Transcript Within School Variation

Within School Variation and School Evaluation
Aim of presentation:
•
to examine the nature of WSV
•
to provide a perspective on how measures of WSV
contribute to a view of a school’s performance
•
to consider how a school can create a climate in which
variation can be investigated, diagnosed and managed
Within School Variation
“In schools where overall progress is broadly similar, there are
significant variations in pupil progress between subjects and
between different pupil groups.”
- Fischer Family Trust
"We have always known that there is a difference in performance
between schools. But what can make a bigger difference is the experience
that children have within one school. So a child can do really well in one
subject and not do well in another subject. And that can make an even
bigger difference to children's life chances than differences between
schools."
- Jane Creasy, Assistant Director of Research, NCSL
Within School Variation
‘Within School Variation is the variation in provision
as experienced by different groups of learners.’
How big is the problem?
WSV is greatest at key stage 4
-Source : DCSF
Within School Variation is over 4 times greater than ‘between
school variation’ at key stage 4.
WSV is over 14 times greater when allowance is made for free
school meals and prior attainment.
“WSV is now understood to be one of the biggest barriers to
school effectiveness and improvement.
In many schools there is not consistency in terms of learning
and teaching across the whole school.
WSV is one of the biggest challenges to school leaders.
“How do we guarantee that every student receives an
appropriate and effective access to learning
across their whole curriculum experience?
“It is not about blanket uniformity.
It is not about blind consistency.
It is about eliminating inappropriate variation.
“In our own private lives we do not accept inconsistencies in
services; in restaurants, in shops, from the doctor, the dentist,
the garage; and there is no reason either why a school should
tolerate inconsistency”.
Prof. John West-Burnham, Senior Research Adviser at the NCSL
speaking about Within School Variation
The findings of the NCSL project on WSV
WSV 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
Question
Why is WSV difficult to tackle?
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
What are the systemic influences of WSV?
Context
Teaching
Learning
It is teaching quality, learner disposition and context which
influence the effectiveness of learning , i.e. it is complex
Two sides to the same coin
Find out how good
every teacher is at
teaching
(Top Down)
Enable teachers to
investigate the impact
of their teaching
(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.
http://www.tda.gov.uk/~/media/resources/isv/isv_guide.pdf
‘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.”
‘Learning from Within’
“A key aim of learning from within is to reduce the level of
internal, or in-school, variation (ISV) across areas of
organisation, teaching and learning that have a direct
impact on student achievement.”
“Reducing ISV is not an end in itself and shouldn’t result in
inflexible uniform practice regardless of a school’s culture,
traditions and existing improvement plans. Rather, it is
intended to ensure that practices the school has identified
as effective for improving learning and raising student
achievement are adopted as widely as possible across all
subjects. In short, to help ensure that effective practice
becomes everyday practice for all.”
Variation in the
quality and
effectiveness of
approaches to
teaching and
learning
Variation in
human and
material
resources
Variation in
policies and
procedures, e.g.
setting, marking,
homework,
progress
monitoring
Variation in levels
of achievement
Analysis of data
Action to reduce ISV
Internal best
practice identified
Action to reduce ISV
A structural framework for reducing ISV – NC/TDA
‘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
role and effectiveness of middle leadership
• The
quality of teaching and learning
• The
and responding to student voice
• Listening
• Standardising procedures.’
Another question
Is the ability to tackle WSV a characteristic
of Outstanding leadership?
‘Learning from Within’
• Collect data from the beginning to show the impact of ISV work
• Make ISV a focus of the school development plan
• Use champions to build a coalition of support for ISV work
• Recognise that your goals will take time
• Review and publicise progress made on ISV
More questions
1. How suitable is WSV 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?
“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
“Having lots of data is not what self-evaluation
is about. What counts is having the right tools
to make top-level judgements on that data.”
- Barbi Goulding, Principal, Paddington Academy
More 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?
What are the professional tools of the
teacher’s trade?
Where are the equivalent tools to a doctor’s
stethoscope and blood pressure monitor?
Question
1. How can we use data to compare the impact of
learning between a top and a bottom maths set?
2. How can we use data to compare the teaching in a
selective school with that of a streamed, inner-city
comprehensive school?
3. Are we using data to prove we have high standards or to ensure that every pupil achieves their potential?
What is the better basis on which a school should be judged?
High Standards
High Achievement and
Low Negative Variation
5 A*-Cs
How well every pupil achieves
Some Children Matter
Every Child Matters
Headline figures can hide significant
pockets of underachievement
Headline figures should show how
well every child achieves
Good Leadership = high attainment
Good Leadership = evidence of doing
the best for every pupil
League table position
Measures of Within School Variation
School Improvement = more 5A-Cs
School Improvement = less negative
variation
Which column is most in tune with the stated aims of your school?
Is there tension between achieving success for the school and providing value for its pupils?
What advantage does the data-confident, self-evaluating school have?
Without teacher-level research
into pupil performance
With teacher-level research into
pupil performance
Performance analysis is done by the
few and passed to the many
All teachers are involved with
analysing their pupils’ performance
Key evidence = RAISEonline scores
Key evidence = teacher research
into current Y11 performance
Leadership equates to CVA
Leadership equates to successful
intervention across subjects
Judged by official data
Secure school-level evidence of
effectiveness
National aggregate group norms
Local contextual circumstances
A tendency for data to be seen as
an outcome in itself
Aware that dots on graphs equate to
individual pupils and their aspirations
The responsibility for school
standards resides solely with Ofsted
The school takes the lead on QA
Where do we find evidence in the schooling process?
Intake
Provision
Response
1. pupils
2. school
3.teachers
Where should we look for the best evidence
What measures should we use? to find:
1. How well pupils in this school are doing?
2. How well the school is doing?
3. How well the teachers are doing?
Outcomes
Consequences
Attainment - the number of formal qualifications
Achievement - indicator of the breadth, quality and impact of learning
Progress - shows the distance travelled
Variation - the consistency of provision
What measure shows the degree of challenge that the school faced?
Final questions
Where will you find the very best schools?
Are they the ones that are top of the league tables?
What are the key characteristics of the
successful, data-confident, self-evaluating school?