If you are a school leader and want to reflect on the direction that your school is taking in relation to school improvement, this series of articles by Professor David Hopkins could be beneficial.
David Hopkins is professor emeritus at the Institute of Education, University of London. He has had a key role in advising Secretaries of State and brings his knowledge and research to this series of stimulating and thought-provoking articles.
‘The changing landscape of school improvement’ is the first article in the series. Hopkins begins by reminding us that schools weren’t always thought to make that much difference to the life of students. It is only in more recent times that individual schools have been recognised as making a significant difference to pupil outcomes. Professor Hopkins now claims that we are in the ‘third age’ of school improvement in which the enhancement of the quality of teaching needs to be the central theme of any improvement strategy.
Professor Hopkins refers to eight criteria that characterise effective schools:
- Curriculum-focused school leadership
- Supportive climate in the school
- Emphasis on curriculum and teaching
- Clear goals and high expectations for students
- A system for monitoring performance and achievement
- Ongoing staff development and support
- Local authority and external support
This list is not exhaustive and Professor Hopkins also identifies process factors as contributing.
There are not only different national landscapes in relation to school improvement. Each school has its own position on the developmental continuum too. In ‘Differential strategies for school improvement’ David Hopkins acknowledges the differing needs of schools according to their stage of development and suggests that there are three different routes to improvement that schools might take:
Using tactics: a tactical response to improvement e.g. monitoring performance, targeting students, introducing extra classes, implementing codes of conduct
Applying strategies: this includes the tactical response but with more of a purpose and clear focus at the ‘learning’ level
Developing capacities: this includes a clear strategy but with a more sophisticated approach to change, understanding when change is happening, the reasons why and with the view that school improvement is a way of life
The stage of development of the school is crucial when considering how to improve it. Hopkins identifies six levels of performance in English secondary schools in his article ‘system leadership for system reform’. It is an interesting exercise to consider which level your school is on:
- Leading schools – the highest-performing schools which also have the capacity to lead others
- Succeeding, self-improving schools schools that have consistently above-average levels of value added
- Succeeding schools with significant areas of underperformance they may be successful on published criteria but underperform
- Underperforming schools – the secondary schools in the lowest value-added quartile
- Low attaining schools – below the national floor target but with the capacity to improve
- Failing schools – those secondary schools well below the floor target and with little capacity to improve
For each of these types of school a different approach is needed that is responsive to the school’s context and level of need.
Change isn’t always easy and Professor Hopkins considers some of the impediments to it in ‘The elephant in the classroom’ . Lack of professional practice and its accompanying language can prevent the connection being made between teaching to learning. This he describes as the ‘instructional core’ and understanding what this consists of can help schools to find ways of intervening in classroom practice to improve the quality of student learning.
Hopkins outlines a framework that includes the four elements of:
- Teaching skills
- Teaching relationships
- Teacher reflection
- Teaching model
Which all impact upon one another and combine together to ensure quality teaching takes place. Hopkins is keen to emphasise that the best teachers will have access to a range of teaching models to help them personalise learning.
The changing culture of schools away from competition towards collaboration is the subject of the article ‘The challenge of system reform’. The article looks closely at the role of the school leader and presents a model of system leadership with a moral purpose at its core. This then translates into three domains of action:
- Managing teaching and learning
- Developing people
- Developing organisations
The outer core extends further with leaders supporting other schools and working as change agents such as a National Leader of Education. This view of the school leader as reaching out beyond his/ her own organisation is a particularly powerful and important one in the current context of school reorganisation.
This series is a challenging read that can provide senior school leaders, particularly secondary school leaders, with ways of analysing their approach to school improvement.