Is your school effective? Christopher Bezzina discusses 11 characteristics he believes are essential for schools to reflect upon and nurture when embarking on such a journey.
Evaluation is slowly but surely becoming a household word for all schools who want to seriously address quality education. We can see a concerted effort by the education authorities to help schools review their practices in various domains. Various studies, grants and publications express a desire to provide researched information which could determine policies which effect directly or indirectly what takes place in our schools, and to a large extent, determine the learning (teachers and students) that takes place.
There is now also a drive to evaluate the services offered by our schools from outside. I do believe that this may be premature, since not all schools have developed the internal capacity to be able to handle external review. However, that is an issue that has to be addressed in a different forum.
The position I take in this paper is for a school-based approach, for educators to evaluate, to help each other evaluate their own effectiveness. The following eleven characteristics of an effective school are offered as a starting point towards developing a self-evaluation process for your school.
Does your school have:
A school leader who is an active leader?
School leaders (I use this term instead of head of school; it can also be viewed as the Senior Management Team) must be visible to their community - students, teachers, parents, and the wider community. They must be visible to these groups in order to determine their needs and seek appropriate methods of providing for those needs. The school leaders must be knowledgeable in school affairs, especially in the areas of curriculum, curriculum design, development and implementation, teacher professional development, and student growth.
A positive school climate?
It is the leader's function to develop or maintain a positive school climate where teachers can work and learn and students can learn. Because individuals and groups differ in their values and perceptions of what is valuable and meaningful, they also differ in their descriptions of what climate conditions or outcomes are most important.
Leaders for climate improvement requires skills in responding to concerns, expectations, and existing conditions or initiating new expectations and conditions. The ultimate purpose is the improvement of learning. The leader, more than any other individual, is responsible for a school's climate. The teacher has the same responsibility and accountability in the classroom and beyond.
Agreeable and workable discipline policies and procedures?
Student discipline has been the number one concern for a number of schools. We all realise that effective discipline policies and procedures must be firm, fair and consistent. However, such policies and procedures also must be developed, communicated and implemented by the entire school community.
Student rights and responsibilities must be recognised and clearly articulated in the school's discipline code. Teachers must be allowed to exercise authority in a firm, fair and consistent manner. The school leader must include the school community members and seek their support in order to develop and maintain effective discipline and procedures. Furthermore, communicating such policies and procedures and knowing the school law are essential.
Teachers who have high expectations for students?
The school leader must consider the teachers' attitudes, training, motivation, development, evaluation, involvement, morale, stability, methods, style, role, and rapport with students and other members of the school community. School leaders cannot function as administrators who manage the school from the confines of their office. They need to be energetically engaged with their members, to be visible and to literally walk the talk.
Parents who are involved in the educational process?
Parents must be encouraged to take an active role in the education of their children. Parents must be recognised as a positive asset. The key here is communication, care and understanding.
Productive methods of evaluating the curriculum?
The school curriculum should not be conceived as a fixed subject matter decided by others. The school members need to be responsible for developing a programme that is relevant and meaningful to their respective students. For any programme to be "meaningful" it needs to be evaluated around clear objectives set and learning outcomes. This implies that the educators at the school level are constantly engaged with the programmes that they are developing. Leaders need to provide opportunities for teachers to debate curricula issues and other matters that directly effect student motivation and learning. Without the former you cannot get to the latter.
Effective methods of evaluating teacher performance?
The school leaders and the Senior Management Team must ensure that all teachers are teaching well. They must create a climate where teachers engage in professional development - a constant engagement in addressing strengths and weaknesses. This is a tall order, but one that needs to be seriously addressed by all those who want to provide a quality education. This is where the Performance Management Profile (PMP) or a teacher's portfolio takes on an important function in the professional development of all educators.
Consequential methods of developing and evaluating student growth?
Too many students float through our educational system with no direction, no concept of career opportunities, and no desire to pursue their abilities or interests. The school's community must take the initiative to encourage students to achieve. While teachers do recognise that students learn at a different rate and have unique learning styles they need to be supported in order to address the uniqueness of each individual. This is an area that networking can address, as students are followed and progress monitored over their pre-primary, primary and secondary education.
A realistic philosophy of education?
The school community must recognise the diversified needs of students and offer a varied and flexible curriculum to provide for those needs. The philosophy must encourage the school community to be responsible for providing students with an education that will enable them to function to their utmost ability in a variety of areas. This is where the school's vision and mission need to be clearly articulated. While a school's vision projects an image or picture of what the school could be in the 21st century, the mission proclaims its purpose and reason for existence, based on the beliefs it holds and the values it promotes.
An extensive and adequate student activities programme?
Activities such as clubs, school publications, voluntary work, and sports can contribute significantly to the total school climate. The student activities programme is just as much a part of the school's curriculum as are the formal courses.
Significant student services?
Perhaps the most significant student service is the guidance function. Counsellors are educational professionals whose speciality is counselling. People need other people who will listen to them, help them discover themselves, and lend them an opportunity to explore new options. Some studies (National Curriculum Council, 2004) and personal experience in a number of schools (especially in the secondary sector) helps to reinforce this point.
General agreement on need to improve effectiveness?
Although there is agreement to the main principles, aims and objectives behind the NMC there is often marked disagreement about the methods for achieving them. Yet, I would say there is general agreement on the need for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of our educational system.
The effective school is a purposeful organisation whose members seek, through common effort, to achieve established goals. School systems are composed of people, and people will determine whether the system succeeds or stagnates, serves its clients effectively or squanders its limited resources.
While the reader may identify other characteristics, what is essential is that the educational communities - whether a school on its own, or else a college network - need to start relating and actively engaging in critical discourse. They need to see how their own communities are addressing each and every characteristic. Find some time to go through each characteristic and see what questions you raise. Identify ways of addressing these questions. Once you do you are engaged in self-evaluation.