operator and Principal to explain how school policy is implemented and to provide evidence of progress and development to the Board of Trustees, parents and other stakeholders;
Connects individuals and teams to overall school self-evaluation, an important pre-requisite of successful performance management.
17. Introducing quality indicators: What are they?
How can we use them?
Introducing performance indicators:
What are they?
How can we use them?
Introducing rubrics and the implementation profile
18. What is a Quality Indicator? A Quality Indicator provides an indication as to the quality of the progress made by a school towards implementing its educational goals.
Quality Indicator = area of focus + evidence
19. What is the purpose of Quality Indicators? To identify the important processes and practices that enable a school to move forwards towards quality outcomes for students;
To describe what these processes and practices would be like when they are working well to enhance student achievement;
To promote monitor and support the progress each school is making towards implementing their educational plan and achieving their educational goals;
To illustrate how specific actions promote quality and those actions and processes that inhibit it;
To provide operators and principals with a useful resources for school improvement and self evaluation.
20. The structure of the Quality Indicators Quality Indicators can be applied to the following areas or aspects of a school’s operation:
Aspects
Professional Leadership and Management;
Curriculum Development;
Teaching Practice and Learning Resources;
Student Assessment and Reporting;
Student Behaviour and Classroom Management;
Professional Development;
Performance Management;
Parent and Community Relationships.
21. Rational Each aspect is underpinned by a rationale from international research and wise practice as to how this aspect contributes to quality outcomes for student achievement.
Focus Area
Each aspect is broken down further into relevant focus areas where evidence of the extent to which a school is moving towards quality can be found.
22. Possible evidence Examples of what evidence might be sought is provided for each focus area, however, it is important that the school collects actual samples of evidence, which could include along with hard data, records, reports and other documented evidence: descriptive narratives about the “way we do things around here”, executed decisions, strategic thinking and planning, action plans, samples of teachers’ and students’ work, video and digital footage, presentation, material, publicity, etc.
23. Rubrics The questions will form the basis of eliciting evidence and a set of rubrics for each question will assist in determining the degree of movement towards implementation and quality out comes for students in this area.
24. How can the quality indicators be used in schools? What evidence can we see that indicates significant progress towards:
achieving our vision and mission?
effective communication and professional leadership?
improved student learning?
positive student attitudes and behaviours?
improved pedagogy for learning?
positive staff relationships?
improved staff effectiveness?
positive interaction with parents and the community?
25. There are four levels within the continuum for use in establishing the implementation profile of the school at each phase of development. Profile scores
Level 1 – little or no evidence;
Level 2 – some evidence;
Level 3 – mostly in place;
Level 4 – widespread and fully operational throughout the school.
26. TASK Look at the 4 areas of rational and the questions in aspect 1 (Professional leadership and management) in the Quality Indicators;
Consider the professional leadership and management (at all levels) in your school;
Use the aspect 1 rubric to help you make a judgement about each rational and the questions;
Record you judgement on aspect 1 Implementation Profile
27. How a school leader or coordinator can use SSR When evaluating issues at school level use the quality indicators to help you make an evaluation of the school’s or department’s or age phases progress and development within a particular aspect or aspects – you cannot look at all aspects on each visit;
When evaluating classroom practice, (teaching and learning) use the performance indicators to help you make an evaluation of what is happening within that classroom – you cannot look at all aspects on each monitoring visit or observation.
28. What are performance indicators Performance indicators help you or members of staff within a school to evaluate the quality of the teaching and learning performance. These indicators look at:
Planning; Teaching process;
Students’ learning; Meeting student needs;
Assessment as part of teaching;
Reporting students’ progress.
29. Implementation Profile Keep a profile sheet on each of the 8 quality indicator aspects for your school – use the performance indicators to support your evaluation of classroom practice;
Use the rubrics to help you make a judgement and record on the continuum – level 1 (low) to level 4(high);
Complete the notes and comments – factors assisting implementation and factors limiting implementation – provide confidential developmental feedback to Principal or the relevant person.
30. Thank you
Please bring all of the materials from today with you tomorrow
Please be on time tomorrow
31. DAY 2 Programme Practical activities to build confidence and skill in using quality indicators and performance indicators
Practical activities to assist you in thinking about how you could use the data that you collect
32. How a school leader or coordinator can use SSR When evaluating issues at school level use the quality indicators to help you make an evaluation of the school’s or department’s or age phases progress and development within a particular aspect or aspects – you cannot look at all aspects on each visit;
When evaluating classroom practice, (teaching and learning) use the performance indicators to help you make an evaluation of what is happening within that classroom – you cannot look at all aspects on each monitoring visit or observation.
33. Task Look at aspect 3 (Teaching practice and learning resources) of the quality indicators;
Choose one subject (e.g. science or maths);
Look at aspect 3 rubric to answer the questions;
Consider the practice in your school;
Evaluate the practice in your school against the rubrics;
Record on aspect 3 implementation profile
34. The quality indicators could be used in a variety of ways by different people. For instance they could be used to: Review priorities and assist in determining the strategic direction of a school in which case:
at the beginning of each semester;
prior to preparing the Annual Report
Identify areas for targeted support and professional development:
prior to the time of performance management and as part of the performance management cycle;
as part of the routine visits by the School Adviser.
35. How could we use these quality indicators? As a useful tool for:
data gathering, observation and developmental feedback;
developing an Implementation Profile that provides evidence of progress towards educational goals.
36. What is the implementation profile? This is the profile of a particular area in a school where the processes and practices are being observed to see how progress is being achieved and to what extent the school is moving towards quality in the aspect.
The Implementation Profile sheets are templates for recording observations and feedback based on the focus questions. Each question is related to a specific focus area and is designed to elicit various kinds of evidence.
The choice as to which focus areas within an aspect are appropriate to monitor and evaluate will be determined by the user and the needs to the school or department. Not all focus questions need to be employed every time. Over a period of time a school will work its way through all the areas of the focus.
37. How do we assign a position on the continuum towards quality using the rubrics? The Implementation Profile has a continuum based on four levels that helps in determining the position in the snapshot in time where the observer decides the extent to which that indicator is being implement.
Each observer is making a subjective decision based on the evidence and assisted by the rubric related to that focus area and question.
38. The important aspect of this tool is the comparability factor. What matters is that the decisions based at one stage need to be considered the very next time an observation or snapshot is taken. Different people will have different ideas about what the following key words in the rubric imply about the various degrees of quality. For instance “little evidence of” or “some evidence of” or “clear evidence” or “widespread and convincing” are all terms that have relative meanings. Part of this exercise is to assist teachers and school leaders in being able to validate their professional opinion and to seek clarification as to the level or degree of implementation based on best evidence from research and wise practice.
39. Task Read the illustration from the performance indicators on teaching;
Watch video and use the illustrations to help you evaluate the lesson;
Record your evaluation on part 1 of Form B;
With your partner agree on the feedback that you will give to the teacher and record on part 2 of Form B
40. Task One of you will give the feedback to one person in another pair;
The people not involved will observe
Change roles;
All four of you now discuss how the feedback could be improved;
Agree what you would do with the data from an observation, undertaken in your school.
41. Use a range of evidence Documentation is only one kind of evidence. Qualitative and quantitative data is only useful if it can be interpreted for the purpose of improving the school. Teacher and parent feedback, narratives, portfolios, surveys, and interviews are all ways of providing useful evidence. Students must not be overlooked as a rich source of evidence in terms of checking assumptions about the uptake of learning in certain areas. All these ways provide rich evidence of the ways in which the processes and practices are being implemented.
42. Review Considering the implications for introducing and using SSR in your school;
Understanding the place of SSR in the school improvement cycle;
The roles and responsibilities of the management team in your school and their place in SSR;
What next?
44. Task What do you believe is the role of the following people in introducing and implementing SSR?
Role? Activities?
Operator / Principal
Academic Vice Principal
Other members of senior management team
Professional Development coordinator
Assessment coordinator
Special needs coordinator
Subject coordinators
45. Role and activities of Principal Role
Responsible for introducing SSR
Responsible for ensuring SMT are implementing SSR;
Responsible for ensuring that the data is analysed, discussed and used with a range of stakeholders. Activities
Talk with SMT and agree a plan for introduction;
Ensure that data from SSR are discussed regularly at SMT meetings;
Use emerging data to support future planning decisions;
Present outcomes of data to BoT
46. Role and activities of Principal (cont) Role
Responsible for implementing SSR;
Responsible for ensuring that it works effectively;
Responsible for ensuring that the data is used appropriately Activities
Identify the first subject or aspect for monitoring and evaluation;
Draw up a timetable over a two year period;
Ensure that all staff know and understand about SSR;
Ensure that those staff who will carry out SSR have had appropriate training;
Ensure that the data is used effectively and is presented at SMT meetings;
Prepare regular reports on how SSR is being carried out and how data is being used.
47. Role and activities of Academic VP and other members of SMT Role
Help Principal to introduce and train all staff – especially those who will carry out SSR;
Be responsible for specific parts/aspects of the process;
Monitor and support the implementation. Activities
Assist Principal in drawing up timetable;
Agree with Principal on the observational tools to be used (QI or PI or both?)
Mentor, coach and support the coordinator(s) who will first use SSR – to carry out their role, to provide developmental feedback and to analyse data;
Evaluate how well it has worked and what needs to be done to improve it.
48. Role and responsibilities of the coordinators Role
To work with SMT to plan how SSR will be carried out in their area of responsibility;
Implement SSR in the classrooms and department;
Present a report of findings to SMT Activities
To be trained to carry out role;
Carry out classroom evaluation using PI;
Carry out departmental or age phase evaluation using QI;
Compile Implementation Profile;
Analyse data;
Compile report on strengths, weaknesses, areas for improvement and recommendations – for SMT (with copy of Implementation Profile and copies of PI Form B).
49. Roles of boards, operators/principals Boards: advisory and quality assurance body:
Advise on strategic & operational planning;
Advise on policy making
Monitor (quality assurance)
Communicate with parents, staff and public;
Advocate
Operators:
Provide leadership and organisational management for the total operation;
Advised by BoT – responsible for the strategic direction & policies;
Principals:
Responsible for implementing policies and the day to day management of the school.
50. The board’s legal and financial responsibilities Advising on the purpose and establishing mission;
Advising on the setting of policy;
Working with the Operator to communicate the mission and achievements to the larger community;
Maintaining school integrity and accountability by carrying out quality assurance;
Effectively advising the Operator on the planning (ensuring mission is carried out);
Part of the complaints and grievance procedures for parents and staff;
Oversight and supporting the Operator;
Cultivating resources, raising funds and contributing to the bottom line;
Meeting fiduciary responsibilities;
Recruiting volunteers and exercising ongoing self-management.
52. SWOT analysis of your school
53. Action plan to introduce SSR in your school
54. Activities that you may need to consider when drawing up your action plan Introducing the idea to your operator, or principal or SMT;
Introducing the idea to the whole staff – how & when?;
Training the SMT and coordinators – who & when?;
Drawing up the timetable and identifying priorities – to get you started;
Who will monitor (and how) the process once it has begun?
Who will analyse the data and what will they (you) do with it?
How and when will you explain this to the BoT?
55. Summary of the two days and a reminder of what you have been working on – Learning outcomes Considered the aspects and processes of school self review and your role in this;
Considered the effective use of quality and performance indicators as part of school self review;
Enhanced your knowledge, skills and confidence in the use of quality and performance indicators;
Enhanced your data collection, analysis and data usage skills ;
Enabled yourself to introduce SSR into your school
