School ID: Date: Principal Interview Form-MoE … · School ID: Date: _____ Principal Interview...

School ID: Date: __________

Principal Interview Form-MoE Schools

Informed Consent Script My name is _____________________, and I work for the RAND Corporation, a private, nonprofit, public policy research institute. At the request of the Supreme Education Council (SEC), we’re conducting a study on schools in Qatar. The aim of the study is to understand how schools in Qatar are performing. As part of the study, RAND is conducting interviews with principals at a number of schools in Qatar. These interviews will concentrate on what your school is like and how it might be different from other schools you have worked at. The discussion today is confidential. We will not include your names or any other identifying information about you in our future discussions or written reports, and will destroy notes and information linking you to specific comments at the end of the project. Taking part in this interview is voluntary. If you agree to participate, you should feel free to skip any questions that you prefer not to answer, or stop the interview at any time. You may also designate specific comments as “off the record,” and they will not be recorded at all. We appreciate your participation and hope you will share your honest thoughts with us. Do you have any questions before we begin?* * If researchers are asked about their affiliation: “We are researchers at RAND, a nonprofit institution based in California that has worked on education policy around the world for more than three decades. RAND is a contractor working for the Supreme Education Council.”


Principal Interview Form-MoE Schools Page 1

Preamble: We are here to learn from your experiences. We want to know what you did, what challenges you encountered, what solutions you developed to solve them and what kinds of challenges you anticipate facing in the future. We are NOT here to evaluate you or your school. Rather we want to see what sorts of approaches are working and what hasn’t worked well, so we can advise the SEC how they might help all schools reach their goals of the best possible education for students. School __________________________ Grade Levels Included __________________ Introduction 1. How long have you been a principal? 2. How long have you been a principal at this school? 3. How engaged and interested are students at this school in learning? 4. How many counselors, vice principals, and other support staff are there in this school?



5. How are these counselors, vice principals, and other support staff used? (Get numbers for each category below.)

• Behavior management (e.g., monitor arrivals, restrooms–maybe assigned to sections of school)

• Direct help to students with academic problems (e.g., students referred by teachers, spend lots of time with parents and struggling students)

• Disciplinary work (e.g., students referred who have unexcused absences or are tardy, spends lots of time with parents and misbehaving students)

• Support to teachers (e.g., how to motivate students, engage parents) • Other (describe): ________________________________________

6. Do you feel your teachers have received adequate professional development in the following domains?

a) Their teaching abilities / pedagogical styles? b) Their curriculum planning and development c) Their relationship with the other teachers, your students, you (the principal)?

7. Who provided this professional development?



8. What professional development programs do teachers at this school currently receive? 9. Do teachers provide each other with teaching support? If YES, is this done informally or on a more formal basis? 10. Have you heard of the new curriculum standards in Arabic, English, Math, and Science? If YES, what is your opinion of the new curriculum standards? How do they compare to the standards underlying the MoE curriculum? 11. If YES, have you encouraged your teachers to align curriculum to the new curriculum standards in their classes? If YES, have your teachers received any professional development to help them implement the new standards? If YES, who provided it? Was it helpful? If NO, why not?



12. Do you recognize teachers for special efforts? In what form is the recognition provided? 13. Have you tried to change the school’s approach to student learning, teacher creativity in the classroom, or parental involvement? If YES:

a) What have you done to impact student learning? How successful have these efforts been? b) What have you done to increase teacher creativity in the classroom? How successful have

these efforts been? c) What have you done to improve parental involvement? How successful have these efforts

been? 14. How does the school make information available to parents (e.g., bulletin board, newsletter, letters, text messaging, e-mails, website)? 15. What have you heard about the Independent Schools? 16. Would you consider being a principal at an Independent School? PROBE: What would have to happen / change to make being an IS principal an appealing prospect?

Teacher Focus Group—MoE Informed Consent Script

My name is _____________________, and I work for the RAND Corporation, a private, nonprofit, public policy research institute. At the request of the Supreme Education Council (SEC), we’re conducting a study on schools in Qatar. The aim of the study is to understand how schools in Qatar are performing. As part of the study, RAND is conducting focus groups with teachers at a number of schools in Qatar. These focus groups will concentrate on what your school is like, how it might be different from other schools you have taught at, and what you like or dislike about your school. The discussion today is confidential. We will not include your names or any other identifying information about you in our future discussions or written reports, and will destroy notes and information linking you to specific comments at the end of the project. We ask that you not discuss comments made by others after this session is over. Taking part in this focus group is voluntary. If you do not want to participate, you may leave now. If you agree to participate, you should feel free to skip any questions that you prefer not to answer, or leave the group at any time. You may also designate specific comments as “off the record,” and they will not be recorded at all. We appreciate your participation and hope you will share your honest thoughts with us. Do you have any questions before we begin?* * If researchers are asked about their affiliation: “We are researchers at RAND, a nonprofit institution based in California that has worked on education policy around the world for more than three decades. RAND is a contractor working for the Supreme Education Council.”


MoE School Teacher Focus Group Form Page 1

Grade Levels Included ________ Subjects Included ______________ 1. How many of you are new to teaching? 2. Which subjects do you teach? 3. How many hours a week do you spend in the classroom? 4. How much time do you spend preparing for class each week? (Interviewer: please check off responses to above four questions in grid below)

Teacher

# of Years This

School

# of Years Other

Schools Subject # Hours/Week

Teaching # Hours/Week Preparation

1 2 3 4 5

5. How much time do you spend each week doing other things besides classroom instruction and preparation? 6. Comparing your previous teaching experiences to this one, are there differences in:

a) Conditions of work: time, burden/ teaching load and pay and benefits, and job security? b) The school’s attitude about student learning, teacher creativity in the classroom, parental

involvement? c) Thinking of yourself, do you find this job more rewarding or exciting than previous jobs?

PROBE: In what ways are your experiences different? What makes you say that? (Ask for examples.)



7. Are the students in this school any different from those in schools you’ve worked with in previous jobs? PROBE: How engaged or interested are students in learning? 8. Do you feel you are receiving adequate professional development in the following domains?

a) Your teaching abilities / pedagogical styles? b) Your relationship with the other teachers, your students, your principal? c) Your curriculum planning and development?

In what ways have your skills improved? 9. How do you prepare lessons? In a group? By subject or grade? Alone? 10. Do your colleagues (or supervisor?) provide you with teaching support? How? In what ways? Is this support helpful to you? If NO: what would be helpful to you?



11. How satisfied are you with the facilities and equipment in this school? 12. Is there recognition for teacher effort? In what form is the recognition provided? 13. Is your opinion valued in this school? Do you feel that you have a voice in this school’s educational planning / decision-making process? 14. Thinking back to the number of hours you spend in the classroom and in preparation each week, can you tell us how much time you spend each week doing other things besides classroom instruction and preparation? PROBE: How much time do you spend with students, teachers, parents of students, and administrators?



15. Have you heard about the new curriculum standards in Arabic, English, Math, and Science? If YES, what is your opinion of the new curriculum standards? How do they compare to the standards underlying the MoE curriculum (They will be able to answer if they are experienced teachers)? 16. Have you attempted to implement the new curriculum standards in your classes? If YES, ASK: What are the most critical challenges you encounter as you implement the new curriculum standards in your classes? If NO, ASK: What would you need to implement these standards? 17. Have you heard about the new Independent Schools? What have you heard about teaching in an IS? 18. Would you consider teaching in an IS? PROBE: What would have to happen / change to make teaching in an IS an appealing prospect?

Student Focus Groups—MoE School Informed Consent Script

My name is _____________________, and I work for the RAND Corporation, a private, nonprofit, public policy research institute. At the request of the Supreme Education Council (SEC), we’re conducting a study of schools in Qatar. The aim of the study is to understand how schools in Qatar are performing. As part of the study, RAND is conducting focus groups with students at a number of schools in Qatar. These focus groups will concentrate on what your school is like, how it might be different from other schools you have attended, and what you like or dislike about your school. The discussion today is confidential. We will not include your names or any other identifying information about you in our future discussions or written reports, and will destroy notes and information linking you to specific comments at the end of the project. We ask that you not discuss comments made by others after this session is over. Taking part in this focus group is voluntary. If you do not want to participate you may leave now. If you agree to participate, you should feel free to skip any questions that you prefer not to answer, or leave the group at any time. You may also designate specific comments as “off the record,” and they will not be recorded at all. We appreciate your participation and hope you will share your honest thoughts with us. Do you have any questions before we begin?* * If researchers are asked about their affiliation: “We are researchers at RAND, a nonprofit institution based in California that has worked on education policy around the world for more than three decades. RAND is a contractor working for the Supreme Education Council.”


MoE School Student Focus Group Form Page 1

Grade Level _______ Age ________ 1. What is it like attending this school? How hard is the classwork? Are teachers well informed? Is the instruction interesting?

Are students involved in classroom activities, e.g., are there a lot of class discussions, group projects?

2. Do you have a lot of homework? Do you do your homework most days? 3. Do you feel like you are learning alot in this school? Why is that? 4. What do students in this school think about students who try hard, do all their homework, and answer questions in class?



5. What kind of relationships do you have with your teachers? 6. What kinds of relationships do the students have with each other? Do they compete to do well in school? Do they respect others’ achievements? 7. Do you find school interesting? If yes, in what ways? If no, why not? What would make it more interesting? 8. How much do you like this school? What do you like best about it? Least? 9. What would you change if you could? 10. Is there a school you would prefer to go to? Why?



11. Have you heard of ISs? How did you hear about them? 12. From what you know, do you think you would like to attend an IS? Why or why not? 13 Are you aware of the new curriculum standards in Arabic, English, Math, and Science? How did you learn about them? Are they being used at this school? What do you think of them? 14. Are you aware of the K-12 education reform, Education for a New Era? What do you think of it? What are the best things about the reform? The weaknesses of the reform? If you could change anything about it, what would you change? 15. Are your parents involved in this school? How? Would you like to see them more or less involved?

Parent Focus Groups—MoE Schools Informed Consent Script

My name is _____________________, and I work for the RAND Corporation, a private, nonprofit, public policy research institute. At the request of the Supreme Education Council (SEC), we’re conducting a study on schools in Qatar. The aim of the study is to understand how schools in Qatar are performing. As part of the study, RAND is conducting focus groups with parents at a number of schools in Qatar. These focus groups will concentrate on yours and your child’s experiences with schools in Qatar, and what your child’s current school is like. The discussion today is confidential. We will not include your names or any other identifying information about you in our future discussions or written reports, and will destroy notes and information linking you to specific comments at the end of the project. We ask that you not discuss comments made by others after this session is over. Taking part in this focus group is voluntary. If you do not want to participate you may leave now. If you agree to participate, you should feel free to skip any questions that you prefer not to answer, or leave the group at any time. You may also designate specific comments as “off the record,” and they will not be recorded at all. We appreciate your participation and hope you will share your honest thoughts with us. Do you have any questions before we begin?* * If researchers are asked about their affiliation: “We are researchers at RAND, a nonprofit institution based in California that has worked on education policy around the world for more than three decades. RAND is a contractor working for the Supreme Education Council.”


MoE School Parent Focus Group Form Page 1

Before starting, ask each parent to identify one of their children who currently attends the MoE school you are in as the “target child”. Try to pick a range of grade levels. Write down the first name of each target child and ask each parent to do so too so that you can focus specifically on target children. It is far less confusing and simpler. School ________ Names and Grade levels of target children 1. ___________________ Grade: _____ 2. ___________________ Grade: _____ 3. ___________________ Grade: _____ 4. ___________________ Grade: _____ 5. ___________________ Grade: _____ 6. ___________________ Grade: _____ 7. ___________________ Grade: _____ 8. ___________________ Grade: _____ 1. What do you like best about this school? 2. What do you like least about this school? 3. What do you think about the facilities and equipment in this school? PROBE: Appropriate to your child’s needs? Available in enough quantities? Well-maintained? Modern?



4. How competent are your child’s teachers? 5. Does your child’s teacher(s) pay enough attention to your child’s individual learning needs and progress? 6. How competent is the principal? 7. Do you feel that target child is getting a good education at this school? 8. How involved are you in target child’s education? PROBE: for specific activities, e.g., attending meetings, helping with homework, talking to teachers either because of problems or just to find out how the child is doing 9. How does this school make information available to parents (e.g., bulletin board, newsletter, letters, text messaging, e-mails, website)?



10. What information is provided to parents? For example:

• School information (e.g., schedule) • Parent information (e.g., parent meeting notices) • Community information (e.g., family-oriented events) • Test schedules • Other: ______________________________________

11. Have you heard of ISs? What do you know? How did you hear about them? 12. From what you know, do you think you would like target child to attend an IS? Why or why not? 13. What questions would you want to know before selecting an IS for target child? 14. What about for your other children—would you consider an IS for them? Why or why not?



15. Are you aware of the new curriculum standards in Arabic, English, Math, and Science? How did you learn about them? What is your opinion of them? Are they being used at this school? How do they compare to the standards underlying the MoE curriculum? 16. Are you aware of the K-12 education reform, Education for a New Era? What do you think of it? What are the best things about the reform? The weaknesses of the reform? If you could change anything about it, what would you change?

School ID: Date: Principal Interview Form-MoE … · School ID: Date: _____ Principal Interview...

Documents

Transcript of School ID: Date: Principal Interview Form-MoE … · School ID: Date: _____ Principal Interview...