In-School Variation and how to reduce it

Aims of presentation: • • To explore the nature of school variation To examine the 5 key drivers for reducing ISV • To consider how responding to ISV can provide evidence of Exceptional Leadership

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’ ‘There are five key areas where action taken to reduce ISV is likely to be most effective: • • •• • The collection and use of data 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/

“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.

How could performance data make a much higher impact?

Schools should 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. How suitable is In School Variation 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 be 100% responsible for standards in their subject? If not, who is?

4. How well-developed are the diagnostic data tools that teachers should be using?

5. What are the common obstacles to making smarter use of performance data?

6. What evidence can schools use to show that their investment in using data is making an impact on the work of the school? If it isn’t, then why not?

7. The new focus for inspections is ‘The Importance of Teaching’ How will schools demonstrate that teaching is consistently good?

8. Is the ability to tackle ISV an indicator of Outstanding Leadership?