Getting Educational Reform to Work Focus on Outcomes, Not Inputs March 4–6, 2008

Getting Educational Reform to Work Focus on Outcomes, Not Inputs

March 4–6, 2008

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2

Wajih Alaiyan

Director, Research Methods, Analysis and Applications

CTB/McGraw-Hill


Presentation at a Glance

Education reform is a long-term, coordinated program that aims to improve student outcomes and typically involves fundamental changes to a country's strategic priorities, organizational structures, operating systems, capabilities, and culture.

For GCC policy makers, the challenge is to identify the levers that are critical in improving student outcomes and to apply these levers forcefully.

• Reform comes in different ways• Policy-makers judge success of reform in many ways• Reform efforts appear to produce best results when focus

is on outcomes, not inputs• Setting appropriate aspirations and mobilizing personal

or organizational energy during reform implementation is critical


Goals of Educational Reform

Policy-makers in the GCC states recognize the importance of quality public education as:

• A foundation for strengthening economic growth, productivity, and competitiveness

• A necessity for the well-being of their citizens• A requirement for the formation of a skilled national

workforce and the further expansion and diversification of their oil-based economies toward new businesses in financial services, travel, tourism, chemicals, and knowledge-based services


Education Reform

• Education reform is about raising the quality of primary and secondary education and improving student outcomes

• The heart of effective educational reform is to employ better teachers, to compensate them well, and to provide them with more effective and practical training, both initial and ongoing

• GCC states' public education systems have evolved along similar paths, focusing for decades on increasing the number of teachers and making effective investments in schools and, more recently, computers, in hopes of improving their students' performance

• To make further progress, GCC policy-makers must shift their focus to developing effective curriculum standards, improving skills of teachers, and managing the overall performance of their school systems.

While all GCC states face the same structural challenges, the incentives and internal pressures to reform differ from state to state.


Improving Classroom Instruction

To achieve the goals of reform, GCC policy- makers must:

• Unwind many years of emphasizing the constituent parts of the system rather than the performance of their students

• Change the focus on the number of teachers to the quality of teaching

• Improve the quality of instruction in public schools by enabling schools to attract higher-caliber teaching candidates and by strengthening teacher-training programs

• Develop school curriculums in mathematics and science that reflect the future demands of a modern, private economy


Improving Student Performance

• Exams and school inspections push educational leaders to emphasize the wrong metrics – and, consequently – to pursue the wrong goals. Many GCC national exams test students on knowledge of facts, but few exams include questions assessing the way facts are applied. As a result, teachers and students in government schools tend to focus on memorization rather than on mastering problem-solving and written and oral communication – the skills most sought by the labor market and vital to building a sustainable economy.

• Success in education reform should be measured by whether graduates are able to find work, not only within government, but also in the private sector of the economy, and within the industries of the future

• Reform should also be judged by whether graduates are able to develop an identity as productive citizens pursuing activities designed to sustain and improve their lives and those of their families


Improving School Performance

• Assess the quality of outcomes (how much students are learning) and their main drivers (the quality of the curriculum, teaching, and school management)

• Today, school inspections in the GCC scrutinize (and therefore reward) administrative performance rather than academic (student) outcomes

• Historically, the GCC states have entrusted the policies, operations, and regulation of schools to a single body – the ministry of education. This creates a conflict of interest:

Indeed, lack of objectivity and transparency about the performance of schools and students can delay or misguide the authorities' efforts to get failing schools on track.

You can't have the same people who are responsible for improvement be the ones who judge whether that improvement has been achieved.


A Performance Management System is Critical

• Create a robust, transparent performance-management system to ensure that students acquire the right knowledge and skills, that teachers perform well, and that schools are properly managed

• Consider establishing bodies separate from the national education ministry to regulate standards and assessment

• While the education ministry would remain responsible for setting the standards of learning for students, other institutions would measure achievement - this promotes objectivity, transparency, and accountability

• Design, administer, and score nationwide examinations of students in core subjects such as mathematics and science to assess the competence of students in those subjects - actively participate in international assessments to rank your students' performance against that of students elsewhere and to provide an external check on the quality of your own assessments


Qatar Experience

Of all the GCC states that are making a start, notably Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE, Qatar has moved furthest to reform its standards, exams, and inspections. In 2002, it formed a partnership with the Council for British Teachers (CfBT) to develop new curriculum standards, based on international benchmarks, for all Arabic language schools.

With the support of two prominent U.S. test-development companies, Qatar then developed new exams that form the basis of its performance-management system. Parents and the general public can access online "scorecards" showing each school's examination and inspection results. Qatar's school system now ranks among the most transparent in the world and is considered a unique testing laboratory for educational innovation.


What Policy Makers Need to Know

• Educational reform involves many individual change programs of varying degrees of importance, interdependence, and difficulty

• Leaders must manage this complex portfolio of programs with insight and action or they will squander time, resources, and opportunity

• Major change is hard, no doubt about it. But the ability to change, to rethink strategy in mid-course, and to respond quickly to new obstacles is a key differentiator in today's fiercely competitive global economy

As a leader, you will learn at least as much by watching your organization's response to change as by analyzing its current status.


Five Basic Mechanisms of Change

• Exploiting the imbalance between the system's constituent stakeholders

• Focusing the reform effort on what really needs changing• Generating momentum by producing results and building

new sources of energy for more change• Learning how people respond to change and adjusting the

reform effort accordingly• Leadership (i.e., change leaders' actions)

Archimedes deduced more than 2,000 years ago that force could be multiplied by applying it to a lever at a particular distance from a fulcrum."Give me a lever," he said, "and I will move the world."


Managing Change Successfully

Educational leaders need to focus on three critical areas that

drive successful implementation of change programs:

• Time for results and critical milestones that keep reform on track

• Leading indicators that show progress toward desired goals

• Behavior that supports reform goals or that puts reform at risk

Track the reform's progress, identify risks early, and intervene as necessary.


Where Should Educational Leaders Invest their Energy?

• Define clear reform goals for the next two years; communicate the reform as a compelling story; offer an inspiring view of a better long-term future

• Raise people’s expectations and actively change their behavior

• Align coalitions and build broad support for the reform among stakeholders, but be prepared to use your power if you must

• Focus on short-term reform efforts for the greatest results in educational levels and economic participation -this helps shape and sustain changing attitudes and leads to increased support for the long-term objectives of the reform

• Positive modes: sense of focus, enthusiasm, feelings of momentum, hope, and confidence play a leading role in achieving the reform outcomes.

In many chemical reactions, all the ingredients may be in place, but if the catalyst is absent, nothing will happen. Similarly, if a change is to have credibility within an organization, it must be congruent with the actions and personal example of its leaders.


GCC States Are Not Going It Alone

• Educational reform is a long-term endeavor in any country. Although the GCC states face substantial challenges, they will benefit from precedent.

• Study the successes and failures of educational reforms elsewhere.

• Partner with some of the world's leading educational institutions to:

a) bring in objective, outside-in perspectives;b) gain better access to knowledge, expertise, and best practices; c) build your own capacity and capability to work on the change;

and to d) help shape the reform agenda and guide implementation of

change programs

Reform is all in the execution.


Mark Malaspina

President

The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill


Many Users of Assessment Data

StudentsEducational Administrators

School Leaders

ParentsTeachers

Assessment Data

Key Stakeholder Groups


Important Uses of Assessment Data

• Evaluation Evaluate institutions Evaluate teachers Evaluate students

• Instructional Improvement Increase programmatic effectiveness Improve classroom instruction Assist children at home


How Assessment Data Can Be Used by Each Stakeholder Group

Help address students’ specific academic needs outside of

school

Implement curricular reform andtargeted professional development strategies

Increase programmatic effectiveness

Achieve differentiated and individualized instruction

Improve classroom instruction

Assist children at

home

Motivation

Motivation

MotivationRate schoolsEvaluate

institutions

Decide upon placement, promotion, and graduation

of students

Evaluate students

Rate teachersEvaluate teachers

ParentsStudentsTeachersSchool Leaders

Educational Administrators

Help address students’ specific academic needs outside of

school

Implement curricular reform andtargeted professional development strategies

Increase programmatic effectiveness

Achieve differentiated and individualized instruction

Improve classroom instruction

Assist children at

home

Motivation

Motivation

MotivationRate schoolsEvaluate

institutions

Decide upon placement, promotion, and graduation

of students

Evaluate students

Rate teachersEvaluate teachers

ParentsStudentsTeachersSchool Leaders

Educational Administrators


Best Practices in Assessment Reporting

1. Develop a long-term roadmap for assessment and reporting

Remember that the reporting system is as important as the assessment instruments

2. Build each report around a narrative, such as: Summary of the information More details about the information What can I do next to improve the situation?

3. Create reports that are appropriate to the audience Use language and data displays that the audience can

understand Give in-depth “investigation” tools for more sophisticated

users4. Alert the audience to the statistical limitations of data

susan_alnes

not parallel, doesn't complete intro

Thank you.

Documents

Getting Educational Reform to Work Focus on Outcomes, Not Inputs March 4–6, 2008