Transcript Dia 1

Daffodil Winter Conference
3-5 February 2010, Ostersund - Sweden
From Assessmnet to Intervention for Inclusion
VPSS Meetjesland
Action oriented assessment needs
an action oriented assessment organisation
and management
Tom Walgraeve, VPSS Meetjesland
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VPSS Meetjesland
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The Meetjesland is a Belgian countryside region between
the cities of Ghent and Bruges, at the border with the
Netherlands nearby the North Sea. It covers 1/5 of the
province of East Flanders and consists of 13 towns and
municipalities with 175.000 inhabitants.
http://www.meetjesland.be/talen/engels.html
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VPSS Meetjesland is partner of 45 schools: 35 primary
schools, 1 special education school, 9 secondary schools
12500 students
Middle large PSS, 33 employees: 12 educational and
clinical psychologists, 4 doctors, 5 “social” nurses, 6 social
workers, (5 logistic assistents + 1 director).
The fieldworkers are grouped in 7 schoolcommunity
teams.
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What can make assessment
changes ?
 Change can happen bottom-up: inspired
and enthousiastic fieldworkers and staffmembers help change practice.
 Change can happen top-down: policy
(e.g. management), laws (authorities).
If enthousiastic and inspired individuals are
not sustained by decisionmakers, they
will burn out and their practice will have a
lack of impact on the (class)floor.
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Wanted: local/regional
decisionmakers in assessment …
Who are the local
decisionmakers who can
help things change ?
Therefore we need to
know how the
assessment is organised
in the (Belgian) schools.
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Assessment in schools of the dutch-speaking
community of Belgium (=Flanders)
1. Schools have an association with a PSS (PSSs)
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Pupil support Services (= pupils/students counseling)
Assessment in order to support teachers, special needs coordination
cell and parents (and the pupil!) to create a goodness of fit between
student’s needs and the learning environment.
2. Schools have also an association with Educational
Advisors Service: schoolsystemadvisors
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Supporting the school in realising a regular curriculum, recognised by
the government.
Supporting the school in realising differential curricula.
3. Assessment by external organisations:
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Psychiatry, ambulatory rehablitation centres, university diagnosing
centres, private consultants, etc.
No or little grip on the context of the school, classroom the teacher.
But: their diagnostic labels can open or close “doors” in school.
Mostly “classifying” (“deficiency”-assessment): is the deficiency large
enough to create ministry-subsidized help ?
Some of this services don’t work multiprofessional: it’s a hard job to
cooperate with them …
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PSS’s choose for the Action
Oriented Assessment (AOA)
Why ?
 Handelingsgerichte diagonstiek: Action Oriented Assessment.
The goal is “action”: what works for this student with this
teacher in this school, for this students with this parent ? What
is necessary for the future of this student ?
 AOA is based on research data on effective schools and effective
assessement in schoolcontext.
 10 years of field experiments in PSS’s and (primary)schools:
what works – positive practices.
 A common framework of reference for PSS’s, schools and
Educational Advisors Service
 New policy in Flanders (dutch-speaking Belgium) and the
Netherlands matching “education” to “needs”.
 AOA-board of advisors takes the lead. E.g. contacts with the “big
four” of national school organisations to make things change.
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Action-oriented assessment:
7 principles
1. takes student’s needs as the principle theme
2. is transparant, operating in accordance with systematic
procedures; monoprofessional if possible –
multiprofessional when necessary.
3. is goal-directed; aims at solving problems &
recommendations (in school, at home)
4. uses a transactional frame of reference: the student at
home, in school, in the assessment room.
5. gives the teacher a central role: the assessment results
has tot make the teacher say: “Yes, I can (and I’ll do it
from now on…)”
6. promotes partnership with the teacher, parents and child
7. focuses on positive aspects of child, teacher, peers,
school and parents: avoiding labels. We are optimistic:
we believe this can change !
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How does the management of VPSS Meetjesland
try to consolidate AOA in the organisation?
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Challenge: the AOA-practicer
needs an AOA-organisation
What works ?
 The management level has to the decide that the mission
of the organisation is AOA.
 The masterplan contains AOA-priorities.
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The financial investment-plan contains a “AOA-chapter”:
systematic investments in assessment-tools and training,
according to the AOA-principles.
Reorganisation of the tasks
 Before: 45 assessment teams (28 fieldworkers !...) for 45
schools. Regular assessment-teamconsultation is impossible.
Teammembers are working “apart”.
 After the reshuffle: 7 assessment teams for 45 schools and
multiprofessional teamconsultation is guarantueed every two
weeks.
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Challenge: the AOA-practicer needs a
AOA-organisation (sequel)
 HRM:
 All the membres of the management staff and
the assessment staff have tasks to realise
AOA.
 The team-managers have to support AOA in coordinating
and coaching the multiprofessional teams
 The quality-manager has to support AOA in developing
and coordinating the quality policy and tools.
 The AOA-coordinator supports the implementation of new
procedures, tools, …
 The team-members (schoolpsychologists, social workers,
doctors and nurses) have to practice AOA.
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 Evaluation of the assessment-team and the
individual diagnostician: is the assessment
needs-based and action oriented ?
 Are the collected data relevant ? What is the question ?
Will things change for the student after the assessment ?
 Why do we need to have this assessment: if we know that
…, we can decide on …
 Do the collected data allow to create goal-directed
recommendations: insigt into learning, motivation and
behavior, information for student, parent and teachers,
shared targets
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Challenge: the AOA-practicer needs a
AOA-organisation (sequel)
The digital student-counseling file-system:
 Only input of biometric and psychometric results
is possible ?!
 The digital file-system must work with AOAstages, “asks” student and ecological
information, “asks” risk factors and protective
factors etc.
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Challenge: AOA needs AOA-oriented
schools and AOA-oriented Educational
Advisors
What works ?
 Schoolmanagers, special needs coördinators and
educational advisors claim the AOA-principles.
 The studentscounseling by the school is working
according to the 7 principles of AOA
 Same mission and same language
 Shared training: schoolmanagers,
specialneedscoordination, PSS and Educational
Advisors (80 persons, 4 days a year)
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Challenge: AOA needs AOA-oriented
schools and AOA-oriented Educational
Advisors (sequel)
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Schoolmanagers and educational advisors claim that the regular
curriculum and didactics are as “needs based” as possible.
For this reason the PSS-assessment must reveal one or more
clusters of action-suggestions
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Stimulating the pupil: we accept that the regular curriculum is
difficult, we don’t accept that the student immediately as he
currently seems to be, we believe he can change if we understand
why >< this pupil is “lazy”, “stupid”
Compensations with e.g. ICT is possible
Dispensations:
 to realise the regular curriculum the pupil has mild examinations
for e.g. spelling etc.
 Parts of the curriculum, not necessary for another level are being
deleted
Remediation:
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More time, more moments of exercise, …
Rehearsels
Scaffolding the learning proces with specialised there internal of external
the school
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Challenge: partnership with notAOA-organisations
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The VPSS M cooporates with regional external assessment
organisations
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Ambulatory rehablitation centres, private consultants, etc.
No or little grip on the context of the school, classroom the teacher
Mostly “classifying” (“deficiency”-assessment): is the deficiency large
enough to create ministry-subsidized help?
The VPSS M introduces the regional assessment
organisations in AOA.
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Stage 1: the same vision in dyslexia-assessment.
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After the conference: to do is to reflect
Tom Walgraeve, VPSS Meetjesland
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To do’s after the Daffodil-winterconference
 AOA-advisory board:
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Translation Dutch – English: PSS, HGD, PBD
To add: optimistic – future – dynamic ?
Daffodil summer class
AOA-coaching by PVPSS-project (4 PSS-employees cfr.
Beno Schraepen)
 Zorgregiowerking Meetjesland
 Daffodil summer class: decision makers (PBD, RVC)
 Shared philosophyzing PSS – School – PBS ?
 VPSS Meetjesland
 Daffodil summer class: CTIH ?
 PSS as learning organisation: organogram cfr Beno S &
Ingrid Hylander
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Indirect remarks
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Exchange Sweden-Belgium: PSS’s ?
Do Belgian PSS’s have an philosphy on
education and PSS ? Sustaining community ?
About inclusion:
Not to brusque: teachers and organisations
must be prepared.
= Delocalisation of SEN-schools to the place of
regular schools ?
About all children who have physical, mental,
behaviourial, socio-economic needs to reduce
drop-out and exclusion? (Beno S)
About sustaining all members of the
schoolcommunity (including teachers)?
About assessment:
No assessment, no testing ?
PSS’s and learning problems: to much
descriptive, to less explaining cfr LPAD ?
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5. About portfolio in Evora
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A little notebook for all …
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Public and digital ? Agreements: critics/learning points.
6. About consultation – forms?
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Face-to-face about anonimous students cfr. Ingrid Hylander
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Coaching groups of 4 teachers about anonimous
students, situations (10 sessions) (cfr Beno S)
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SOS-Piet-form: one model, one method, one profesional,
… The global child, ecological aspects, … ?
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Consultation about students (+assessment)
7. About self-pity in Flanders
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Change depends on laws, on money, on organisations,
on management, … but above all: on people.
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