Quality Assurance through School SelfEvaluation: the role of External Review and Inspection

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Quality Assurance through School Self-Evaluation
the role of External Review and Inspection

• David Taylor
• Formerly Director of Inspection, Ofsted

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Structure of presentation

• Quality Assurance and Self-Evaluation
• Working with schools on self-evaluation

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Quality Assurance (QA) and School Self-Evaluation
(SSE)

• Quality
• Assurance and control
• The place of SSE in a QA system

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What is school self-evaluation?

• Self-evaluation is the process by which a school
  is able to look critically at itself in order to
  improve further the quality of its provision and
  its performance.

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SCHOOL SELF-EVALUATION the 3-step process
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Promoting School Improvement (1)

• Self-evaluation aims to promote school
  improvement by seeking
• To inform improvement planning
• all staff are, or should be, involved in
  improvement planning
• improvement planning must have standards of
  achievement, quality of teaching and quality of
  learning as high priorities
• monitoring and evaluation are indispensable parts
  of the improvement planning cycle
• schools need to integrate a programme of
  self-evaluation into their improvement planning.

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Promoting School Improvement (2)

• Self-evaluation aims to promote school
  improvement by seeking
• - To promote effective learning and raise
  standards
• all pupils are learners and should take part in
  self-evaluation
• good teachers are good learners they continually
  ask questions of their own practice to improve
  provision
• different people learn best in different ways
• teachers need to know how their pupils learn
  best
• school managers need to know what makes members
  of staff effective learners and therefore
  effective professionals
• parents/carers and governors have a key role in
  supporting learning

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Promoting School Improvement (3)

• Self-evaluation aims to promote school
  improvement by seeking
• - To encourage a climate of professional trust
• self-evaluation is most effective when the
  process is transparent
• everyone is part of the self-evaluation process
  no-one hides behind status
• positive outcomes for teachers and pupils are
  evident and people have faith in the process
• good practice is celebrated in more than one way.

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The Improvement Cycle
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Improving schools self-evaluation

• Improved training in leadership and management
• More available data
• Growing use of external performance indicators
• Effective use of classroom observation
• Understanding how to carry out self-evaluation

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Involving all staff in planning and
self-evaluation

• Staff should
• Understand the planning and evaluation process
• Have ownership of it
• Focus on pupils attainments and experiences
• Engage in appropriate professional development
• Review their approaches to teaching and
  learning 

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Internal and external complementary roles

• SSE event or process?
• Which comes first?
• Frameworks and criteria
• Training and development

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Working with schools on self-evaluation

• Preparing for self-evaluation
• Data collection and data analysis
• Understanding how to evaluate
• Collecting evidence
• Securing trust
• Self-evaluation and staff appraisal

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Six acid tests for effective SSE

• Is the SSE based on a good range of convincing
  evidence?
• Does the SSE identify the most important
  questions about how well the school serves its
  pupils?
• How well does the school compare with similar
  schools and use such comparative data?
• Does the SSE include the views of key groups,
  especially parents, pupils and wider community?
• Is SSE integrally linked to key management
  systems?
• Does SSE lead to action to achieve he schools
  longer-term improvement goals?

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A focus on learning outcomes (1)

• Taking responsibility for learning
• Good features
• Learners
• Know their most effective ways of learning
• Can apply themselves to learning effectively
• Sustain concentration
• Appreciate what they need to do to make progress

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A focus on learning outcomes (2)

• Learners
• Plan sensibly how they will achieve their
  learning goals
• Seek appropriate help in working towards their
  goals
• Show initiative and take responsibility
• Work well without supervision
• Review their progress and adjust their learning
  as necessary

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A focus on learning outcomes (3)

• Taking responsibility for learning
• Shortcomings
• Learners
• Have limited awareness of how they learn best
• Plan inadequately to address deficiencies
• Rely too much on others for assurance and support
• Are easily distracted

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A focus on learning outcomes (4)

• Learners
• Do not work well without direct supervision
• Are too compliant and passive
• Work too slowly
• Seek the direction of the teacher too readily
• Are uncertain about their own progress.

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A focus on effective leadership action (1)

• Leadership has consistently been shown as the key
  factor in determining the success of a school.
• Leaders who seek to transform their schools tend
  to
• Have self-knowledge and clarity about values and
  commitment
• Focus on developing people, and empowering them
  to bring about a shared vision which produces
  good learning outcomes for pupils
• Be found operating at all levels in the school,
  not just the senior management team

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A focus on effective leadership action (2)

• Leaders who seek to transform their schools tend
  to
• Encourage, manage and sustain school improvement
• Manage the organisation well, respond to change
  effectively and welcome greater school autonomy
  and innovation
• Ensure that there is an unvarying focus on
  improving teaching and learning

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A focus on effective leadership action (3)

• Take early, firm intervention to secure effective
  leadership and management
• Establish and implement systems to identify key
  priorities for improvement through effective data
  management, ie
• Gathering, analysing and presenting data on
  pupils achievement
• Using the data to identify good practice
• Surveying the opinions of staff and students
• Gaining the commitment of staff

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A focus on effective leadership action (4)

• Focus on dealing with issues in a staged manner,
  with measures to ensure early success, eg
• Developing pride and self-esteem
• Targeting specific under-performance, while
  developing long-term improvement strategies
• Improving attendance, punctuality,
  uniform-wearing

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A focus on effective leadership action (5)

• Focus on teaching and learning
• Establishing a set of core behaviours
• Re-skilling teachers in their repertoire of
  teaching methods
• Implementing a firm and consistent policy on
  behaviour (around the site as well as in
  classrooms)
• Supporting and building on models of excellent
  teaching
• Establishing collaborative working as a way of
  improving teachers practice

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A focus on effective leadership action (6)

• Introduce models of leadership and teaching
  quality
• Building effective leadership teams throughout
  the school
• Bringing in new staff with developing teaching
  skills (eg Advanced skills teachers)
• Coaching staff to develop their teaching skills

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1. Characteristics of the School

• Context of school and learners
• School aims

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2. Views of Learners, Parents/Carers and other
Stakeholders

• How are views gathered?
• What do they say about provision?
• How are findings shared?
• What action is taken?

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3. Achievement and Standards

• What are the standards achieved? Are there
  significant trends?
• Are there any underachieving groups?
• How do you know?
• What action do you intend to take?

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4. Personal development and well-being(Every
Child Matters outcomes)

• Learners should
• Be healthy
• Be safe
• Enjoy their learning and achieve
• Make a positive contribution to the community
• Be prepared for the future and for their economic
  well-being

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5. Quality of provision

• How effective are teaching and learning?
• Do the curriculum and other activities meet the
  needs and interests of learners?
• How well are learners cared for, guided and
  supported?

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Example Teaching and Learning
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6. Leadership and Management

• How effectively do leaders and managers set a
  clear direction?
• How effective is performance monitoring?
• How well are equal opportunities and inclusion
  promoted?
• What is the adequacy of staffing, resources and
  accommodation?
• How effective are links with other providers and
  agencies?
• How effective are Governors?

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7. Overall effectiveness and efficiency

• The extent of improvement since the previous
  inspection?
• Is there sufficient capacity for further
  improvement?
• What steps are being taken to improve provision?

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Some key questions for discussion

• Suppose you were a person such as a school
  improvement partner, how would you set about
  working with a school on SSE?
• How does a school inspection/review gain evidence
  of the effectiveness of SSE?
• What should happen if the inspection/review
  disagrees strongly with the results of the SSE?
• How far should SSE go in incorporating the views
  of students, parents and the wider community?
• How should schools develop the skills of
  evaluating lessons and outcomes for students?

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Some conclusions

• Inspection/review and SSE should complement each
  other and dovetail closely, using related
• Frameworks
• Criteria
• Data sources
• Effective SSE has clear goals, clear evaluation
  of teaching and learning and of leadership and
  management
• The whole school community should be involved in
  SSE
• Inspection has much to offer in developing and
  improving the quality of SSE.