Evaluating School Effectiveness and School Improvement: The Impact of Change on School

Performance

Professor Tony TownsendChair of Public Service, Educational

Leadership and Management

Department of Educational Studies,

University of Glasgow

Masaryk University, Brno May 9, 2010

PerceptionOur view of the world is a product of what we are looking at, where we are standing when we are looking at it and how we feel about ourselves and the thing we are looking at.

We can, however, change people’s perceptions of the world by providing them with new information, by educating them.

Every few hundred years in western history there occurs a sharp transformation. We cross... a divide. Within a few short decades society rearranges itself, its world view; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions. Fifty years later, there appears a new world...we are currently living through such a transformation.

Drucker, 1993: p 1

Toffler, 1971: 12

I coined the term ‘future shock’ to describe the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.

THE PACE AND FLOW OF CHANGE

Peter Drucker

People born in the 1980s and 1990s cannot even imagine the world into which their parents were born.

Make a list

Categories of change

• Technology• Environment• Health• Wealth• Employment• Society/Population• Culture• Relationships• Values

Thomas Watson, Chairman, IBM

I think there is a world market for maybe 5 computers

1943

Popular Mechanics, 1954

Shift Happens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPI4xRszqDA

Climate Change – Czech Republic, greenhouse gas emissions

Climate change

Prosthetics

The number of people with AIDS in Czech Republic

Comparing ourselves with others: Expenditure on health

Alleviation of Poverty

Gini Coefficient

Gini Coefficient

Percentage of population at Risk of Poverty

Income per head and life-expectancy: rich & poor countries

Source: Wilkinson & Pickett, The Spirit Level (2009)

But the world is changing… Hans Rosling

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

Percentage of students not performing to the standards

1900 2000 2100

4762

77

21

124

62

14 18

107

120

100

80

60

40

20

Age

Start Working

End Working

Longevity

Employment

Population changes

Population density

Cultural changes

Thinking and Acting Individually

Thinking and Acting Locally

Thinking Nationally and Acting Locally

Thinking Globally and Acting Locally

2000 BC- 1890s

1870s-1990s

1970s-2000s

1980s-2010

Before school effectiveness

After school effectiveness

Townsend, 2009

Beare’s (1998) Metaphors for Education

• Prior to the 1870’s: the pre-industrial metaphor (‘for the few and the privileged’, p 5)

• 1870’s-1980’s: the industrial metaphor (‘bureaucracies which characterised factory production’, p6)

• 1980’s-1990’s: the post industrial metaphor (‘schools are being talked of as if they are private businesses or enterprises’, p10)

• 2000s: the accountability metaphor (competition, choice and the education market).

  TIMSS PISA   TIMSS PISA   TIMSS PISA

  Gr 4 Gr 8 15   Gr 4 Gr 8 15   Gr 4 Gr 8 15

Asia/M.East       Denmark   Serbia  

Armenia   England     Slovak Republic  

Bahrain     Estonia     Slovenia

Bulgaria     Finland     Spain    

Chinese Taipei   France     Sweden  

Hong Kong Germany     Switzerland    

Indonesia   Greece     Turkey    

Iran   Hungary United Kingdom    

Israel     Iceland     Africa      

Japan Ireland     Botswana    

Jordan     Italy Egypt    

Korea   Latvia Ghana    

Lebanon     Liechtenstein     Morocco  

Macao-China     Lithuania   South Africa    

Malaysia     Luxembourg     Tunisia

Palestinian     Macedonia     The Americas      

Philippines   Moldova   Brazil    

Saudia Arabia     Netherlands Canada    

Singapore   Norway Chile    

Thailand     Poland     Mexico    

Europe Portugal     United States

Austria     Romania     Uruguay    

Belgium Russian Fed. Pacific      

Cyprus   Scotland   Australia

Czech Republic   Scotland   New Zealand

2009 PISA (65 countries - 95% of the world’s economy)

Below Level 1Unable to use scientific

skills in ways required by easiest PISA tasks.

Science Level 1Student has such a limited scientific knowledge that it

can only be applied to a few, familiar situations

Science Level 6Student can consistently

identify, explain and apply scientific knowledge and knowledge about science

in a variety of complex life situations

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

BelowLevel 1

PISA Proficiency Levels in Science3% 2%

FINLAND CZECH REPUBLIC

OECD (2007), PISA 2006 – Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World, Table 2.1a

17%

32%

29%

14%

4%

0.5%

10%

22%

28%

23%

12%

4%

PISA 2009 Reading

PISA 2009 Mathematics

PISA 2009 Science

Maybe this will help

• Classroom effectiveness – improving student achievement through learning and teaching

• School effectiveness – establishing processes that focus on student learning

• School improvement – the attempts by local education authorities to improve effectiveness across schools

• School reform – restructuring the school system to bring about large scale change

Educational Effectiveness Research

Sets out to answer the questions:

• What makes a ‘good’ school?

• How do we make more schools ‘good’?

Reynolds et al (2011)

• looks at all the factors within schools in particular, and the educational system in general, that might affect the learning outcomes of students in their academic and social development, which means it encompasses a wide range of factors such as teaching methods, the organisation - formally and informally - of schools, the curriculum and the effects of educational ‘learning environments’ in general.

What is an effective school?

• What criteria would you use to judge whether a school is effective or not?

• List five characteristics that an effective school would have that a less effective school would not

• Choose the two you think are the most important

Coleman et al., 1966:325

Schools bring little influence to bear on a child's achievement that is independent of his background and general social context... this very lack of an independent effect means that the inequalities imposed on children by their home, neighbourhood and peer environment are carried along to become the inequalities with which they confront adult life at the end of school. For equality of educational opportunity must imply a strong effect of schools that is independent of the child's immediate environment, and that strong independence is not present in American schools.

Rutter et al, 1979:1

• do a child's experiences at school have any effect?

• does it matter which school he goes to?

• which are the features of school that matter?

Madaus et al, 1980:22

an effective school can be defined as such...

‘to the extent that there is congruence between its objectives and achievements. In other words it is effective to the extent that it accomplishes what it sets out to do’

Edmonds, 1978:3

I define an effective school as being instructionally successful for all children excepting those of certifiable physical, emotional or mental handicap. Specifically, I require that an effective school bring the children of the poor to those minimal masteries of basic school skills that now describe minimally successful pupil performances for the children of the middle class.

Rosander, 1984:1

Effective schools are those in which all students master basic skills, seek academic excellence in all subjects, and demonstrate achievement through systematic testing. As a result of improved academic achievement, students in effective schools display improved behaviour and attendance.

Lezotte, 1989:6

Conceptually, an effective school can be defined as one that can, in outcome terms reflective of its teaching for learning mission, demonstrate the joint presence of quality (acceptably high levels of achievement) and equity (no differences in the distribution of that achievement) among the major subsets of the student population.

Possible Goals for Effective Schools (Townsend, 1994)

• Literacy• Numeracy• Other Academic Goals (eg science, history)• Behaviour• Attendance• Self-concept• Citizenship• Employment• Other Educational Goals (eg values, attitudes)• Community Goals (eg involvement, safety)

Townsend, 1994: 37

Possible goals for schools

L N OA B A SC C E OE Com

Mortimore et al, 1988: 176

The study of fifty English junior schools, sought to ‘find a way of comparing schools' effects on their pupils, while acknowledging the fact that schools do not all receive pupils of similar abilities and backgrounds’.

Banks, 1993: 2

With value-adding effectiveness...the distance between the most and the least advantaged remains the same.

For mediating effectiveness... the distance between the most and the least advantaged becomes less.

Value Adding

Mediating

Value Added and Mediating Effectiveness

Townsend, 1994: 46

Techniques for measuring effective schools

OUTCOME BASIS

VALUE-ADDED BASIS

Townsend, 1994: 42

Techniques for identifying effective schools

STANDARDISED TESTING

REPUTATIONAL APPROACH

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

SCHOOL REVIEW AND EVALUATION

Townsend, 1994: 47

Model for recognising effective schools

L N OA B A SC C E OE Com

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

SCHOOL REVIEW AND EVALUATION

REPUTATIONAL APPROACH

STANDARDISED TESTING

VALUE

A

D

DED

OU

TCOM

ES

Townsend, 1994:48

An effective school is one that develops and maintains a high quality educational programme designed to achieve both system-wide and locally identified goals. All students, regardless of their family or social background, experience both improvement across their school career and ultimate success in the achievement of those goals, based on appropriate external and school-based measuring techniques.

More information

If you would like more details contact

Tony Townsend:

School of Education

University of Glasgow

Phone: +44(0)141 330 4434

Fax: +44(0)141 330 5451

email: tony.townsend@glasgow.ac.uk