Secondary Schools Conference
Secondary Schools Conference
Leading Change
High excellence high equity
- Raising the bar and narrowing the gap
High Excellence High Equity - Raising the Bar and Narrowing the Gap
560
OECD average
High excellence
Low equity
High excellence
High equity
Mean score on reading scale
540
Korea
Finland
New Zealand
520
Canada
Japan
Australia
Belgium
500
OECD average
Norway
Scotland
Sweden
Switzerland
US
N Ireland
Germany
England
Poland
OECD average
Spain
480
Wales
Luxembourg
Low excellence
Low equity
460
70
80
Low excellence
High equity
Turkey
90
100
200 minus Variance
110
(a)
120
130
Source: PISA 2009, OECD
(a) Total variance (between and within schools) is expressed as a percentage of the average variance in student performance across OECD countries. The OECD average is 101. For
this chart, the variance is displayed as 200-variance, ie a country with a high relative variance of 120 will appear on this chart as 80 to the left of the chart.
140
Ingredients of successful systems
from the PISA studies
 Systematic and equitable funding
 Universal standards – mirrored in the views of students,
parents and school principals
 School autonomy
 Mix of accountability systems – internal and external
 Continuous monitoring of standards and quick
interventions when failure to achieve them is identified
Ingredients of successful systems
from the PISA studies cont…
 Creating the appropriate environment to achieve the
standards set:
 get the right people to become teachers
 develop teachers into effective instructors (PD internal and
external)
 place incentives and differentiated support systems to ensure
that every child gets the support that it needs
 Focus on the curriculum and introduce skills required for
the 21st century
 Networking and innovation
Excellence and equity are achievable!
How the world’s most improved
school systems keep getting better
McKinsey 2010
 Four stages of improvement were identified as well as
‘stage-dependent’ intervention clusers:
 ‘poor to fair’ – ensuring basic standards
 ‘fair to good’ – consolidating system foundations
 ‘good to great’ – professionalising teaching and leadership
 ‘great to excellent’ – system led innovation
Towards system wide sustainable
reform
Prescription
Building Capacity
Professionalism
National Prescription
Every School a
Great School
Schools Leading Reform
Awful to Adequate
Adequate to Good
System Leadership
Good to Great
So in summary
System improvement requires integration and
coordination across every level
 Teachers
 Deliver classroom instruction
 Collaborate with peers to develop, test and share pedagogical
practices that raise student outcomes
 Engage parents as needed to advance student performance
So in summary
System improvement requires integration and
co-ordination across every level cont…
 Leaders
 Define and drive school improvement strategy, consistent with
direction from middle/centre
 Provide instructional and administrative leadership for the
school
 Involve school community to achieve school improvement
goals
So in summary
System improvement requires integration and
co-ordination across every level cont…
 The ‘middle layer’
 Provide targeted support to schools and monitor compliance
 Facilitate communication between schools and the centre
 Encourage inter-school collaboration
 Buffer community resistance to change
So in summary
System improvement requires integration and
co-ordination across every level cont…
 The centre
 Set system strategy for improvement
 Create support and accountability mechanisms to achieve
system goals
 Establish decision rights across all system entities and levels
 Build up skills and leadership capacity at all system levels
The OECD Improving School
Leadership Activity
An International Perspective
Australia
Austria
Belgium (French)
Belgium (Flanders)
Chile
Denmark
Finland
France
Hungary
Ireland
Israel
Korea
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Network of experts
Norway
Portugal
Slovenia
International organisations
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom (England)
United Kingdom (N. Ireland)
United Kingdom (Scotland)
School leadership: a policy priority
The role of leadership has changed dramatically
School autonomy:
“Running a small business”
Administration and management
Human and financial resources
Accountability for outcomes:
A new culture of evaluation
Assessment, (self) evaluation, quality assurance, public reporting
New approaches to teaching and learning
More diverse student populations
More emphasis on raising performance of all
Need to invest in the
knowledge and skills of
leaders on the job
School leadership: why does it matter?
School
Leadership
Classroom
School
Local level
System
level
• At the school level, leadership can
improve teaching and learning by
setting objectives and influencing
classroom practice
• At the local level, school leadership
can improve equal opportunities by
collaborating with other schools and
local communities
• At the system level, school
leadership is essential for successful
education reform
Segmentation of the Secondary School System in England
100
90
N = 3313
Actual 5+A*-C % 2003
80
70
Low Achieving
Below 30% 5+A-C
N = 483
60
Underperforming
50
N = 539
40
Progressing
N = 1495
30
High Performing
20
N = 696
10
Leading the System
0
N = 100
Estimated 5+A*-C % from pupil KS3 data
5+A*-C >=30%, lower
quartile value added
5+A*-C >=30%, 2575th percentile value
added
5+A*-C >=30%, upper
quartile value added
Networking and Segmentation:
Highly Differentiated Improvement Strategies
Type of School
Key strategies – responsive to
context and need
System Leadership Role
Leading schools
- Become curriculum and
pedagogical innovators
- Formal federation with lowerperforming schools
- Leading Edge
- Consultant Leaders and
National Support Schools
Succeeding
schools with
internal variation
- Regular local networking
- Subject specialist support to
particular depts.
- Education Improvement
Partnerships
- 14-19 partnerships
Underperforming
schools
- Linked school support
- Consistency interventions
Failing schools
- Formal support in a Federation
structure
- New provider
- Raising Achievement
Transforming Learning
- School Improvement
Partners
- Consultant Leaders and
National Support Schools
- School Sponsored
Academy
• 30% Floor target for 5 A*-C GCSE including English and maths
• The 909 floor target schools in 2004/05 = 29% of all secondary schools and the 237 in 2008/09 now =
just 8%
• A 74% reduction in the number below floor over 5 years
1000
909
781
Secondary Schools
800
631
600
439
400
237
200
0
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09
• Half of all floor targets schools are in a third of regions – this is based on the 237 in 2008/09
• In this third of regions floor target schools make up at least 10% of all secondary schools
• Some regions have less than 5% schools below floor
Secondary Schools
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
48
44
34
33
25
19
16
15
13
These Twelve Secondary Schools …
Are in the highest category of deprivation
(35% or more FSM), yet, they all:
– Achieve over 80% good GCSE passes at 16, with a
consistent trajectory of improvement
– Have at least two recent inspection reports
judged as ‘outstanding’
– Received outstanding grades for teaching and
learning, leadership and the school overall
– Record a pattern of high contextual value added
scores from Key Stage 2 (age 11) to Key Stage 4
(age 16)
They defy the association of poverty with
outcomes
Yet the scale of challenge faced by these schools is
considerable:
– Higher than average proportion come form poor or
disturbed family backgrounds where support for learning
and expectation of achievement are low
– Many students are subject to emotional and psychological
tension and regular attendance is a problem
– They are open to a range of ‘urban ills’ that often
characterise poorer communities – drugs and alcohol, peer
pressure of gangs and fashion and overt racism which tend
to attract behaviour which ranges from anti-social to
violent.
– Getting these students ready and willing to learn is a
constant challenge, which the schools strive to meet by
providing a better daytime alternative to being at home or
on the streets.
21st Century Schools succeed for the
following reasons:
•
•
•
•
•
They excel at what they do not just
occasionally but for a high
proportion of the time
They prove constantly that
disadvantage need not be a barrier
to achievement
They put their students first, invest
in their staff and nurture their
communities
They have strong values and high
expectations that are applied
consistently and are never relaxed
They fulfil individual potential
through providing outstanding
teaching, rich opportunities for
learning and encouragement and
support for each student
•
•
•
•
•
They are highly inclusive, having
complete regard for the educational
progress, personal development and
well being of every student
Their achievements do not happen
by chance, but by highly reflective,
carefully planned and implemented
strategies
They operate with a very high
degree of internal consistency
They are constantly looking for ways
to improve further
They have outstanding and well
distributed leadership
At the heart of this is outstanding
leadership practice
The Heads of these
schools are not by and
large iconic – they have
taken on challenging
schools out of a deep
commitment to improving
the lot of their students
and communities. Moral
purpose may be at the
heart of it but successful
Heads need a range of
attributes and skills if
they are to succeed in
dealing with the
challenges presented by
turbulent and complex
communities.
•
Clear and unshakeable principles and
sense of purpose
•
Vigilance and visibility
•
Courage and conviction
•
Predisposition to immediate action,
letting nothing slip
•
Insistence on Consistency of approach,
individually and across the
organisation
•
Drive and determination
•
Belief in people
•
Ability to communicate
•
leadership by example
•
Emotional intelligence
•
Tireless energy
A change for the better …
Before the change of head
teacher, the school:
The new head teacher:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Was comfortable and happy
Had a strong pastoral system
although this was reliant on
personalities rather than systems
Had little culture of change and
improvement
Had a questionable work ethic
Set expectations around happy,
well-adjusted students with little
discussion of whether they should
also achieve higher academic
levels
Had a well liked head who was
easygoing, genial and supportive
but not challenging, often absent
and who allowed poor staff to
remain in post.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Faced initial staff resentment with
data; there was a belief that the
school was happy and did not need
to change
Gradually changed the culture over a
few years
Retained what was good
Maintained a relentlessly positive
attitude showed high energy
Was a lateral thinker, prepared to
take a gamble
Had a very ‘can do’ attitude and said
‘yes’ wherever possible
Was prepared to tackle difficult
issues such as weeding out poor
staff
Trusted and motivated staff
Was approachable and relaxed
Made good use of promotion to
bring alienated staff onside
Used the wider senior team to
involve more staff as leaders
It is not surprising …
• … that a number of themes emerged which were
common to most or all of the schools. These included,
for example, attention to the quality of teaching and
learning; the assessment and tracking of student’s
progress; target-setting, support and intervention;
attracting teachers and growing leaders.
• It is important to stress that the success of these schools
is due not simply to what they do but the fact that it is
rigorously distilled and applied good practice, cleverly
selected and modified to fit the needs of the school. The
schools do not value innovation for its own sake, but only
when it adds something extra. The practices described
here are not ‘off the peg’ tricks; they mesh together and
work synchronously.
Leadership as Adaptive Work
Technical Solutions
Adaptive Work
System Leadership
Technical problems can be solved through applying existing know how - adaptive
challenges create a gap between a desired state and reality that cannot be closed
using existing approaches alone
The Nature of Adaptive Work
An adaptive challenge is a problem situation for which solutions lie
outside current ways of operating.
• Adaptive challenges demand learning, because ‘people are the problem’
[as well as the solution] and progress requires new ways of thinking &
operating.
• Mobilising people to meet adaptive challenges, then, is at the heart of
leadership practice.
• Ultimately, adaptive work requires us to reflect on the moral purpose by
which we seek to thrive and demands diagnostic enquiry into the
realities we face that threaten the realisation of those purposes.
From Ron Heifetz – ‘Adaptive Work’ (in Bentley and Wilsdon 2003)
The Ring of Confidence
Circles of Competence
Motion Leadership and
Powerful Learning
Motion Leadership
Powerful Learning
Connect peers with purpose
Ring 1 – Moral purpose
Literacy, Numeracy and Curiosity
Capacity building triumphs
judgmentalism
Ring 2 – Pre-conditions
Leadership, Expectations and Teaching
Learning is the work
Ring 3 – Classroom practice
Instructional core and precise teaching
strategies
Transparency rules
Ring 4 – Organizational capacity
Data, Planning and SIGs
Love, trust and resistance
Leadership for all
Ring 4 – Organizational capacity
PLCs, Organizational design
Workforce reform
Outer Ring
System leadership, Differential intervention,
Networks and innovation, Families and
community
Powerful Learning - 1
Powerful Learning – 2
Powerful Learning – 3
Powerful Learning – 4
Powerful Learning – 5
Powerful Learning – 6
From Outside In to
Inside Out
Centre
Change learning
Policy
School
Teaching
Strategies
Planning/Organisatio
n
Planning/Organis
ation
Teacher
Policy choices
Student Learning
Centre
OutsideIn
Inside Out
Inside - Out
The School Improvement Planning Framework
REGION
NETWORK
SCHOOL
CLASSROOM
STUDENT
Secondary Schools Conference
Getting into the
Classroom
Moral Purpose of Schooling
I know what my
learning objectives are
and feel in control of
my learning
I get to learn lots of
interesting and
different subjects
I can get a level 4 in
English and Maths before
I go to secondary school
I know what good work
looks like and can help
myself to learn
I know if I need extra
help or to be challenged
to do better I will get the
right support
My parents are
involved with the
school and I feel I
belong here
I can work well with and
learn from many others
as well as my teacher
I enjoy using ICT and
know how it can help
my learning
I know how I am being
assessed and what I need
to do to improve my work
I can get the job that I
want
All these …. whatever my background, whatever my abilities,
wherever I start from
How the demand for skills has changed
Mean task input as percentiles of the 1960 task distribution
Economy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input in the USA
65
Routine manual
60
Nonroutine manual
55
Routine cognitive
50
Nonroutine analytic
45
Nonroutine interactive
40
1960
1970
1980
1990
2002
The dilemma of schools:
The skills that are easiest to teach and test are
also the ones that are easiest to digitise,
automate and outsource
“What does it mean to be educated?” at any
particular phase of education
Being educated at any particular age has four central elements:
• a breadth of knowledge gained from a curricula entitlement;
• a range of skills on a developmental continuum that reflects increasing depth at ages
7, 11, 14,16, and in many cases, 18;
• a range of learning experiences;
• a set of key products, projects or artifacts.
It also means that students are sufficiently articulate to:
• sustain employability through basic skills;
• apply their knowledge and skills in different contexts;
• choose from and learn in a range of post-14 study (assuming an entitlement
curriculum up until then);
• draw on wider experiences to inform further learning and choice.
Most educational systems use examination results as a proxy measure for this range of
quality outcomes
Effect Size of Teaching
Student
Performance
McKinsey & Company, 2007:11
100th
percentile
90th
percentile
53 percentile
points
50th
percentile
37th
percentile
0
percentile
Age 8
Age 11
Focus on the Instructional Core
CURRICULUM
POWERFUL
LEARNING
TASKS
TEACHING and LEARNING
STRATEGIES
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
What is ‘Professional Practice’?
• By practice we mean something quite
specific.
We mean a set of protocols and
processes
for
observing,
analyzing,
discussing and understanding instruction that can be
used to improve student learning at scale. The
practice works because it creates a common
discipline and focus among practitioners with a
common purpose and set of problems.
• The real insight here is that you can maintain all the
values and commitments that make you a person
and still give yourself permission to change your
practice.
Your practice is an instrument for
expressing who you are as a professional; it is not
who you are.
I wrote (with Bruce Joyce) some time ago
that:
Learning experiences are composed of
content, process and social climate. As
teachers we create for and with our
children opportunities to explore and build
important areas of knowledge, develop
powerful tools for learning, and live in
humanizing social conditions.
Powerful Learning …
Is the ability of learners to respond successfully to the tasks they
are set, as well as the task they set themselves In particular, to:
– Integrate prior and new knowledge
– Acquire and use a range of learning skills
– Solve problems individually and in groups
– Think carefully about their successes and failures
– Accept that learning involves uncertainty and
difficulty
All this has been termed “meta-cognition” – it is the learners’
ability to take control over their own learning processes.
A Secondary Approach for Powerful
Learning
Learning Intentions
Tasks
Pace
Questioning & Questions
Reflection
Collaborative Group Work
Academic Vocabulary
Tactical
Strategic
Teaching Skills Nine Theory of Action Principles
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
When teacher directed instruction becomes more enquiry
focused the level of student engagement and achievement increases
When teachers set learning intentions use appropriate pace and have a clear and strong
narrative about their teaching then student’s are more secure about their learning and
their level engagement and understanding is increased
By consistently adopting protocols for teaching student behaviour and engagement is
enhanced
By consistently adopting protocols for learning student understanding, skill level and
confidence is enhanced
If teachers use cooperative group structures / techniques to mediate between whole class
instruction and students carrying out tasks then the academic performance of the whole
class will increase
When teachers systematically use higher order questioning the level of student
understanding is deepened
When feedback contains reference to practical actions student behaiour becomes more
positive and consistent
When peer assessment (AfL) is consistently utilized student engagement, learning and
achievement increases
When learning tasks are purposeful, clearly defined, differentiated and challenging,
(according to the students Zone of Proximal Development), then the more powerful and
precise the learning for all students
Number of students
Reaching for the “Double Sigma Effect”
Achievement of students
Average Effect Size Using Learning
Intentions
Average Effect Size Using Higher-level
Questions
Average Effect Size Using Feedback
Grouping the theories of action – 1
Planning for Teaching
• When teacher directed instruction becomes
more enquiry
focused the level of student engagement and
achievement increases
• When teachers set learning intentions use
appropriate pace and have a clear and strong
narrative about their teaching then student’s are
more secure about their learning and their level
engagement and understanding is increased
• By consistently adopting protocols for teaching
student behaviour and engagement is enhanced
Learning Intentions
Theory of Action - When teachers set learning intentions use appropriate pace and
have a clear and strong narrative about their teaching then student’s are more
secure about their learning and their level engagement and understanding is
increased
Effect Size – 0.56
Group Discussion
1. What is the practice related to learning intentions in your school and how
widespread is it?
2. How helpful is the exhibit in helping you become more specific and consistent in
the practice of setting learning intentions in your school?
3. What will be the impact of the consistent use of setting learning intentions on
the learning of your students?
4. How will you achieve it?
Learning Intentions and Direct Instruction
- Exhibit
1.
Before the lesson is prepared, the teacher should have a clear idea of what the learning intentions are.
What, specifically, should the student be able to do, understand, care about as a result of the teaching?
2. The teacher needs to know what success criteria of performance are to be expected and when and what
students will be held accountable for from the lesson/activity. The students need to be informed about the
standards of performance.
3. There is a need to build commitment and engagement in the learning task. In the terminology of Direct
Instruction, this is sometimes called a “hook” to grab the student’s attention. The aim is to put students
into a receptive frame of mind; to focus students attention on the lesson; to share the learning intentions.
4. There are guides to how the teacher should present the lesson – including notions such as input,
modelling, and checking for understanding. Input refers to providing information needed for students to
gain the knowledge or skill through lecture, film, tape, video, pictures, and so on. Modelling is where the
teacher shows students examples of what is expected as an end product of their work. Checking for
understanding involves monitoring whether students have “got it” before proceeding.
5. There is notion of guided practice. This involves an opportunity for each student to demonstrate his or her
grasp of new learning by working through an activity or exercise under the teacher’s direct supervision.
6. There is the closure part of the lesson. Closure involves those actions or statements by a teacher that are
designed to bring a lesson presentation to an appropriate conclusion: the part wherein students are
helped to bring things together in their own minds, to make sense out of what has been just taught. “Any
questions? No. OK, let’s move on” is not closure.
7. There is independent practice. Once students have mastered the content or skill, it is time to provide for
reinforcement practice. It is provided on a repeating schedule so that the learning is not forgotten. It may
be homework or group or individual work in class. The advocates of Direct Instruction argue that the
failure to do this seventh step is responsible for most student failure to be able to apply something
learned.
In a nutshell:
The teacher decides the learning intentions and success criteria, makes them transparent to the students,
demonstrates them by modelling, evaluates if they understand what they have been told by checking for
understanding, and re-telling them what they have told by tying it all together with closure.
Adapted from Hattie
Grouping the theories of action – 2
Planning for Learning
• By consistently adopting protocols for learning
student understanding, skill level and confidence
is enhanced
• If teachers use cooperative group structures /
techniques to mediate between whole class
instruction and students carrying out tasks then
the academic performance of the whole class
will increase
• When teachers systematically use higher order
questioning the level of student understanding is
deepened
Higher Order Questions
Theory of Action - When teachers systematically use higher order
questioning the level of student understanding is deepened
Effect Size – 0.73
Group Discussion
1. What is the practice related to higher order questioning in your
school and how widespread is it?
2. How helpful is the exhibit in helping you become more specific
and consistent in the practice of higher order questioning in your
school?
3. What will be the impact of the consistent use of higher order
questioning on the learning of your students?
4. How will you achieve it?
Higher Order Questions - Exhibit
Formulating Questions for Higher-Order
Thinking
Building on Bloom’s Taxonomy, teachers can easily move students to recall more than simple
knowledge-level facts. By asking higher-order questions, teachers can require students to think
about what they’ve learned and find ways to apply it to their lives and other disciplines. Below
are some examples of questions that go with each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Key Words
Sample Questions
Knowledge
List
List characteristics of each of the main
characters.
Label
Match names with appropriate picture
Identify
Identify the important details from the
story
Tabulate
Arrange story events in sequential order
Name
Recall details about the setting of the
story
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Key Words
Sample Questions
Comprehension
Interpret
Interpret pictures or scenes from the story
Explain
Explain parts of the story in your own words
Compare
How are two characters in the story alike or different?
Summarise
Write a paragraph summarising what happened in the story
Predict
Predict what could happen next before reading the rest of the
book
Classify
Classify selected objects as living or nonliving
Change
Move a main character to a new setting and explain what will
happen
Illustrate
Make puppets and dramatise parts of the story
Relate
How are you like the main character in the story?
Solve
Think of a situation in the story and explain how you would
have handled it differently
Analyze
Distinguish fantasy from reality in the story
Select
Select parts of the story that were funniest or happiest
Compare
Compare the two main characters in the story
Infer
Identify a character who is similar to you in personality
Debate
Discuss the pros and cons of a character’s decision
Application
Analysis
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Key Words
Sample Questions
Synthesis
Design
Advertise the story on a poster so will want to read it
Modify
Rewrite the role of the main character to create a new
outcome
Create
Create an original character and add him/her to the story
Invent
Write lyrics to a popular tune that explains how the character
felt in the story
Combine
Combine characters and events from two stories to create one
new story
Judge
Write about why a character should or should not have acted
the way he did
Convince
Prepare a book talk that persuades other students to read the
book
Rank
Compare this story to another one and explain which one you
like the best
Support
Decide which character you would like to spend the day with
and tell why
Conclude
Change the main character’s decision and write a new ending
for the story
Evaluation
Grouping the theories of action – 3
Planning for Teaching and Learning
• When feedback contains reference to practical
actions student learning behaviour becomes
more positive and consistent
• When peer assessment (AfL) is consistently
utilized student engagement, learning and
achievement increases
• When learning tasks are purposeful, clearly
defined, differentiated and challenging,
(according to the students Zone of Proximal
Development), then the more powerful and
precise the learning for all students
Student Feedback
Theory of Action -When feedback contains reference to practical actions
student learning behaviour becomes more positive and consistent
Effect Size – 0.73
Group Discussion
1. What is the practice related to student feedback in your school and how
widespread is it?
2. How helpful is the exhibit in helping you become more specific and
consistent in the practice of student feedback in your school?
3. What will be the impact of the consistent use of student feedback on the
learning of your students?
4. How will you achieve it?
Feedback - Exhibit
Neuroscience
E5
Tools
Tactics
Literate
Numerate
Curious
Models
Evaluate
Three ways of thinking about Teaching
Teaching
Skills
Teaching Models
Reflection
Teaching Relationships
Teaching Models
Our toolbox is the models of teaching, actually models for learning, that
simultaneously define the nature of the content, the learning strategies,
and the arrangements for social interaction that create the learning
contexts of our students. For example, in powerful classrooms students
learn models for:
•
Extracting information and ideas from lectures and presentations
•
Memorising information
•
Building hypotheses and theories
•
Attaining concepts and how to invent them
•
Using metaphors to think creatively
•
Working effectively with other to initiate and carry out co-operative
tasks
Effect Size of Teaching Strategies
• Information Processing – a mean effect size over 1.0
for higher order outcomes
• Cooperative Learning – a mean effect between 0.3 to
0.7
• Personal Models – a mean effect of 0.3 or more for
cognitive, affective and behavioural outcomes
• Behavioural Models – a mean effect between 0.5 to
1.0. Best representatives are for short term treatments
looking at behavioural or knowledge of content
outcomes
The whole point of schools is that children come first…
…and everything we do must reflect this single goal
“Students First”
Secondary Schools Conference
Leadership,
Implementation and Staff
Development
Powerful Learning – Theory of Action
If all the distinct but interrelated parts of the NMR {Powerful learning Strategy – the rings and each component
of each ring – are aligned and working together, then all schools will improve
‘Seven Strong Claims about School Leadership’
• School leadership is second only to classroom instruction as an influence on
student learning.
• Almost all successful (school) leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic
leadership practices.
• It is the enactment of the same basic leadership practices – not the practices
themselves – that is responsive to the context.
• School leaders improve pupil learning indirectly through their influence on
staff motivation and working conditions.
• School leadership has a greater influence on schools and pupils when it is
widely distributed.
• Some patterns of leadership distribution are much more effective than
others.
• A small handful of personal “traits” explain a high proportion of the variation
(such as being open minded, flexible, persistent and optimistic) in leader
effectiveness.
Structural Equation Modelling –
Connecting Headteacher
Effectiveness and Pupil Outcomes
Building
Vision, Setting
Directions
Pace / Timing
School
Leadership
- Improvement
Group
- Time in
post
- FSM
- Internal
states
- Provision of
leadership
- Age
- Values
- Sector
- Ethnic
Diversity
- School size
- Urban/rural
- Level of
deprivation
in area
Understanding &
Developing
People
-Succession
planning
-Monitoring and
accountability
Culture &
Climate
Academic
Altered
Practices
Personal
and Social
Pedagogic
Focus
Behaviour
Student &
Staff
Engagement
& Motivation
Affective
Pace / Timing
Organisational
Redesign
-Distributive
leadership
practices
-Correspondence
with teaching &
learning purposes
Pace / Timing
Managing
Teaching and
Learning
- Innovative
practices
- Use of data
Act as a
Community
Leader
Work as a
Change Agent
Managing
Teaching and
Learning
Developing
Organisations
Personal Development
Lead a
Successful
Educational
Improvement
Partnership
Moral
Purpose
Strategic Acumen
Developing People
Lead and Improve a School in
Challenging Circumstances
Partner
another
School
Facing
Difficulties
and Improve
it
A Secondary School’s Line of Success
1: Urgent Attention – Back to
2: Rebuilding and Making School
Basics 1996-9
more Student-Centred 2000-2
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 Development of new school
ethos with focus on teaching and
learning
 Introduced Hay perceptions –
Transforming learning; pupils
asked to comment on 9 aspects
of classroom environment and
teaching – their views taken into
account
 Classroom observations for all
and coaching
 Mechanisms for ineffective staff
to be worked out
 Raising pupil self-esteem with
target setting
 Focus on improving behaviour
and clamp down on truancy
(winning Truancy Award in
2001)
 Building new pastoral system
 Appointed new Heads of Maths
and English

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Autocratic Leadership
Restructuring process
New Staff structure
Staff Training on OFSTED
9 redundancies, which
enabled restructuring
Involving and empowering
governors
Aiming to push standards
up
Built new SLT – Focus on
building different teams and
interlocking teams
Getting floating voters on
board
HT’s Line of Success
Academic outcomes go hand
in hand with broader
outcomes, as they support each
other
1996
All Phases:
 Benchmarking
the school
against national
awards –
Strategic
mechanism to
raise
2000
3: Period of Reflection and
Curriculum Development 2002-4
 Building a culture of education
with shared expectations
 Student Council consulted with
all new appointments
 More pupil voice and pupil
centred environment
 Training with SLT and middle
leaders
 Delegated leadership and
devolved responsibility –
making people accountable
 Developing a strong school
ethos and raising expectations
 Not allowing pupils to fail –
introduction of coursework clubs
after school to ensure
coursework is completed
 Pathways developed to meet
pupil needs
 Focus more towards learning
than teaching
 Key strategy: Linking SLT
members with a Head of
Faculty: Made significant
contribution to shared school
ethos and tackling difficult
issues. Also provided
confidence and support to
middle leaders
2002
4: Distributed Leadership


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More delegation
Faith in the team
Staff inductions for NQTs
Establishing common base
lines – appoint best
trainees
Partner school with several
universities for ITT
Focus on pupil needs
Each SLT member
manages an area of the
curriculum – support for
middle leaders and insight
for them into SLT thinking
 improved ethos and
atmosphere
Focus on ECM – more fun
and pupils more involved
in school life; more pupil
centred activities and pupil
voice
New pastoral ethos – nonteaching assistants
Emphasis on pupil
personal development
Refining curriculum to
meet pupil needs with
different pathways – to be
further developed in the
future
2004
Whole school development and classroom practice
Specific targets and success criteria related to
pupils’ learning, progress and achievement that
are clear and unambiguous
An action plan for student achievement
will need to include the following:
• Specific targets and success criteria related to pupils’ learning, progress
and achievement that are clear and unambiguous;
• Teaching and learning strategies designed to meet the targets;
• Evidence to be gathered to judge the success in achieving the targets
set;
• Modifications to management arrangements to enable targets to be
met;
• Tasks to be done to achieve the targets set and who is responsible for
doing them;
• Time it will take;
• How much it will cost in terms of the budget, staff time, staff
development and other resources;
• Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the plan –
progress checks;
• Evaluating its impact over time – success check.
Success Criteria
Success criteria are a form of school-generated
performance indicator, which:
– give clarity about the target: what exactly are you
trying to achieve?;
– point to the standard expected by the team;
– provide advance warning of the evidence needed
to judge successful implementation;
– give an indication of the time-scale involved.
Progress and Success Checks
Regular progress checks involve:
• giving somebody in the team responsibility for ensuring that the progress
checks take place;
• reviewing progress at team meetings, especially when taking the next step
forward or making decisions about future directions;
• deciding what will count as evidence of progress in relation to the success
criteria;
• finding quick methods of collecting evidence from different sources;
• recording the evidence and conclusions for later use.
Success checks take place at the end of the developmental work on a target.
The team now decides how successful the implementation of the target or
priority as a whole has been. Checking success need not be complex or
time-consuming. It will consist largely in collating, and then drawing a
conclusion about, the earlier progress checks.
The relationship between progress and success checks
The Planning Process
The ‘Iceberg Model’ of Educational Change
Content & Structures
Values and Beliefs
Behaviours
Three Phases of Educational Change
Institutionalisation
Initiation
Implementation
“The Implementation Dip”
Time
Matt Miles on Change Agent Skills
TRUST
DIAGNOSIS
PLAN
WORKING IN GROUPS
KNOWHOW
CONFIDENCE TO CONTINUE
The Experience of Educational Change




change takes place over time;
change initially involves anxiety and uncertainty;
technical and psychological support is crucial;
the learning of new skills is incremental and
developmental;
 successful change involves pressure and support
within a collaborative setting;
 organisational conditions within and in relation to
the school make it more or less likely that the
school improvement will occur.
Joined up Professional Development for
the Whole Workforce … in Schools
• Make space and time for ‘deep learning’ and
teacher enquiry
• Use the research on learning and teaching to
impact on student achievement
• Studying classroom practice increases the
focus on student learning
• By working in small groups the whole school
staff can become a nurturing unit
• Invest in school-based processes for
improving teacher’s pedagogical content
knowledge
Six Approaches to Staff Development
•
•
•
•
•
•
Achieving Consistency
Specific Observation Schedules
Japanese ‘Lesson Study’
Coaching
Instructional Rounds
Peer Coaching
A Three Phase Strategy for School
Improvement
• Phase One: Establishing the Process
• Phase Two: Going Whole School
• Phase Three: Sustaining Momentum
Phase One: Establishing the Process
• Commitment to the School Improvement Approach
• Selection of Learning Leaders and School Improvement
Team
• Enquiring into the Strengths and Weaknesses of the
School
• Designing the Whole School Programme
• Seeding the Whole School Approach
Devise your programme around core values
• Every school can improve
• Improvement is assessed in terms of enhanced pupil
outcomes
• Every individual in the school has a contribution to make
• Start from where the school is, but set high goals
• Model good practice with precision
• Raise expectations of what is possible.
Preparing for School Improvement
Pre-conditions
 Commitment to
School
Improvement
 General
consensus on
values
 Understanding
of key
principles
School Level
Preparations
 Shared values
 A mandate from
staff
 Leadership
potential
 Identification of
change agents
 Willingness to
make structural
changes
 Capacity for
improvement
Unifying Focus
Improvement
Theme
An enquiry into
Teaching and
Learning
Means
School
Improvement
Strategy
Phase Two: Going Whole School
• The Initial Whole School PD Day(s)
• Establishing the Curriculum and Teaching Focus
• Establishing the Learning Teams:
− Curriculum groupings
− Peer coaching or ‘buddy’ groups
• The Initial Cycle of Enquiry
• Sharing Initial Success on the Curriculum Tour
Curriculum Tour
WHOLE SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PRIORITY
An Enquiry into Teaching and Learning
Stage
I
Stage
II
Stage
III
Dept. A
(Inductive
Teaching)
Dept. B
(Inductive
Teaching)
Dept C
(Inductive
Teaching)
‘Curriculum Tour’
Group Work
Memory
Synectics
WHOLE SCHOOL WORKING TOWARDS REPERTOIRE OF
TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES
In addition, School Improvement Team
members are involved in:
• Out of school training sessions on capacity building
and teaching and learning;
• The pursuit of their own knowledge in support of
their role – about leadership, the management and
implementation of change, the design of
professional development activities etc.;
• Planning meetings in school;
• Consultancy to school working groups;
• Observation and in-classroom support;
• Study visits to other schools within the network.
Phase Three: Sustaining Momentum
• Establishing Further Cycles of Enquiry
• Building Teacher Learning into the Process
• Sharpening the Focus on Student Learning
• Finding Ways of Sharing Success and Building Networks
• Reflecting on the Culture of the School and
Department
Moving to Scale
Cohorts of 6 - 8 Schools
6 - 8 Members of School Improvement Group
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
PLAN
Cohort A
Cohort B
Cohort C
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The Logic of System Leadership
Learning Potential of all Students
Repertoire of Learning Skills
Models of Learning - Tools for Teaching
Embedded in Curriculum Context and Schemes of Work
Whole School Emphasis on High Expectations and
Pedagogic Consistency
Sharing Schemes of Work and Curriculum Across and
Between Schools, Clusters, Regions, States and
Nationally
System Leadership Roles
A range of emerging roles, including heads who:
– develop and lead a successful educational improvement partnership across local
communities to support welfare and potential
– choose to lead and improve a school in extremely challenging circumstances
– partner another school facing difficulties and improve it. This category includes
Executive Heads and leaders of more informal improvement arrangements
– act as curriculum and pedagogic innovators who develop and then transfer best
practice across the system
– Work as change agents or experts leaders as National Leader of Education,
School Improvement Partner, Consultant Leader.
Leading change
‘You must be the
change you wish to
see in the world’
Professor David Hopkins
David Hopkins is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Education, University of London,
where until recently, he held the inaugural HSBC iNet Chair in International Leadership.
He is a Trustee of Outward Bound and is Executive Director of the new charity
‘Adventure Learning Schools’. David holds visiting professorships at the Catholic
University of Santiago, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Universities of
Edinburgh, Melbourne and Wales and consults internationally on school reform.
Between 2002 and 2005 he served three Secretary of States as the Chief Adviser on
School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills. Previously, he was Chair of
the Leicester City Partnership Board, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University
of Nottingham where among other things, he was centrally involved in establishing the
National College for School Leadership. Before that again he was a Tutor at the
University of Cambridge Institute of Education, a Secondary School teacher and Outward
Bound Instructor. David is also an International Mountain Guide who still climbs
regularly in the Alps and Himalayas. His recent books Every School a Great School and
System Leadership in Practice are published by The Open University Press.