Transcript School Tools for Analysis and Research

In-School Variation and how to reduce it
Aims of presentation:
•
•
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To explore the nature of school variation
To examine the 5 key drivers for reducing ISV
To consider how the use of knowledge tools can
increase school effectiveness
What is In-School Variation?
‘In-School Variation is the variation in provision
as experienced by different groups of learners.’
ISV is the elephant in the room at every CPD meeting.
We all know that there is unequal provision within every school but we are not sure how to approach the subject
The findings of the National College project on ISV
ISV is:
• An enduring school performance issue for many schools,
particularly at Key Stage 4
• Significantly attributable to variation in teacher competence
• Not specifically being addressed by schools in their
school improvement work
• Requires well-developed data systems to provide
measures and show improvement
• Hard for schools to tackle, even with funding and support
The National College project on ISV confirmed the scale of the problem
Question
Why is WSV difficult to tackle?
As teachers, we are not comfortable talking about the work of a fellow professional
Investigating the impact of teaching
“Projects which look at differences in the impact of teaching
require a climate of openness, trust and collegiality.”
- NCSL WSV project report
Schools could set a climate for looking at differences in teaching impact as an opportunity to learn from the best
What are the systemic influences of ISV?
School senior leaders don’t improve achievement. They set the climate where teachers can be successful.
Context
Teaching
Learning
It is teaching quality, learner disposition and context which
influence the effectiveness of learning
The most important influence is the teacher
- but the context in which they teach is often of equal importance
Two sides to the same coin
Find out how good
every teacher is at
teaching
Enable teachers to
investigate the impact
of their teaching
Schools which encourage an action research approach to school improvement are more likely to succeed
(Top Down)
(Bottom Up)
Top Down or Bottom Up?
Data analysis is not just something done by the few
and passed down to the many
– but should involve all teachers finding out about the
impact of their teaching on different groups of
learners.
Having one person ‘doing the data’ is about as sensible as a hospital registrar hoarding all the X rays
‘Learning from Within’
“The exploration of ISV and learning from within
can potentially foster an environment where
analysis, innovation and sharing result in higher
levels of professional satisfaction and student
achievement.”
Tackling ISV means supporting effective teaching. Everyone benefits.
‘Learning from Within’
‘There are five key areas where action taken
to reduce ISV is likely to be most effective:
collection and use of data
• The
Listening and responding to student voice
• The
quality of teaching and learning
• Standardised
systems and procedures
• The role and effectiveness
of middle leadership
•
There is a great Teachers TV video on this subject at:
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Reducing-ISV-5-Key-Drivers-6085224/
Questions
1. How suitable is ISV as a focus for raising
school standards?
2. Is there a member of your SLT with a specific role
for standards? How developed is this role?
3. To what extent do subject leaders exercise a
QA role for their subject? Should they?
For schools to demonstrate outstanding leadership
there must be evidence of how leaders at all levels are improving the consistency of teaching
“Schools that are proactive in showing
inspectors the evidence of their own
pupil-level analysis and research tend
to do better in their inspection.”
- Dr. Mike Treadaway, Fischer Family Trust,
Naace ‘Making Information Work’ Conference 27.04.07
Don’t lie back and be inspected. Schools are sitting on the best evidence of their performance. Use it.
Some questions
1. How well-developed are the diagnostic data tools
that teachers should be using?
2. What are the common obstacles to making smarter
use of performance data?
Schools have a fair bit of catching up to do if they are to use data as well as they do in other walks of life.
What are the professional tools of the
teacher’s trade?
Where are the equivalent tools to a doctor’s
stethoscope and blood pressure monitor?
In the future, teaching is likely to become a more diagnostic profession
- because knowledge tools are becoming available
Tomorrow, schools will be
Knowledge-Driven rather than Data-Driven
How will we use data in the future? e.g. tomorrow
Schools will establish systems that will:
• Provide measures for the relative impact of teaching
• Analyse the relative performance of all student sub-groups
• Research the relationship between teaching and learning
• Track the effectiveness of interventions in relation to student outcomes
• Generate impact data to inform performance management
• Allow the school to take control of the process of inspection
• Demonstrate school effectiveness where success is harder to achieve
It is time to exchange our stone-age tracking systems
with professional approaches to quality assurance
Questions
1. What evidence can schools use to show that their investment in
using data is making an impact on the work of the school?
2. The new focus for inspections is ‘The Importance of Teaching’
How will schools demonstrate that teaching is consistently good?
3. Is the ability to tackle ISV an indicator of Outstanding Leadership?