Introduction to the SeriesWritten by Susila Davis and Pamela Sammons

Pathways Research Series: Understanding Effective School Improvement

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ContentsSchool improvement in context ...................................................... 2

Applications of school improvement ..................... 2

A word on educational achievement and change ...... 3

About the authorsSusila Davis is currently studying for a doctorate in education at the University of Oxford. Her focus is on practitioner engagement with school improvement and Pathways. Her other research areas involve youth programmes and alternative education provision. Susila was also a research and data analyst for several years at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

Professor Pamela Sammons is a professor of education at the University of Oxford. Pam has been involved in educational research for the last 30 years with a special focus on the topics of school effectiveness and improvement, leadership and equity in education. She spent 11 years at the

Institute of Education at the University of London (1993–2004) and she has acted as a consultant

on school effectiveness and improvement to the Department for Education and Ofsted.

1

“Without change there is no

innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement.

Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is

inevitable.1”

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School improvement in context

“ Analysis reveals ... that despite their different contexts, all improving school systems appear to adopt a similar set of interventions, one that is appropriate to their stage of the journey. This is not to say that context is not important, but it is secondary to getting the fundamentals right.” 2

This series of guides explores the concept of ‘school improvement’, focusing on what the research evidence tells us, the historical background and principles behind school improvement theory and practice, and what some of the key implications are for educational practitioners. We also examine the concept of ‘school effectiveness’, what it means and how it may feature during the various stages of school improvement. We attempt to highlight how links may be made with Pathways’ four-step system and its proposed strategies in supporting schools on their improvement ‘journeys’.

Schools are also organisations. Sometimes the preoccupation with so many children, with the odds and ends of schooling, with the dramas of young people’s lives and all their emotions, can blind one to the fact that all the things are happening within an organisation that is itself bound by the laws of other organisations ... Always there is the human dimension that is part of the fascination of working in a school; the opportunity to be involved in the daily experiences of people – their frailties and their joys, their values and their growth ... It is a society in miniature. It is an organisation as well as a school.3

Applications of school improvementFirst, we will outline some of the aims, purposes and processes associated with school improvement and its links with school effectiveness. Next, the different phases of school improvement that form the basis of the Pathways model will be discussed. Along the way, we also touch on the various roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders and implications for practice. This piece is presented mainly as a ‘whistle-stop tour’ of the main ideas behind key concepts and examples of effective practice, as opposed to a ‘comprehensive review’. We hope that the themes highlighted here will lead to a richer understanding of the potential applications of school improvement and provide sources of reflection and inspiration towards strategies that may be implemented within your own school.

The evidence base outlined here attempts to offer a mini tour of the key ‘landmarks’ associated with school improvement and its links with school effectiveness and self-evaluation research. Connections between some of the underlying principles of these areas have also been made with the Pathways four-step system.

In this series, we will also discuss what is meant by capacity building, strategic planning, the use of data and leadership within the realms of educational change and effective practice.

Specifically, we look at the potential benefits of understanding a variety of different data sources and recognising the value of particular data sets for specific purposes. Within the remit of securing and managing data within schools, we discuss the role of leadership and its different meanings. Research evidence over the years has indicated that the overall performance of a school and its stakeholders is closely connected to leadership and the particular cultures developed within schools. We then review some of the features of effective leadership and ‘strong claims’ associated with successful leadership including its influences on pupil learning, the basic repertoire of leadership practices, leadership through influence and motivation, the distribution of leadership and the influence of personal traits.

We move on to explore the potential links between the fields of school improvement and school effectiveness, i.e. in order to understand the effectiveness of an educational institution, it is important to also be able

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to understand the processes, sequence of events and their associated interplay that may have led to particular outcomes. We discuss the use of a framework for ‘effective school improvement’ that can act as a useful tool in the design and implementation of school improvement projects. Part of the cycle of improvement, also inherent in the Pathways four-step system, includes the process of self-evaluation and reflection. Self-evaluation is put forward as a multidimensional set of activities that can serve a variety of purposes. Some key questions to ask during the evaluation process are listed, including a school’s current state, a review of the relationship between self-evaluation and external inspection, questioning the capacity for change as well as resources and leadership within the school.

We see how the school improvement movement emerged from a recognition that schools have a capacity to make a difference to the achievements and life-chances of students. Recent times have seen a shift from prescription-type programmes towards democratic-leaning and context-specific forms of school improvement that offer a more holistic approach to raising students’ attainment and progress. Key to these is capacity building, i.e. generating experiences and opportunities for educational practitioners that enable students to achieve better outcomes, and teachers to develop their professional expertise and knowledge via the means of shared communities of practice.

“We have the best generation of teachers and school leaders ever, and the improvement in the number of schools judged good or outstanding this year has been hugely encouraging. In the year ahead, I’ll look forward to working with the teaching profession to secure even higher standards for all our children – not just the lucky ones.” 4

“ Educators in a moderately performing system would be better off in seeking inspiration from similar systems that are managing to improve, rather than from those that are configured and positioned very differently, even if they are the world’s best-performing ones ... Each performance stage is associated with a dominant cluster of interventions, irrespective of geography, culture, or political system ... While the context does influence

the emphasis and combination of interventions the system chooses from within this cluster, the intervention pattern is strikingly consistent for systems pursuing similar outcomes.” 5

A word on educational achievement and changeIt has been conceded that we now have extensive knowledge derived from empirical research about ‘what works’, but this knowledge is not applied broadly enough in order to yield widespread improved student outcomes.6 However, we can say that, over time, educational achievement has increased dramatically around the globe, sometimes within relatively short periods. There are differences in performance within schools and classrooms and between schools, indicating that effective practices have yielded potentially powerful results (even after controlling for socio-economic and demographic factors); and interventions in individual schools have regularly (but not always) generated positive outcomes.7

We began this introduction with the idea of schools as ‘organisations’. We would like to leave readers with the notion that schools are more than places that provide a means to acquire qualifications. School communities have the potential to act as collaborative, inclusive and empowering8 participants in students’ and educational practitioners’ futures. A heightened understanding of available research evidence allows us to appreciate the different capabilities and facilities provided by school improvement that can lead to effective educational change. We hope that this piece has given you sufficient background in order to reflect on and develop your own practice and, above all, ask more questions.

“ For a long time, there has been the realisation that better education is the key to societal and global productivity and personal and social well-being. Only recently are we beginning to see that interest turn into specific questions about how you actually go about whole system reform. What pathways, from what starting points, are going to get results in reasonably short time frames? How do we actually ‘raise the bar and close the gap’ for all students?” 9

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A Guide to Understanding Effective School Improvement: Introduction to the Series

1 Pollard, C. W. (1996) The Soul of the Firm. USA: HarperCollins2 Handy, C. and Aitken, R. (1994) ‘The organisation of the primary school’, In: A. Pollard and J. Bourne. (eds.) Teaching and Learning in the Primary School, London:

Routledge, pp. 239–249.3 Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C. and Barber, M. (2010) How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better. London: McKinsey & Company.4 TES Connect, Opinion, Sir Michael Wilshaw: ‘A good education should not be down to luck’, 2013, http://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2013/12/13/quot-a-good-

education-should-not-be-down-to-luck-quot.aspx5 Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C. and Barber, M. (2010) Op. cit.6 Levin, B. (2012) ‘Innovation, transformation and improvement in school reform’. In: C. Chapman, P. Armstrong, A. Harris, D. Muijs, D. Reynolds and P. Sammons.

(eds.) School Effectiveness and Improvement Research, Policy and Practice: Challenging the orthodoxy? Oxon: Routledge. pp. 220–229.7 Levin, B. (2012) Op. cit.8 Harris, A. (2002) School Improvement: What’s in it for schools? New York: RoutledgeFalmer.9 Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C. and Barber, M. (2010) Op. cit.

Endnotes