What we have learned from the past 20 years of
research into school effectiveness and school
improvement
Masaryk University, Brno
May 10, 2010
Professor Tony Townsend
Chair of Public Service, Educational
Leadership and Management
Department of Educational Studies,
University of Glasgow
Before we start
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Write down in a sentence or two what you think
the meaning of each of the following terms is:
Classroom effectiveness
School effectiveness
School improvement
School reform
Discuss what you have written with your
neighbour. How close are your definitions?
Maybe this will help
• Classroom effectiveness – improving student
achievement through learning and teaching
• School effectiveness – establishing processes that
focus on student learning
• School improvement – the attempts by local
education authorities to improve effectiveness
across schools
• School reform – restructuring the school system
to bring about large scale change
Educational Effectiveness Research
Sets out to answer the questions:
• What makes a ‘good’ school?
• How do we make more schools ‘good’?
What is an effective school?
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What criteria would you use to judge
whether a school is effective or not?
List five characteristics that an effective
school would have that a less effective
school would not
Choose the two you think are the most
important
Coleman et al., 1966:325
Schools bring little influence to bear on a child's
achievement that is independent of his background and
general social context... this very lack of an independent
effect means that the inequalities imposed on children by
their home, neighbourhood and peer environment are
carried along to become the inequalities with which they
confront adult life at the end of school. For equality of
educational opportunity must imply a strong effect of
schools that is independent of the child's immediate
environment, and that strong independence is not present
in American schools.
Rutter et al, 1979:1
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do a child's experiences at school have any effect?
does it matter which school he goes to?
which are the features of school that matter?
Madaus et al, 1980:22
an effective school can be defined as such...
‘to the extent that there is congruence
between its objectives and achievements. In
other words it is effective to the extent that it
accomplishes what it sets out to do’
Edmonds, 1978:3
I define an effective school as being
instructionally successful for all children
excepting those of certifiable physical, emotional
or mental handicap. Specifically, I require that an
effective school bring the children of the poor to
those minimal masteries of basic school skills that
now describe minimally successful pupil
performances for the children of the middle class.
Sammons, Hill and Mortimore (1995)
Townsend, 1994:48
An effective school is one that develops and maintains a
high quality educational programme designed to achieve
both system-wide and locally identified goals. All
students, regardless of their family or social background,
experience both improvement across their school career
and ultimate success in the achievement of those goals,
based on appropriate external and school-based
measuring techniques.
McGaw et al. (1992:174)
School effectiveness is about a great deal more than
maximising academic achievement. Learning, and the
love of learning; personal development and self-esteem;
life skills; problem solving and learning how to learn;
the development of independent thinkers and wellrounded, confident individuals; all rank as highly or
more highly in the outcomes of effective schooling as
success in a narrow range of academic disciplines.
The legacy of school effectiveness (Reynolds, 1994)
...has had the positive effect of helping to destroy the
belief that schools can do nothing to change the
society around them...and... the myth that the
influence of family background is so strong on
children's development that they are unable to be
affected by school
...has had the negative
effect of creating a widespread, popular view that
schools do not just make a difference, but that they
make all the difference.
Teddlie & Reynolds, 2000
From the position 30 years ago that schools make no
difference, there is now the assumption that schools
affect children’s development; that there are observable,
valuable routines and programs within the schools, and
that the task of educational policies is indeed, to
improve schools.
The legacy of school effectiveness (Reynolds et al 2011)
Overall it (EER) has achieved much, notably:
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In helping to counter the mistaken belief that schools could do
nothing to change the society around them;
• In helping to rigorously study ‘what worked’, rather than be
prone to follow fads and fashions about this;
• In helping to show practitioners they had power that could be
used for the good over young people;
• In creating a valid, although as we noted above, somewhat
limited knowledge base which could act as a foundation for
training and which could avoid the need for the reinvention of
the wheel by the teaching professions of different countries.
What does the research tell us?
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School effectiveness is context
dependent
Even effective schools might not be
effective in all departments
Schools that are effective now might not be in a
few years time
Classroom effectiveness is more
important than school effectiveness
when it comes to student outcomes
The really BIG question
Where is the ONE PLACE in school where learning
happens?
Not one of the places, or even the most important place,
but the
one
place?
School and Class Effects
Percent of Variance in Value-Added Measures of English and
Mathematics Achievement Accounted for by School and Class
Effects
Class (%)
School (%)
English
Primary
Secondary
45
38
9
7
55
53
4
8
Mathematics
Primary
Secondary
Hill & Crevola, 1997: 9
What Helps Students Learn?
Wang, M.C., Haertel, G.D. and Walberg, H.J.
(1993/1994, Educational Leadership, pp 74-79)
Analyzed 179 chapters, conducted 91 research syntheses,
interviewed 61 educational researchers, considered 11,000
findings. Identified 28 areas grouped into 6 categories
What Helps Students Learn?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Classroom Management
Metacognitive processes
Cognitive processes
Home Environment/Parental
Support
5. Student/Teacher social interactions
6. Social/behavioural attributes
7. Motivational/Affective attributes
8. Peer Group
9. Quantity of Instruction
10. School Culture
11. Classroom Climate
12. Classroom Instruction
13. Curriculum Design
14. Academic Interactions
15. Classroom Assessment
16. Community Influences
17. Psychomotor skills
18. Teacher/Administrator
Decision Making
20. Parent Involvement Policy
21. Classroom Implementation
and Support
22. Student demographics
23. Out of Class Time
24. Program Demographics
25. School Demographics
26. State Level Policies
27. School Policies
28. District Demographics
What helps students learn?
district/system
school
program
home/community
classroom
student
Influences on Student Achievement
Prof John Hattie (Auckland University):
Meta-analysis of over 50,000 studies
What are the effect sizes of various aspects of
student learning? What are the most important
things we can do to change student learning?
• Reference: Hattie, J. (2003). ‘Teachers Make a Difference:
What is the Research Evidence?’,
http://www.leadspace.govt.nz/leadership/articles/teachersmake-a-difference.php
Influences on Student Achievement
Influence
Feedback
Student’s Prior Cognitive Ability
Instructional Quality
Direct Instruction
Remediation/feedback
Student’s disposition to learn
Effect Size
1.13
1.04
1.00
.82
.65
.61
Large
Source
Teacher
Student
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Student
Influences on Student Achievement
Influence
Class environment
Challenge of goals
Peer tutoring
Mastery learning
Parent involvement
Homework
Teacher style
Questioning
Peer effects
Advance organisers
Simulations and games
Computer-assisted instruction
Testing
Instructional media
Aims and policy of school
Affective attributes of students
Effect Size
Source
.56
.52
.50
.50
.46
.43
.42
.41
.38
.37
.34
.31
.30
.30
.24
.24
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Home
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Peers
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
School
Student
Moderate
Influences on Student Achievement
Influence
Programmed instruction
Ability grouping
Audio-visual aids
Individualisation
Finances/money
Behavioural objectives
Team teaching
Physical attributes (class size)
Television
Retention
Effect Size
.18
.18
.16
.14
.12
.12
.06
-.05
-.12
-.15
Source
Small/Weak
None/negative
Teacher
School
Teacher
Teacher
School
Teacher
Teacher
School
Home
School
See also:
Hattie, J. (2007). ‘Developing Potentials for Learning: Evidence, assessment, and progress’,
EARLI Biennial Conference, Budapest, Hungary.
http://www.education.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/education/staff/j.hattie/j.hattie_home.cfm
The Effects of Quality Teaching: accounting for variance in student achievement
Percentage of Achievement Variance
Teachers
> 30%
Students
~50%
Home
Peers
Schools
~5-10%
Principal
~5-10%
John Hattie ( 2003, 2007)
School and Classroom Effectiveness
…one of the more powerful conclusions arising from
recent research is that much of the variation between
schools is, in fact, due to variation among classes
Peter Hill, 1995
What Helps Students Learn?
Hattie (2003):
It is what teachers know, do, and care about
which is very powerful in this learning
equation.
Effective Classrooms
• structured teaching;
• effective learning time;
• opportunity to learn, pressure to achieve and high
expectations;
• physical/material school characteristics;
• parental involvement.
Smink, 1991: 3
School effectiveness is concerned with results.
Researchers try to describe certain variables for school
success in measurable terms. On the other hand,
school improvement places the accent on the process;
here one finds a broad description of all the variables
that play a role in a school improvement project. Both
approaches need the other to successfully modernize
the system.
McGaw, Banks &Piper, 1991: 15
There is no definitive how of effective
schools and so there can be no one
recipe for every school to try.
Schooling is too complex a business for
a recipe.
Stoll & Fink, 1992
Only when school effectiveness
research is merged with school
improvement research can planned
change and staff development occur to
empower and support growth towards
effectiveness
Stoll & Fink (1996)
Effective
Improving
Declining
Moving
Cruising
Strolling
Ineffective
Struggling
Sinking
Stoll & Fink, 1996
Moving Schools
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boost student progress
work together to respond to
changing context and to keep
developing
know where they’re going
have the will and skill to get there
Stoll & Fink, 1996
Cruising Schools
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appear to possess many qualities of school
effectiveness
usually are high SES schools
pupils achieve in spite of teaching quality
not preparing students for a
changing world
Stoll & Fink, 1996
Strolling Schools
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neither particularly effective nor ineffective
moving at an inadequate rate to cope with the
pace of change
ill-defined and sometimes conflicting
aims inhibit improvement
Stoll & Fink, 1996
Struggling Schools
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ineffective and they know it
expend considerable energy trying to improve
willing to try anything
will ultimately succeed
Stoll & Fink, 1996
Sinking Schools
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ineffective, are isolated, use blame and self-reliance
staff, through ignorance or apathy, are unable to
change
often low SES and blame parenting
need dramatic action and significant support
What school is your school?
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Moving (effective and improving)
Cruising (effective but declining)
Strolling (OK but not going anywhere)
Struggling (not effective but getting better)
Sinking (not effective and getting worse)
Stoll & Fink (1996)
Effective
Improving
Declining
Moving
Cruising
Strolling
Ineffective
Struggling
Sinking
What school is your school?
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Student achievement
Staff-student relationships
Student welfare
Literacy attainment
Numeracy attainment
Balanced curriculum
Student responsibility
School facilities and environment
Parent involvement
School leadership
Professional development
Fund raising
Marketing the school
Staff-administration relationship
Communication to parents
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Relations with the wider community
Extra curricular activities
Sporting achievement
Staff health and well-being
Student attendance
Staff involvement in decisions
Financial management
Student behavior
School ethos and climate
Curriculum development
Assessment of student progress
Reporting to parents
Relations with region/department
Staff cooperation
Inducting new staff
Student group learning
Celebrate achievement
The Dynamic Model of Educational Effectiveness (Creemers and Kyriakides, 2011)
National/Regional policy for
education
Evaluation of policy
The educational environment
School Policy
Evaluation of School Policy
Quality of teaching
- Orientation
- Structuring
- Modelling
- Application
- Questioning
- Assessment
- Management of Time
- Classroom as a learning environment
SES
Aptitude
Expectations
Gender
Perseverance
Thinking
style
Ethnicity
Time on task
Subject
motivation
Opportunity to Personality traits
learn
Outcomes
•Cognitive
•Affective
•Psychomotor
•New learning
Townsend (2007, p 951)
• Redefining the concept of effectiveness to consider contextual issues
that occur at various levels of education;
• Redefining the measurement of effectiveness to consider broad,
rather than narrow, outcomes, based on the reality of people’s
experiences of the world;
• Redefining the structures and implementation of schooling in ways
that take into account the complexity of the experience;
• Redefining the experience of schooling for students based on what we
now know about learning, about the impact of context and about the
changes brought about by globalization and technology;
• Redefining teacher education to consider the issues of effectiveness
identified above for the professional education and development of
teachers and school leaders.
Future issues for SESI research
Redefining the concept of effectiveness to consider
contextual issues that occur at various levels of education.
What would change if the unit of effectiveness being
measured was:
The school system (an effective educational system)?
The community (an effective neighbourhood)?
The student (an effective student)?
The family (an effective family)?
The government (an effective government)?
Future issues for SESI research
Redefining the measurement of effectiveness to consider
broad, rather than narrow, outcomes, based on the reality
of people’s experiences of the world.
How would we measure the following:
Education for survival (the building blocks for everything else)?
Understanding our place in the world (how my particular talents can
be developed and used)?
Understanding community (how I and others are connected)?
and
Understanding our personal responsibility (understanding that being
a member of the world community carries responsibilities as well as
rights)?
Future issues for SESI research
Redefining the structures and implementation of
schooling in ways that take into account the complexity
of the experience
Where are the powerful decisions about education taken:
Nationally?
Local Authority level?
School Level?
Somewhere else?
If we are to focus our attention on every child, where
SHOULD they be taken?
Future issues for SESI research
Redefining the experience of schooling for students
based on what we now know about learning, about the
impact of context and about the changes brought about
by globalization and technology
Every morning in every school in the world, there are
two groups of students who bring different
understandings of what their day will be like. For the
first group, they are going to a place they enjoy (school)
to work with people they like (teachers) to do something
of value (learning) that will bear fruit in the future. The
second group are going to a place that they hate, to work
with people they think hate them, to do something they
don’t believe they can do for a future they don’t have.
Townsend, 2007, p 957
Future issues for SESI research
Redefining teacher education to consider the issues of
effectiveness identified above for the professional
education and development of teachers and school
leaders.
There are two types of teachers, the tellers and the askers.
(Clinch 2001)
More information
If you would like more details contact
Tony Townsend:
School of Education
University of Glasgow
Phone:
+44(0)141 330 4434
Fax:
+44(0)141 330 5451
email:
tony.townsend@glasgow.ac.uk