SelfEvaluation in Schools:

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School Development Planning Initiative
Self-Evaluation in Schools Sharing the
Experience NSPI Conference, March 2009
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• School self-evaluation is an integral aspect of
  school development planning
• In practice, the evaluative aspect of SDP is
  under-developed in our schools
• Neither SSE nor SDP is an end in itself

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SDP Process
Review Mission Evaluate Vision
Design Aims Implement
School Improvement
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SDP Process Key Questions

• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to be?
• How do we get there?
• How will we check we are getting there?
• How will we know if we have got there?

Who are WE?
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Review
Performance

• Where are we now?
• Provision
• How well are we doing?
• In relation to
• our mission, vision, aims and values
• previous performance
• other schools in similar contexts
• good practice
• meeting students needs
• meeting expectations of parents
• national education policy
• other
• School Development Planning Draft Guidelines and
  Resources for Post-Primary Schools
• Unit 2 Models of School Development Planning

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Purpose of Review

• Description
• Analysis
• Judgement
• Decision

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School Self-Review (1)
School Development Planning Draft Guidelines and
Resources for Post-Primary Schools Unit 3
Approaches to Review
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School Self-Review (2)
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• The more one tries to observe, the less one
  actually sees, because there is no focus.
• The more one structures ones observation, the
  more one loses out on the richness of the context
  in which the observation takes place.
• One tends to focus ones attention on what one
  wants to see. blind spots
• Michael Schratz

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• Insiders are sometimes accused of not noticing
  things that are right in front of their noses
• We often do not notice very interesting things in
  our environment, simply because we have become so
  used to them
• Insiders risk having blind spots which prevent
  them from seeing things which for others may seem
  important to look at
• Trond Alvik

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Review Areas

• SDPI Review Areas
• Mission, vision, aims
• Context factors
• Curriculum (including teaching learning)
• Care management of pupils
• Staff organisation and development
• School-home-community links
• School management administration

• SDPI Strategic Themes
• Vision, mission, aims and values
• School planning processes
• Staff organisation, teamwork development
• Teaching and learning
• Curriculum
• Care and management of students
• School-home-community links
• School management administration

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Review Areas

• SDPI Review Areas
• Mission, Vision, Aims
• Context Factors
• Curriculum
• Care Management of Pupils
• Staff Organisation and Development
• School-Home-Community Links
• School Management Administration

• LAOS Areas
• School Management
• School Planning
• Curriculum Provision
• Learning Teaching
• Support for Students
• Context factors to be taken into account

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Premises school environment
The Timetable
Guidance, pastoral care, behaviour discipline
Resources
TEACHING
Staffing their organisation into groups
teams
PROGRESS AND ACHIEVEMENT of the LEARNER
Partnerships with the community
Curriculum assessment/ organisational policies
LEARNING
Decision making processes
Staff development
Schemes of work
Adapted from Hopkins MacGilchrist 1998 By SDPS
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Review Data

• Decisions without data are daft
• Data that are already on record within the
  school, such as attendance records or test
  results
• Data that have to be specially collected for the
  purpose of the review
• Desk research and field research

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Review Instruments

• Questionnaires (Open/Closed)
• Checklists
• Interviews
• Standard forms
• Logs
• Observation forms
• SCOT Analysis Pro-formas
• Diagnostic Window
• Evaluation Grids
• Ideal / Actual Tables

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Retrospective Review in Practice

• Where are we now?
• How well are we doing?
• In relation to the ARCs
• national education policy requirements
• perceived expectations of the Inspectorate
• requirements of legal or quasi-legal
  procedures
• Pressure to produce

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Retrospective Review in Practice

• SDP process models different starting points
• Foundational model
• MVA and key policies
• Structures and procedures
• Early Action Planning model
• Louis Miles What works best in SDP is plenty
  of early action to create energy and support
  learning
• Michael Fullan Ready, fire, aim

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Retrospective Review in Practice

• Human nature and the nature of organisations!
• Trond Alvik, CIDREE
• Often schools find it necessary to choose a
  non-sensitive focus in order to gain experience
  of the processes involved
• At the beginning stage, the participants
  therefore tend to choose objects or problems at a
  safe distance from the classroom
• The challenge is to find issues that are
  relevant but not too risky for those involved,
  to develop the courage to approach the classroom

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• Q
• Where do we want to be?
• How do we get there?
• A
• Design plans and policies
• Implement plans and policies

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Design

• Action Plan Template
• Priority area
• Target
• Tasks
• Timeframes
• Remits
• Resources
• Success criteria
• Monitoring procedures
• Evaluation procedures

• Policy Template
• Rationale
• Objectives
• Content (provisions)
• Roles responsibilities
• Success criteria
• Monitoring procedures
• Review procedures
• Timeframe
• Implementation plan

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Evaluation

• How do we know we have got there?
• At the end of the SDP cycle, evaluation is
• a systematic examination by the school of the
  outcomes its own agreed courses of action
• a comparison of how things are against how things
  should be if the plans and policies worked as
  intended
• judgement with a view to future action

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Evaluation

• Success criteria are statements of how things
  should be, the desired outcomes. They are
  derived from targets tasks (action plan) or
  objectives provisions (policy). They focus the
  gathering of evidence
• Evidence is information as to how things are, the
  reality on the ground, the actual outcomes
• Evaluation tools (or instruments) are means of
  gathering the information. The choice of tools
  is guided by the nature of the information
  needed, which is guided by the success criteria
  which are being tested

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Evaluation Tools
Qualitative SCOT AnalysisOpen Questionnaires
InterviewsForce Field Analysis Spot
CheckCritical Incident Analysis Self-evaluation
Profile

• Quantitative
• Desk Research Closed Questionnaires Checklists
  Standard FormsLogs, etc.Evaluation Grids

Summative Evaluation Tool Links quantitative
qualitative information together
For a worked example of evaluation of an action
plan, see SDP Draft Guidelines Unit 5
Approaches to Evaluation
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Teacher Meteorologist

• Both try, to the best of their ability, to
  predict the results of a forthcoming interaction
  of forces
• Both may experience growth in their professional
  intuition as a result of systematic reflection on
  why things developed as they did under the given
  circumstances

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• It is much more difficult to judge yourself than
  to judge others. If you succeed in judging well,
  you will have found true wisdom
• The Little Prince

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Post-LAOS SSE of Teaching Learning
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Quality of Teaching and Learning(Area 4, Looking
at Our School)

• Classroom atmosphere
• Respect
• Interactions
• Environment
• Affirmation
• Learning
• Engagement
• Understanding
• Knowledge and competence
• Collaborative/independent learning
• Communication

• Methodology
• Appropriate methodologies
• Clarity of purpose
• Pace and structure of lesson
• Variety of strategies
• Use of resources
• Classroom management
• Discipline
• Management of learning activities
• Challenge motivation

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Quality of Teaching and Learning(Area 4, Looking
at Our School)

• Aspect B
• Teaching and Learning
• Component iv
• Learning
• Theme
• How actively and independently students engage
  in learning, and how the quality of their
  understanding is reflected in their questioning
  and in their responses to questions

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Process of Self-Evaluation key steps

• Select an area to evaluate focus
• Determine what good practice is indicators
• Gather reliable data on actual practice
• Collate, analyse interpret the data evidence
• Compare actual practice with good practice
• Reach valid conclusions that you can stand over
• Prioritise for planned improvement

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How to select what to evaluate

• Checklists
• Study the checklist developed from Looking at
  our School, for example
• WSE or SI reports
• Suggestions from teachers
• Feedback from students and parents
• Influence of inservice or CPD courses
• Implications of educational research
• School factors that are causing concern
• National factors

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SSE in DEIS Planning

• See www.sdpi.ie

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Perspectives

• Five wise men of Hindustan, who were all blind,
  went to see an elephant.
• The first approached the elephant and got on its
  back. The elephant is like a brush, he cried.
• The second felt the trunk and said The elephant
  is like a snake.
• The third blind man reached out for the knees and
  thought,
• The elephant is like a tree-trunk.

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Perspectives

• The fourth seized its swinging tail and shouted,
• The elephant is like a rope.
• The fifth blind man yelled
• The elephant is soft and mushy

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The only way to get the full picture is to share
different perspectives
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