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Establishing educational standards and
monitoring student performance relating
national and international perspectives and
instruments. A perspective from England.10th
OECD - Japan International SeminarTokyo, 24th
June 2005
Professor David HopkinsHSBC iNET Chair of
International Leadership
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Brief History of Standards in Primary Schools
11 plus dominated
Standards and
Professional control
"Formal"
accountability
"Informal"
NLNS
2004
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
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KNOWLEDGE POOR
1970s Uninformed professional judgement
1980s Uninformed prescription
NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION
PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT
2000s Informed professional judgement judgement
1990s Informed prescription
KNOWLEDGE RICH
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Towards Informed Prescription National
Curriculum and Tests
The Education Reform Act 1988 took control of
curriculum and assessment out of the hands of
local authorities and examining boards by
prescribing

• a National Curriculum for all pupils of
  mathematics, English and science and history,
  geography, technology, music, art, physical
  education and a modern foreign language.
• clear attainment targets detailing the
  knowledge, skills and understanding pupils should
  gain
• clear assessment procedures comprised of
  national curriculum tests at 7, 11, 14 and 16
• publication of results at schools level, made
  available to the public

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Developing Informed Prescription Policy framework
Intervention in inverse proportion to success
Ambitious Standards
High Challenge High Support
Devolved responsibility
Accountability
Access to best practice and quality professional
development
Good data and clear targets
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National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy

• Problems identified in Primary schools
• inconsistency in standards
• fragmented provision in schools
• concerns over subject knowledge
• poor links across the curriculum.
• Response
• promote good classroom provision effective
  management
• use targets to raise expectations and
  aspirations
• identify, support and disseminate good practice
• provide high quality training and materials to
  teachers over a sustained period
• develop and fund effective intervention programmes

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4

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Distribution of Reading Achievement in 9-10 year
olds in 2001
575
550
525
500
475
450
425
400
375
350
325
300
Italy
Israel
Latvia
Belize
France
Greece
Iceland
Cyprus
Turkey
Kuwait
Norway
Sweden
England
Hungary
Bulgaria
Germany
Slovenia
Morocco
Lithuania
Scotland
Romania
Colombia
Argentina
Singapore
Netherlands
New Zealand
United States
Czech Republic
Hong Kong SAR
Slovak Republic
Moldova, Rep of
International Avg.
Macedonia, Rep of
Russian Federation
Iran, Islamic Rep of
Canada (Ontario,Quebec)
Source PIRLS 2001 International Report IEAs
Study of Reading Literacy Achievement in Primary
Schools
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Towards a High Excellence, High Equity Education
System
560
High excellence Low equity
High excellence High equity
Finland
540
U.K.
Canada
Korea
Japan
520
U.S.
Belgium
500
Switzerland
Spain
Germany
Mean performance in reading literacy
480
Poland
460
Low excellence Low equity
Low excellence High equity
440
420
60
80
100
120
140

• 200 Variance (variance OECD as a whole 100)

Source OECD (2001) Knowledge and Skills for Life
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But in its third term the Government faces a
range of educational challenges

• Maintaining progress in primary with the right
  balance between standards, curriculum breadth,
  learning to learn and welfare
• Accelerating performance in lower secondary
  education
• Achieving a settlement at 14 19
• Recognising that teaching quality is crucial to
  achievement
• Tackling underperformance at all levels
• Addressing deprivation as the root cause of low
  attainment.

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Towards Informed Professionalism
National Prescription
Schools Leading Reform
a b
c
Personalised Learning
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The published response is the 5 year strategy
The 5 Year Strategy

• At 0 2 years old, a wide range of accessible,
  affordable high quality early learning and
  childcare
• At 3 4 years old, flexible educare
  integrated education and childcare to meet
  families needs
• From age 5, wrap-around childcare before and
  after school in school holidays
• Between 5 and 14 an unrelenting focus on high
  standards, the acquisition of skills and the
  induction into a broad and rich curriculum
• 14-19 a wider choice of high quality programmes,
  and more places in popular schools

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I interpret this to mean a renewed emphasis on
the central pillars of existing reform

• Personalisation of curriculum, teaching and
  learning
• Workforce Reform and reducing within school
  variation
• A New Relationship with Schools
• More Intelligent Accountability System
• Networks to spread innovation school in
  challenging circumstances
• A focus on System Leadership

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(i) Personalised Learning Adding Value to the
Learning Journey
I get to learn lots of interesting and different
subjects
I know what my learning objectives are and feel
in control of my learning
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 know how I am being assessed and what I need to
do to improve my work
I can get the job that I want
I enjoy using ICT and know how it can help my
learning
All these . whatever my background, whatever my
abilities, wherever I start from
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5 key components of Personalised Learning
Assessment for Learning
Inner Core
Effective Teaching and Learning
Curriculum Enrichment and Choice
Personalising the School Experience
Organising the School for Personalised Learning
Beyond the Classroom
We need to engage parents and pupils in a
partnership with professional teachers and
support staff to deliver tailor made services
to embrace individual choice within as well as
between schools and to make it meaningful through
public sector reform that gives citizens voice
and professional flexibility (David Miliband, 18
May 2004)
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(ii) Enhancing Professional Development through
Workforce Reform

• Workforce Reform is essentially about creating
  the conditions to deliver personalised learning
• Teachers freed to focus on teaching and learning
• More professional support staff both in and
  outside the classroom
• Teacher promotion based on classroom practice
• Cutting edge ICT to revolutionise curriculum
  delivery and streamline back office systems
• Getting the culture right, willingness to
  re-examine existing models

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The School as a Professional Learning Community,
reducing within school variation

• Build in time for collective inquiry
• Collective inquiry creates the structural
  conditions for school improvement
• Studying classroom practice increases the focus
  on student learning
• Use the research on teaching and learning to
  improve school improvement efforts
• By working in small groups the whole school staff
  can become a nurturing unit
• Staff Development as inquiry provides synergy and
  enhanced student effects

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(iii) A New Relationship with Schools

• If we want to make personalised learning the
  defining feature of our education system then we
  need to develop a new, focussed and purposeful
  relationship between the DfES, LEAs and schools.
• David Miliband, Minister for Schools, North of
  England Speech, 9th January 2004
• Planning for improvement
• 3 year funding
• Bottom up targets
• Single conversation on schools future
• School Improvement Partners
• Accountability
• Starts from school self-evaluation
• Sharper, lighter inspection
• Annual profile

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New Relationship with Schools

• Single Conversation
• new School Standards Grant, combining most
  grants, from April 2006
• bottom-up targets
• multi-year, academic year budgets from April 2006
• enables improvement planning and budgetary
  planning for the medium term

Inputs
Outputs
Focus

• schools SEF
• schools development
• plan
• Exceptions report on
• student attainment and
• equity gaps
• value for money
• comparisons
• Data on pupil attendance
• Other data

how well is the school performing? what are the
key factors? what are the key priorities? how
is school going to get there? heads
performance management

• report to heads, GB,LEA
• self assessment
• priority and targets
• action and support
• agreed package of support inc engagement with
  other schools
• recommendation on specialist schools
  resignation
• advice to GB on HT appraisal

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(iv) Towards an Intelligent Accountability
framework
Internal External
Tests Assessment for learning using a range of tools at all ages Teacher assessment at KS1 External tests at KS1, KS2 and KS3. Test results published at KS2-3.
Targets Targets for every child part of the learning culture Self evaluation identifies priority areas for targets action Use pupil performance data to inform target levels Schools must set targets at KS2-4. High quality data means LEA can check targets are stretching Floor targets bite on low performers
Tables VA CVA help establish strengths / weaknesses relative to peers Raw at KS2, KS3, GCSE A-Level. VA at KS2-GCSE, KS3-GCSE
Inspection (2005/06) Rigorous self-evaluation throughout school required to demonstrate sound management to OfSTED. Every 3 years at no notice. More frequent in weak schools. HMI oversee all inspections.
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Balancing Internal and External Assessment
Formative
Assessment for Learning
Pupil Achievement Tracker / FFT
External
Internal
Moderated Teacher Assessment
National Curriculum Tests
Summative
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(v) Networks and Innovation

• Networks supporting educational innovation by
• Providing a focal point for the dissemination of
  good practice and the agents of knowledge
  creation, transfer and utilisation.
• Keeping the focus on the core purposes of
  schooling in particular creating and sustaining a
  discourse on teaching and learning.
• Enhancing the skill of teachers.
• Building capacity for continuous improvement at
  the local level.
• Ensuring that systems of pressure and support are
  integrated, not segmented.
• Acting as a link between the centralised and
  decentralised policy initiatives.

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Intervention Strategies
Type of School Key elements of the offer
Leading Schools - Funding to become leading practitioners - Formal federation with lower-performing schools
Succeeding, self-improving schools - Regular local networking for school leaders - Entitlement time from consultants
Succeeding schools with internal variations Consistency interventions such as AfL. Subject specialist support to particular depts.
Underperforming schools Tailored consultancy for underperforming depts. Underperforming pupil interventions, eg catch-up.
Low attaining schools Formal support in Federation structure Consultancy in core subjects and best practice, eg curriculum content for low-attaining students.
Failing schools Intensive Support Programme New provider eg Academy.
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(vi) System Leadership

• If our goal is both high equity and excellence
  then policy and practice has to focus on system
  improvement. This means that a school head or
  principal has to be almost as concerned about the
  success of other schools as he or she is about
  his or her own school. Sustained improvement of
  schools is not possible unless the whole system
  is moving forward.

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Research based conclusions about successful
school leadership

• Leadership has significant effects on student
  learning, second only to the quality of the
  curriculum and teachers instruction
• Heads and teacher leaders provide most of the
  leadership in schools, but other potential
  sources of leadership exist
• A core set of leadership practices form the
  basics of successful leadership and are
  valuable in almost all educational contexts
• Successful school leaders respond productively to
  challenges and opportunities created by the
  accountability-oriented policy context in which
  they work
• Successful school leaders respond productively to
  opportunities and challenges of educating diverse
  groups of students.

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These six reforms will take the UK some of the
way, but there will also be pressure to up the
ante

• Segmentation, with networks and intervention
  better targeted at institutional need and
  context, including through self-evaluation.
• Control and management of Demand and Supply,
  with
• Choice using parental demand as a driver for
  improvement and
• Contestibility expanding supply with new places
  in good schools, new schools and new providers.
• Structural change linked to national professional
  practice, to ensure increasing teaching quality
  impacts on standards.

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The Inside - Out Story
Reform is neither only system led nor only
schools led, but necessarily both supporting each
other

• Schools exist in increasingly complex and
  turbulent environments, but the best schools
  turn towards the danger
• Schools adapt external change for internal
  purpose.
• Schools should use external standards to clarify,
  integrate and raise their own expectations.
• School benefit from highly specified, but not
  prescribed, models of best practice.
• Schools, by themselves and in networks, engage in
  policy implementation through a process of
  selecting and integrating innovations through
  their focus on teaching and learning.

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PISA, International Benchmarking and a Dialogue
on Large Scale reform

• PISA data not only offers the opportunity for
  international benchmarking, but can also help
  develop insights into what kinds of good
  classroom practice, school organisation and
  policy levers make a difference. For example
  groups of relatively similar countries could
• Undertake detailed self analysis on the nature of
  educational provision in each country at school
  and classroom level
• Develop hypotheses about the impact of and
  identification of key drivers for system-wide
  educational reforms
• Conduct country level research to test hypotheses
  and develop policy advice
• Compare the policy advice for groups of countries
  at different levels of performance as measured by
  PISA.