Teacher Performance and Development as a Driver of Teacher and School Improvement

1
Teacher Performance and Development as a Driver
of Teacher and School Improvement

• Lessons from the field
• Graham Marshall
• Senior Research Fellow
• Graduate School of Education
• University of Melbourne

2
Teacher Evaluation

• Teachers need feedback on their performance to
  help them identify how to better shape and
  improve their teaching practice and, with the
  support of effective school leadership, to
  develop schools as professional learning
  communities. At the same time, teachers should be
  accountable for their performance and progress in
  their careers on the basis of demonstrated
  effective teaching practice. (Teacher Evaluation
  OECD 2009)

3
Does Teacher Performance and Development drive
school improvement?

• Results of a study of 5 Schools around Australia
• Australind Senior High School, Western Australia
• Ringwood Secondary College, Victoria
• Dandenong North Primary School, Victoria
• Lakemba Public School, New South Wales
• St. Pauls School, Queensland

4
The Australian Teacher Performance Development
Framework - August 2012

• An Annual Cycle with 3 broad phases
• Reflection and Goal Setting
• Professional Practice and Learning
• Feedback and Review

5
The Framework and Teaching Practice

• Central to the Framework was the concept that
  teachers needed to have a very clear
  understanding of effective teaching.
• Each of these 5 schools demonstrated this each
  in their own way.

6
School based initiatives

• Lakemba Public School. NSW
• The Lesson Study Method

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How do we know these school initiatives are
successful

• All teachers are actively involved in the teacher
  P D processes
• The processes have been operating for at least
  two years and longer in most cases
• There is general if not complete support from the
  staff
• The processes directly impact on classroom
  practice

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A common point of entry

• Schools determine what good teaching looks like.
• Becomes the starting point for establishing
  successful teacher performance and development
  processes.

9
Developing a common understanding of good
teaching practice

• Australind Senior High School, WA
• Training Program on instructional strategies and
  classroom management

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A Focus on Feedback on Teaching Practice

• Focus given to feedback to teachers and teachers
  acting on that feedback
• The most significant feedback seemed to be
  feedback based on classroom observation

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The importance of classroom observation

• Dandenong North Primary School. Victoria
• Feedback based on Classroom observation

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Multiple Sources of Feedback

• All schools used multiple sources of feedback to
  teachers
• These included
• - classroom observation
• - student feedback
• - student performance data
• - feedback from teacher colleagues

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Feedback from multiple sources

• St. Pauls School, WA
• Feedback from multiple sources

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Formative and Summative assessment

• All schools used both formative and summative
  assessments though formative assessment was the
  driver.
• The focus of each school was on teaching, how it
  could be improved and formative assessments of
  teachers (through feedback) that would help them
  to improve.
• The summative assessments arose from the
  accumulated formative assessments.

15
Some Conclusions 1

• The entry point for each of these schools to
  effective teacher performance and development was
  a leadership passion for improved teacher
  practice matched to the skill these leaders
  showed in developing effective customised school
  based processes.

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Some Conclusions 2

• The starting point in each case was an
  identification and agreement about what good
  teaching looked like. The objective was improved
  teaching practice not improved accountability.

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Some Conclusions 3

• As the focus was on formative assessment and
  teacher improvement it was not difficult to bring
  the cumulative formative assessments together to
  develop summative assessments which all schools
  did.

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Has the Australian Teacher Performance and
Development Framework got it right?

• The evidence suggests it has
• - broad imperatives for all schools to ensure
  that teachers get multiple sources of feedback
• - school level flexibility with implementation
• - it is school leaders who make it work
• - a focus on teaching practice as the key driver
  of teacher performance and development
• - a focus on formative teacher assessments can
  also deliver effective summative teacher
  assessments

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• So does Teacher Performance and Development drive
  school improvement?
• http//www.newsroom.aitsl.edu.au/blog/consultation
  -support-materials-0

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The link between formative and summative
assessment

• Australind Senior High School, WA
• Formative and summative assessment of teachers