Learnings from Diagnostic Reviews

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Learnings from Diagnostic Reviews

• Quality, Improvement Effectiveness

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Diagnostic Reviews

• QIE has conducted 33 diagnostic reviews over the
  past 2 years
• Predominantly in primary schools but a number of
  R-12 and 2 secondary sites
• Additional 10 diagnostic reviews to be conducted
  by the end of Term 3 2009
• Over 400 hours observing in about 200 classrooms
  in 2008
• Identified a number of SYSTEMS issues

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• So what have we learnt?

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Improvement isnt linear and
where you start from influences the next steps
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Appreciative Inquiry

• People have more confidence going into the future
  (unknown) when they carry forward parts of the
  past (known).
• If we carry parts of the past into the future,
  they should be the best about the past
• Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry, Sue Annis
  Hammond

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Commendations are the Key

• Appreciative Inquiry is based on the premise
  that- in every organisation something works and
  change can be managed through the identification
  of what works and the analysis of how to do more
  of what works. Sue Annis Hammond
• The report COMMENDATIONS tell us about your
  values, passions and strengths
• USE THEM to build from successes-unpack and
  explore them tounderstand and capture what
  works

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Make success explicitfor staff students
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• ... the most important factor affecting student
  learning is the teacher. ... The immediate and
  clear implication of this finding is that
  seemingly more can be done to improve education
  by improving the effectiveness of teachers than
  by any other single factor.
• Wright, S. Horn, S. Sanders, W. (1997).
  Teacher and Classroom Context Effects on Student
  Achievement Implications for Teacher Evaluation

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• .. students learn best when teachers accept
  responsibility for student outcomes.
• Dimmock, 1993 Restructuring for School
  Effectiveness.

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Focus on learning

• Establish clear and high expectations for
  teachers and learners
• Review and use data to establish challenging
  standards for all students
• Improve and monitor curriculum coverage,
  consistency and coherence
• Identify, document and monitor teaching
  agreements, coach staff to enact them
• Review effectiveness of processes used to
  support students at risk- class and school level

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Focus on learning

• Broaden the range of pedagogies in operation to
  engage and extend all learners
• Provide more explicit teaching of skills and
  concepts, seize the teachable moments
• Ensure learning activities provide relevant,
  challenging tasks with high order thinking,
  extended time on task and clear success criteria
• Provide for differentiation and peer/group work
  within the normal classroom program

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Focus on learning

• Improve programming, planning, record keeping and
  assessment practices
• Clarify and monitor teacher program expectations-
  term/year overviews- link to PM
• Support teachers to use achievement data and
  build an assess-teach-plan cycle
• Improve the quality of verbal and written
  feedback and marking provided to students
• Extend the use of peer moderation, observation
  and critical reflection by teachers

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Whole school agreements are important

• How is it we can have whole school agreements
  about lining up and not teaching and
  learning?Some stuff really does make a
  difference!
• Never work harder than your students Robyn R.
  Jackson

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Attend to Culture

• school improvement is not about a dependency
  culture but about the school doing something for
  itself, which it wants to do.
• Meeting the Challenge, David Hopkins 2001

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Attend to Culture

• Promote a critically collaborative and reflective
  teaching and learning culture
• Establish a job-embedded, whole school
  professional learning focus for staff
• Build accountability for agreements through
  performance management and peer meetings
• Structure regular and explicit planning time
  between teachers and for teachers and SSOs
• Attend to key culture building processes eg
  induction, performance management, professional
  development, communication and decision making

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Teacher Wellbeing

• For teachers to be open and reflective to
  incorporate new learnings into practices they
  need to feel that they are valued, respected,
  supported and capable.This requires a culture
  that supports wellbeing for adults as well as
  learners.

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Set Directions

• Natasha "Boris, you got plan?"
• Boris "Behehe... Plan? Of course I got plan.
  Dey don't ever work, but I got one!"
• Rocky Bullwinkle

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Set Directions

• Engage staff (stakeholders) in setting narrow and
  deep directions/priorities for improvement
• Limit and focus priorities- what specific aspect
  of literacy will you improve? Why?
• Strengthen targets and translate into actions-
  how many students, who are they?
• Collaboratively set classroom level strategies
  and monitor for effectiveness
• Link wellbeing and behaviour strategies to
  learning focus- integrate/weave priorities
• Review management process/calendars - reduce
  projects and event driven curriculum

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Challenge Wellbeing for What?

• What is our goal for engaging with learner
  wellbeing?
• What are the outcomes from our efforts?
• ..unless school improvement strategies impact
  directly on learning and achievement then we
  are surely wasting our time. Hopkins 2001

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Shared Leadership

• Leadership is to this decade what standards was
  to the 1990s if you want large-scale, sustainable
  reform. Leadership at all levels, developing and
  supporting leadership and expecting leaders to
  develop other leaders are all essential
  components of present day strategies.
• Michael Fullan, 2003

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Shared Leadership

• Promote pedagogy and curriculum as the key focus
  for all leadership roles
• Structure regular strategic leadership meetings,
  clarify roles, develop a joint stance
• Teacher leaders encourage staff to step up,
  support colleagues, undertake AST/leadership
• Student voice and choice- teach students and
  structure for them to make choices within
  classes, the curriculum and across the school
• Investigate different ways to engage parents in
  their childs learning

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Grow improvement

• I think that it is dangerous to try to create
  great changes in human nature in any short space
  and time. If youre going to change a
  civilisation, it can only be done as the gardener
  does it, not as the engineer does it. That is, it
  has got to be done in harmony with the rules of
  nature and cant all be done overnight. Thats
  why Im against practically all revolutions-
  because they usually end up badly by trying to do
  too much at once.
• George Kennan

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Difference is contextual

• READY for improvement
• Clear directions, effective plan, resources
  first steps
• WILLING to improve
• Agreed directions, culture supports learning,
  critical collaboration
• ABLE to improve
• Knowledge skills to improvePD and performance
  feedbackSufficient time
• Not ready plan, debate, discuss
• Not willing build culture/morale/trust
• Not able- PD, model, teach, observations

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Start small - look for levers/root causes
Example Staff Wellbeing
Helpful tools- Inter-Relationships Diagram, 5
Whys etc
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• Effective schools are ones in which principals
  and teachers focus on student learning outcomes
  and link this information to improvements in
  teaching and learning strategies.
• Michael Fullan 2003

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Effective schools

• have leaders who are dedicated to obtaining
  quality performance from teachers and students
  alike
• have a climate in which learning is stressed,
  order exists and all are committed to a single
  vision
• are student-oriented and classrooms are permeated
  with the belief that all students can learn and
  all are expected to reach their full potential
• emphasize time on task, require daily homework,
  and offer a warm and supportive work environment
  where teachers use a variety of teaching styles
  and encourage student interaction and team
  learning. Weller Hartley, TQM School
  Restructuring (1994)

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For support / questions / comment

• Contact QIE!www.decs.sa.gov.au/quality
• Katrina Spencerspencer.katrina_at_saugov.sa.gov.au
  8226 1349