The third part in the Journey to Excellence series is made up of the revised editions of How good is our school? and of The Child at the Centre.
Both of these have always been about improving schools, about making things better for children, about making all schools ambitious and excellent. How good is our school? and The Child at the Centre are based on a revised framework of indicators which help you to work out where your school is in improving its quality and aiming for excellence. We have become very familiar with the use of quality indicators in this way in Scotland. The same set of indicators will also be used by quality improvement officers and HM Inspectors to confirm where you are and help you plan your way forward.
SELF-EVALUATION
Self-evaluation is not a bureaucratic or mechanistic process. It is a reflective professional process through which schools get to know themselves well and identify the best way forward for their pupils. It will, therefore, promote well-considered innovation. The framework of quality indicators will guide you in that process. The illustrations are not designed to be used as checklists or recipes. They are there to be used alongside other sources of guidance such as curriculum advice, research into learning and pedagogy, and studies of leadership styles and approaches. As thinking in relation to the curriculum and learning is constantly developing, so our application of the indicators also develops to help reinforce the dynamic nature of Scottish education.
Self-evaluation is forward looking. It is about change and improvement, whether gradual or transformational, and is based on professional reflection, challenge and support. It involves taking considered decisions about actions which result in clear benefits for young people.
At the heart of self-evaluation are three questions:
Excellent schools focus these questions on learning. Learning is at the heart of an excellent school. Learning is its core business.
All staff reflect on the quality of their work. We do this as professionals who are responsible for the quality of our classroom work and for the achievements and personal and social development of the children and young people we teach, and as members of the staff team which is responsible for the overall quality of education.
As teachers, we take a pride in our own work and naturally reflect on it in relation to our individual responsibilities. For this we can use the quality indicators and other sources of advice such as the Standards for Full Registration, for Chartered Teacher or for Headship and the National Framework for Continuing Professional Development.
Self-evaluation also involves groups of teachers reflecting on their work together. We can do this in a number of ways by:
This process of peer evaluation is an important professional activity symbolising the professional responsibility of teams of teachers for their work. It complements professional discussion with senior colleagues who might teach alongside teachers or observe practice in classrooms. The indicators in this edition have been written in such a way that they talk directly to teams of teachers. In this way they recognise this important collegiate responsibility.
Collegiate self-evaluation by teachers and with school managers works best when a school community has a shared understanding of what it means by quality. This often stems from a shared vision of a school community for the school and its pupils, perhaps based on an agreed view of what the school should be like in two or three years time.
A shared vision doesn’t come easily. There are usually different views and interests across groups of teachers and support staff, children and parents, other professionals and key members of the community. To develop a shared vision, a school must engage with all of these stakeholders in clarifying and agreeing its values and principles. It also needs to agree how these values and principles will influence all aspects of its work, the curriculum, the learning environment, the ethos of the school and the way that everyone is included and how they relate to each other: demonstrating the principles and values in action. A school that achieves a common vision and values has a strong sense of direction and moral purpose.
These activities carried out by reflective professionals underpin leadership at all levels:
The evaluative activities involved are similar to those which we encourage pupils to engage in as part of their own learning process. Taking part in them creates a community of learners.
MANAGING EVALUATION
It is important to have reasons for evaluating the aspects chosen, and a clear idea of exactly how an evaluation will be carried out, when and with whom. Time is a key resource in busy schools and there is no need to evaluate everything at once. However, we do need to be systematic so that important aspects of the school’s work do not ‘slip through the net’ and we only find out that things are going awry when they have already had an effect on learners. Time spent on diagnosis needs to be balanced against the time to spend on improvement. We also need to keep focusing on the key work of the school - learning and teaching.
Many schools build monitoring and evaluation into a calendar of activities4. By keeping a note of their discussion and evidence, they gradually build up a body of evidence which they can use when arriving at evaluations using quality indicators. Some may use an annual calendar, while others may plan their activities against a longer or more flexible time frame. The most important requirement, though, is that such activity is built into the work of the school and has a clear focus on children’s learning and success. All the key processes of education, and management and leadership activities need to be tracked through to their impact on, and outcomes for, pupils.
The indicators in this edition of How good is our school? are arranged under six questions which HMIE, and other agencies, are adopting for evaluation purposes.
These six simple but powerful questions are set out in a quality framework of nine Key Areas in this edition of How good is our school? as shown in appendix 1.
USING THE FRAMEWORK OF QUALITY INDICATORS IN SELF-EVALUATION
The quality framework provides a structure for self-evaluation which can be used in different ways.
It includes indicators which we can use to reach a professional judgement of How good is our school?. This set of indicators brings together performance indicators (for example data about attainment and achievements) with indicators of the school’s ethos (such as learners’ views) and professional judgements based upon evidence of the quality of the provision and practice observed.
Every year it is useful to look closely at aspects of the school’s outcomes and impacts (Key Areas 1 to 4) and aspects such as learning, teaching and meeting learning needs (Key Area 5). From this analysis, and from day-to-day professional reflection, you may identify issues for further exploration, observation and analysis using more of the detail of the quality indicators provided within Key Areas 5 to 9.
The aspects addressed within each of the Key Areas are closely inter-related. This means that strengths or weaknesses in one area may have an effect on quality in another area. Expectations can influence learning; working with partner agencies affects children’s care and welfare; leadership affects and is affected by staff morale. In other words, the framework can help to diagnose the causes of the strengths and weaknesses found. If self-evaluation is well established in the school, a selective approach based on knowledge of the outcomes and impact in your school and issues which need to be addressed is an effective way of using the framework of indicators.
Sometimes, however, a more comprehensive approach may be needed. For example, a new headteacher who has just taken over a school might find it helpful to work through all or most of the indicators to gain a clear picture of the quality of the school’s work in all respects. In fact, all schools will benefit when staff look across the breadth of their work every so often to ensure that everything is working well. In this way you will come across issues where you need to ‘take a closer look’. This familiar approach of taking a broad view and taking a closer look is another approach to using the indicators.
USING INDICATORS AND SOURCES OF EVIDENCE
By using a range of indicators and sources of evidence, we can arrive at a holistic view of quality, looking at it from different angles and checking the consistency of evaluations.
The selection of evidence on which to base evaluations should be kept manageable by sampling. The extent and type of sampling should be thought through carefully. It is also useful to test out the strength of evidence through ‘triangulation’. This involves comparing one source of evidence with a second and a third source. For example, the effectiveness of a school’s policy on meeting the needs of learners could be checked against its implementation in classrooms and discussed with staff, learners and parents5. This process of triangulation should help to evaluate the impact of policy in meeting the needs of learners.
The key sources of evidence will come from what we actually observe, from data of various sorts, and from the views of people who are closely involved with the school, such as children and young people themelves, parents, partner agencies, as well as staff. Appendix 56 will give examples of the kinds of evidence to look for. Where weaknesses in practice are identified, it is also helpful to check out written guidance and documentation. Such documentation could include programmes of study, teachers’ plans, course materials, policies and guidelines and minutes of meetings. However, what is written down is not necessarily the same as what actually happens. Similarly, progress reports on improvement plans can be helpful but will need to be checked against what has actually been delivered. What really matters is the impact of all the key activities in the school on learners themselves and their learning.
The framework of indicators is designed as a tool to help with evaluating and improving the quality of education which we provide for all learners. The nine Key Areas in the framework cover all aspects of a school’s work and can broadly be grouped under three headings: the school’s successes and achievements, its life and work, and its vision and leadership.
The first two questions in the framework are very important:
These two questions focus on the successes and achievements of the school in relation to its key purpose, and its impact on children and young people, parents and the community at large. They relate to how well the school has helped pupils to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors within the community. They also relate to Scotland’s Vision for children and young people that they should be safe, nurtured, healthy, achieving, active, included, respected and responsible.
To judge successes and achievements in relation to these two questions and to plan for improvements, it is important to consider the key factors which influence them. For example, if pupils are not developing as effective contributors, we might look at the curriculum that they follow, or the kinds of learning in which they are engaged. Therefore, the first two questions need to be considered in the light of other questions such as:
This approach enables professional reflection on practice within our own classes, and within our school as a whole, and helps consideration of the inter-relationships between aspects of our work and our successes and achievements. Where best practice is identified, it should be celebrated and shared with others. And if things are not going well, the source of the issues can be tracked down by focusing on some of the indicators.
For example, if children and young people are not learning effectively or are not motivated to learn, we may need to look at aspects of the quality of education the school provides to answer the following questions.
This kind of approach is called a ‘proportionate’ approach. It enables you to focus on areas of priority rather than routinely covering all aspects of the school’s work in turn.
By focusing on the first five questions and coming to a view of How good is our school?, we can then focus on the sixth question, form a view of our capacity to improve and decide How good can we be?.