Evaluation for School Improvement

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Evaluation for School Improvement

• Geoff Barton

Saturday, November 14, 2009
PowerPoint available to download at
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• BARTONS BUMPER BRAINTEASER BONANZA

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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
1 How many teachers does it take to change a
light-bulb?
Well hang on a minute! You can't go changing a
light-bulb just like that. You need a plan -
long, medium and short-term - or your method of
changing the bulb will be in question. And of
course, you need to be very clear what you are
trying to achieve by changing it - that will need
writing down and handing out to anybody who
happens to be watching you change the light-bulb.
Furthermore, some account will need to be made
for the fact that the light bulb may not be very
bright - you can't just discard it. You will also
need to spend time assessing your procedure after
the event, with a clear emphasis on taking the
bulb-changing process to the next stage. Oh and
there is the question of changing other bulbs on
a voluntary basis after hours..
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• 2 How often have you or your headteacher stood
  up in staff meetings and reminded staff about
  basic expectations (eg uniform code)?

Clue 2
Answer 2 often
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• 3 Think of your own question for this punchline

Answer Because theres only one f in Ofsted
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
How evaluation could help to improve your school
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
Achievement and standards Based as far as
possible upon an interpretation of the data
agreed with the school, include ??the standards
learners reach, including an assessment of
whether they meet challenging targets
??learners progress in relation to their
capabilities, based upon a clear evaluation of
their prior attainment ??an assessment of
whether there is any significant
underachievement, for example between groups of
learners such as looked after children and those
with learning difficulties and disabilities.
Grade 1 - 4
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
Personal development and well-being Include ??le
arners spiritual, moral, social and cultural
development ??learners attitudes, behaviour and
attendance, and how much they enjoy their
education ??the extent to which learners adopt
safe practices and a healthy lifestyle, make a
positive contribution to the community and
develop skills that contribute to future economic
well-being. Grade 1 - 4
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• Whole-school culture
• Some opening assumptions

Michael Fullan 20 years in teaching is
1 year, repeated 20 times
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• Whole-school culture
• Some opening assumptions

• Good teaching is a set of learnable skills, not
  a God-given gift
• Performance management is about performance
• We should encourage experimentation and
  occasional disasters
• We should be intolerant of mediocrity
• A genuine evaluation culture builds improvement
• Real change comes from within

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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
Whole-school culture Some opening assumptions
1 Map out the essential skills of teaching /
tutoring / behaviour management are for your own
context 2 Build everything else around them 3
Use evaluation to monitor impact 4 Use
self-evaluation for teachers to reflect on their
own improvement
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• THREE GURUS

Carol FitzGibbon (Durham) Get data into school
life, without necessarily doing anything with it
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• THREE GURUS

John MacBeath (Cambridge) We should measure
what we value, not value what we can measure
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• THREE GURUS

David Reynolds (Exeter) Within-school
variation Aim to be a high-reliability
organisation
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• Such complex social organizations as air traffic
  control towers continuously run the risk of
  disastrous and obviously unacceptable failure.
• The public would heavily discount several
  thousand consecutive days of efficiently
  monitoring and controlling the very crowded skies
  over Chicago or London if two jumbo jets were to
  collide over either city.
• Through fog, snow, computer-system failures, and
  nearby tornadoes, in spite of thousands of
  flights per day in busy skies, such a collision
  has never happened above any city, a remarkable
  level of performance reliability

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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• By contrast, in the U.S., one of the most
  highly educated nations on earth, within any
  group of 100 students beginning first grade in a
  particular year, approximately 16 will not have
  obtained either their high school diploma or a
  General Education Development certificate 12-13
  years later.
• In Britain, just under half of all 16-year-old
  pupils will not have the benchmark of 5 or more
  high grade public examination passes in the
  national system. Obviously, many nations have
  even lower levels of educational performance.

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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• Creating a self-evaluation culture

• Tools for school evaluation
• Student performance data - results, targets, etc
• Staff, parent, governor feedback
• Ethos data
• Questionnaires and focus groups
• Faculty reviews - inc observation sheets
• Self-evaluation

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Staff Evaluations
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Routine monitoring
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Planners
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Book sampling
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Focus groups run by Governors
What is it like to be a tutor here?
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What is it like to be a tutor here?

• What impact do you have on students and how do
  you know?
• Informal feedback from students eg a disruptive
  student who admitted privately that he wants to
  do well
• Seeing decreasing number of referral slips
• Can feel a sense of progress
• How would we improve?
• Year 12 mentoring can be inconsistent role of
  mentors not always clear but principle of them
  is good
• Small minority importance of planners not
  recognised by students/parents

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Heads of Year
What are the key ingredients in an effective
tutor?

• Know and care about students in their tutor
  groups
• See monitoring and target-setting as a core part
  of their job
• Understand the need to work with students on
  skills beyond the classroom emotions,
  motivation, social skills, courtesy, how to speak
  appropriately in difficult circumstances
• Are well organised and manage time well
• Listen actively
• Pay attention to small details courtesy,
  thanks, etc
• Treat poor behaviour as simply a choice and good
  behaviour as a characteristic
• Apologise when they do something wrong or
  inappropriate
• Catch students being good far more than they
  catch them getting it wrong
• Have genuine interest in students lives and
  experiences

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Faculty reviews
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Student Evaluations
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Student
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Attitudes to learning
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What for you is the most important ingredient in
a good lesson?
Enthusiasm of teacher Fun Good class control No
disruptive students Practical activities Teacher
interested in the subject Sitting with a
friend Clear instructions and expectations
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What do teachers do that helps you to learn well?
Talk less and let us get on with work Teaching us
techniques for learning and revising Practice
papers Explain things clearly Acknowledge
different kinds of learners Praise us Basic ideas
about how to do things Providing lunchtime
sessions Teach me in a way that I understand
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What one thing would you do to improve this
school?
Longer breaks More trips Dont give coursework at
the end of term Tougher line on disruptive
students More guidance with coursework Stop
giving detentions for trivial reasons Smarter
uniform Regular teacher evaluations by
students Clone Mr Green Be more relaxed about
uniform and jewellery New headteacher Hotline to
support students who are struggling Shorter
lessons Bus to Newmarket Longer lessons Fewer
questionnaires! Dont have such high expectations
of students
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1 Think of people in music, media, sport,
politics. Who do you see as positive role-models?
Michael Jordan Johnny Wilkinson Richard
Branson Marcus Trescothick Gary Lineker David
Beckham Paul Merton Tiger Woods Slash Thierry
Henry Bob Geldof Rolling Stones
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2 Think of teachers who motivate you most
successfully. What do they do?
Mr G - funny tells us what we need to know
knows his stuff Mr W - teaches well encouraging
takes no rubbish from anyone Mr W - honest
encourages everyone, not just the best Mr P -
energetic makes lessons active Mrs C - lively
fun Mrs W - explains clearly not patronising.
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3 How could we encourage you to take on
leadership responsibilities around school?

• Give everyone in Year 11 someone to look after in
  Year 9
• Give us more responsibility
• Get us teaching younger students - eg how to play
  the guitar
• Better rewards policy
• Extra privileges
• Give us more say
• Rewards - eg non-uniform
• Let us run clubs.

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• 4 Put these in rank order
• Lessons
• Breaks / lunchtimes
• Extra-curricular activities
• Weekends

100 like weekends best 79 like lessons least
(98 in bottom two) 5050 split between breaks /
extra-curricular
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Parent Evaluations
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• The essential skills of good teachers

EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT What do you
think are the 3 most important ingredients of
good teachers / tutors ?
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EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• The essential skills of good teachers / tutors

• Establish expectations based on school evaluation
• Build into school systems - observation sheets,
  performance management, Faculty reviews
• Build differentiated training around them
• Add self-evaluation opportunities

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Eg Essential Literacy
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• Effective tutors
• Know and care about students in their tutor
  groups
• See monitoring and target-setting as a core part
  of their job
• Understand the need to work with students on
  skills beyond the classroom emotions,
  motivation, social skills, courtesy, how to speak
  appropriately in difficult circumstances
• Are well organised and manage time well
• Listen actively
• Pay attention to small details courtesy, thanks
• Treat poor behaviour as simply a choice and good
  behaviour as a characteristic
• Apologise when they do something wrong or
  inappropriate
• Catch students being good far more than they
  catch them getting it wrong
• Have genuine interest in students lives and
  experiences

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• Good practice in tutor time
• One student collecting register
• One student sorting register box, giving you
  announcements
• One student each week reading out the Thought
  for the Week and briefing students on assembly
  arrangements that week
• 4-minute limelight One student per week
  talking about an interest / passion / hobby they
  have. Other students asking them questions
• End of each week One thing Ive learnt this week
  that I didnt know or couldnt do on Monday
• Discussion of something in the news
• Rapid planner signing
• Informal conversation between tutor and
  individuals / small groups

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Evaluation for School Improvement

• Geoff Barton

Saturday, November 14, 2009
PowerPoint available to download at
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
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