Growing research capital for school improvement

Chris Brown explores how “research capital” can be used as the basis for school and school system improvement, modelled on an evaluative case study of a federation of schools.

What can be done to foster positive attitudes towards, and engagement in, research by teachers so that this increased “research capital” can in turn result in improvement dividends? This ambition is explored in this article and illustrated through a case study of three schools working together within the Chestnut Learning Federation.

Create an account to read this article

£7.00+ VAT

One-off purchase

Purchase and Download today

Register for free

No Credit Card required

Register for free
Access to 3 free articles
Free TeachingTimes Report every month

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#43668"
  ["title"]=>
  string(67) "Teacher research engagement: what do we know and what can we learn?"
  ["categories"]=>
  array(4) {
    [0]=>
    string(10) "Leadership"
    [1]=>
    string(24) "Professional Development"
    [2]=>
    string(8) "Research"
    [3]=>
    string(23) "Teachers as Researchers"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(65) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/pdt192-teacher-research-engagement/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1497961125)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(12) "post-43668-3"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(286) "Jonathan Sharples and Julie Nelson describe their investigation into teachers’ research engagement. They reveal that, whilst teachers are positively disposed to research, a great deal remains to be done to establish a genuinely evidenced informed culture in schools."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(451) "... literacy-campaignReferencesBrown, C. (2017). ‘Growing research capital for school improvement’, Professional Development Today, 19, 1, 52-58.Brown, C., and Zhang, D. (2016). ‘How can school leaders establish evidence-informed schools: an analysis of the effectiveness of potential school policy levers’, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 45, 3, 382-401 ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "full"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(6) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(76) "Teacher research engagement: what do we know and what can we learn?"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "research"
      }
    }
    ["author"]=>
    array(2) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(17) "Jonathan Sharples"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(12) "Julie Nelson"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(286) "Jonathan Sharples and Julie Nelson describe their investigation into teachers’ research engagement. They reveal that, whilst teachers are positively disposed to research, a great deal remains to be done to establish a genuinely evidenced informed culture in schools."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "research"
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(6002) "is research used in practice? We were able to ascertain whether or not teachers said they used research evidence to inform or change classroom practice, but we were unable to explore how the evidence was implemented, adapted and evaluated.What is the role of school culture, trust and relationships in supporting research use?What is the relationship between teacher research and academic research? How do, and can, these different forms of research evidence interact?We also need better understanding about how teachers ‘blend’ research evidence with other sources of information to create an evidence-informed approach. Our survey considers how teachers’ use of research evidence compares with use of other sources (such as CPD information or colleagues’ expertise), but in an evidence-informed school we would expect these sources of information to complement and support each other. This is an explicit objective of EEF-funded scale-up activities; hence, ongoing evaluations should provide useful insights on the interplay between these different forms of evidence.Finally, our research suggests that many teachers have a natural interest in, and inclination to use, research evidence, although this interest is not necessarily translating to their decision-making processes or knowledge of research. This relationship needs investigating in more detail; nevertheless, this study suggests a number of avenues are worth exploring in terms of integrating research into the day-to-day work of schools:Research producers can build on teachers’ natural tendency to draw on their colleagues and other schools for support, by working through ‘practice partners’ – educators with good understanding of research and practice, who can both ‘translate’ research for school improvement and classroom practice and act as ‘advocates’ for the evidence. They should also ensure that research findings are presented clearly and accessibly, with linked guidelines for implementation.Training and professional-development providers can help teachers develop a working level of ‘research literacy’, enabling them to understand and critique research literature so that they can successfully expand their knowledge base. CPD providers should be explicit in identifying where research evidence has informed the development of resources and training.School senior leaders can model their tendency towards higher levels of research engagement with their colleagues, creating opportunities for the wider staff in their schools to develop their understanding and use of research evidence, and matching this with necessary resources. This is particularly important in the primary phase.Prof. Jonathan Sharples, Education Endowment Foundation and EPPI-Centre, University College London.Dr. Julie Nelson, National Foundation for Educational Research.NOTES1. http://www.workingoutwhatworks.com/2.  https://researchschool.org.uk3.  https://www.collegeofteaching.ac.uk/4.   http://www.ntrp.org.uk/5.  http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/carnnew/6. The full findings are available at https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/our-work/resources-centre/research-use-survey/ 7.  https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-launches-1.5-million-fund-to-improve-use-of-research-in-schools/8. 	This measure of uncertainty applies to a random sample of schools; and of teachers within schools. With bias in the sampling, the true population percentage could lie outside this range.9.  https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/resources/teaching-learning-toolkit10. See the work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Centre for Educational Research and Innovation on this topic: http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/neuromyths.htm11. See Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and Learning in Secondary’ Schools from the Department for Education and Skills, 2004 : http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5706/7/DfES%200442-2004G%20PDF_Redacted.pdf12. Statistical significance was set to p<0.05. This means there is a less than five per cent possibility that a reported difference could have arisen by chance if there was really no true difference.13. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/north-east-literacy-campaignReferencesBrown, C. (2017). ‘Growing research capital for school improvement’, Professional Development Today, 19, 1, 52-58.Brown, C., and Zhang, D. (2016). ‘How can school leaders establish evidence-informed schools: an analysis of the effectiveness of potential school policy levers’, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 45, 3, 382-401. ■ Brown C. (Ed) (2015). Leading the Use of Research and Evidence in Schools. London: IOE Press. ■ Centre for the Use of Research & Evidence in Education (2011). Report of Professional Practitioner Use of Research Review: Practitioner Engagement in and/or with Research. Coventry: CUREE [online]. Available: http://www.curee.co.uk/files/publication/[site-timestamp]/Practitioner%20Use%20of%20Research%20Review%20-%20FINAL%2011_02_11.pdf [29 June, 2015]. ■ Greany, T. (2015). ‘How can evidence inform teaching and decision making across 21,000 autonomous schools? Learning from the journey in England.’ In Brown, C. (Ed) Leading the use of Research & Evidence in schools. London: Institute of Education Press. ■ Handscomb and MacBeath (2003) The Research Engaged School. FLARE Essex County Council. ■ Hargreaves, D. (1996). ‘Teaching as a research-based profession: possibilities and prospects.’ Paper presented at the Teacher Training Agency Annual Lecture,"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "full"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(5) {
        [0]=>
        string(7) "growing"
        [1]=>
        string(8) "research"
        [2]=>
        string(7) "capital"
        [3]=>
        string(6) "school"
        [4]=>
        string(11) "improvement"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(4) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(24) "Professional Development"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [2]=>
      array(4) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(17) "Research"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(7) "partial"
        ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
        bool(true)
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(8) "research"
        }
      }
      [3]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(23) "Teachers as Researchers"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
    ["tags"]=>
    array(4) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(3) "CPD"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(32) "Evidence Informed Practice (IEP)"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [2]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(11) "NFER Report"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [3]=>
      array(4) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(36) "teacher research engagement"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(7) "partial"
        ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
        bool(false)
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(1) {
          [0]=>
          string(8) "research"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Leadership

Teacher research engagement: what do we know and what can we learn?

20 Jun 2017

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#43492"
  ["title"]=>
  string(26) "Growing teacher leadership"
  ["categories"]=>
  array(5) {
    [0]=>
    string(20) "Executive Leadership"
    [1]=>
    string(10) "Leadership"
    [2]=>
    string(22) "Leadership Development"
    [3]=>
    string(15) "Leadership Team"
    [4]=>
    string(24) "Professional Development"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(65) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/pdt19-1-growing-teacher-leadership/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1489411185)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(12) "post-43492-3"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(384) "Christopher Chapman and Kevin Lowden describe how they built teacher leadership through collaborative research and development as part of the School Improvement Partnership Programme1 led by the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow. They report significant gains for both teachers and pupils, together with partnerships ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(357) "... research and practice: a case of back to the future? In: Chapman, C., Armstrong, P., Harris, A., Muijs, D., Reynolds, D. and Sammons, P. (eds) School Effectiveness and Improvement Research, Policy and Practice: Challenging the Orthodoxy. New York, NY, USA: Routledge ■ Chapman, C., Lowden, K Chestnutt, H.R Hall ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(5) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(35) "Growing teacher leadership"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(7) "growing"
      }
    }
    ["author"]=>
    array(2) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(19) "Christopher Chapman"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(12) "Kevin Lowden"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(417) "Christopher Chapman and Kevin Lowden describe how they built teacher leadership through collaborative research and development as part of the School Improvement Partnership Programme1 led by the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow. They report significant gains for both teachers and pupils, together with partnerships helping to close the attainment gap."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(3) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "research"
        [1]=>
        string(6) "school"
        [2]=>
        string(11) "improvement"
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(4201) "real value may lie in their leverage for handing greater responsibility, decision-making, ownership and, perhaps most crucially, power over to teachers. Lawrence Stenhouse’s words on this issue are just as relevant now as they were over a third of a century ago:Only the pursuit of research directly applied to the curriculum and teaching puts the teacher in the power position; for he [sic] is in possession of the only valid laboratory, the classroom. (Stenhouse, 1980, p. 44)Put simply, Stenhouse reminds us that it is teachers who change classrooms not policies or protocols. These types of initiatives provide a positive context that place teachers at the centre of educational change and empower them to lead the change at a time when so many policies place them at the margins, with little power or control. If schools are to play their full role in tackling educational inequities in an authentic way we must place teachers and teacher leadership at the centre of reforms and provide the power and resources to undertake the task in hand within their own schools, in collaboration with other schools and in partnership with the communities and families they serve. In this sense the move to further empower teachers within Scotland provides us with a significant opportunity to both raise the bar and close the gap in educational outcomes for all of Scotland’s children.This article is based on a paper prepared for Scottish Government.Professor Christopher Chapman and Kevin LowdenRobert Owen Centre for Educational Change. University of Glasgow.ReferencesAinscow, M., Dyson, A., Goldrick, S., and West, M. (2012) Making schools effective for all: rethinking the task. School Leadership & Management, 32 (3), pp.197-213. ■ Bryk, A.S., Gomez, L.M., Grunow, A. and LeMahieu, P.G. (2015) Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better, Harvard University Press, Boston, MA. ■ Chapman, C., and Hadfield, M. (2010) Supporting the middle tier to engage with school-based networks: change strategies for influencing and cohering. Journal of Educational Change, 11(3), pp. 221-240. (doi:10.1007/s10833-009-9125-y) ■ Chapman, C. (2012) School improvement research and practice: a case of back to the future? In: Chapman, C., Armstrong, P., Harris, A., Muijs, D., Reynolds, D. and Sammons, P. (eds) School Effectiveness and Improvement Research, Policy and Practice: Challenging the Orthodoxy. New York, NY, USA: Routledge ■ Chapman, C., Lowden, K Chestnutt, H.R Hall, S McKinney, S Hulme, M and Friel, N (2014) “The School Improvement Partnership programme: Using collaboration and inquiry to tackle educational inequity,” Report to Education Scotland. Livingston. Education Scotland. ■ Chapman, C., Lowden, K., Chestnutt, H.R., Hall, S., McKinney, S., Hulme, M. and Friel, N. (2015) “The School Improvement Partnership programme: using collaboration and inquiry to tackle educational inequity”, Report to Education Scotland, Education Scotland, Livingston. ■ Chapman, C., Chestnutt, H., Friel, N., Hall, S. and Lowden, K. (2016),”Professional capital and collaborative inquiry networks for educational equity and improvement?”, Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 1, No. 3 pp. 178 – 197 ■ Cochran-Smith, M., and Lytle, S.L. (2009) Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next generation. New York: Teachers College Press ■ Earl, E. and Katz, S. (2006) Leading Schools in a Data-Rich World: Harnessing Data for School Improvement. Corwin. ISBN-10: 1412906466 ■ Hargreaves, D (2012) A self-improving school system: Towards maturity, Nottingham: NCSL ■ Hadfield, M and Chapman, C (2009) Leading school-based networks. Oxon: Routledge ■ Kerr, D., Aiston, S., White, K., Holland, M. and Grayson, H. (2003) Literature Review of Networked Learning Communities, NFER, NCSL commissioned research. ■ Stenhouse, L (1980) Curriculum Research and the Art of the Teacher Curriculum, 1 (1) Spring"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(4) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "research"
        [1]=>
        string(7) "capital"
        [2]=>
        string(6) "school"
        [3]=>
        string(11) "improvement"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(5) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(20) "Executive Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [2]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(22) "Leadership Development"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [3]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(15) "Leadership Team"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [4]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(24) "Professional Development"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Executive Leadership

Growing teacher leadership

13 Mar 2017

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#43701"
  ["title"]=>
  string(41) "Review of the school leadership landscape"
  ["categories"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(10) "Leadership"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(58) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/review-leadership-landscape/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1499349887)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(13) "post-43701-17"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(350) "... leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools. This research offers a fascinating consideration of the schools’ landscape and clearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since the first review of school leadership in England in 2002. By the National College for School Leadership - 2012"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(455) "... schools that ‘accept responsibility for self-improvement of the cluster as a whole’ (Hargreaves,2010:5) and work together to co-construct effective new practice. School clusters, Hargreaves argues, shoulddevelop social capital (trust and reciprocity), collaborative capital ( joint analysis, investigation, innovation,evaluation), professional development and distributed system leadership (Hargreaves, 2011 ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(4) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(50) "Review of the school leadership landscape"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(6) "school"
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(562) "The English education system is experiencing an era of unprecedented change, at least as significant as the move to Local Management of Schools after 1988. Nowhere are these changes more keenly felt than amongst the leadership teams and governing bodies of the country’s schools. This research offers a fascinating consideration of the schools’ landscape and clearly highlights how it has evolved over the 10 years since the first review of school leadership in England in 2002. By the National College for School Leadership - 2012"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(2) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "research"
        [1]=>
        string(6) "school"
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(5809) "schools focused on school improvement can increasestudent attainment after between two and four years. Hill and Matthews (2010) argue that NLEs can rapidlyincrease student achievement in previously low-attaining schools. Ofsted (2010) reports that school-to-school collaboration for improvement has benefits for outstanding schools as well as the schools theysupport. Hill et al (2012) argue that academy chains can raise attainment in deprived areas, but thatthe performance of weaker chains needs to be addressed. Curtis et al (2008) also note that admissions,exclusions and the power of sponsors in respect of local representation across chains will need to bemonitored.There is also an association between widening system leadership roles and the extension of distributedleadership. In part this is operational. Schools in which the headteacher and other staff engage in substantiveexternal roles need to build new internal leadership capacity. But it can also be strategic. Matthews et al(2011) found that ‘outstanding’ schools involved in multiple school partnerships worked purposefully toidentify and develop new leaders, including by constructing their partnerships to provide a range of hands-onexperiences, acting roles and mentoring opportunities for future leaders. Working alone, the schools wouldhave found these opportunities hard to provide.Government commitment to formal system leadership roles has been renewed in recent policy. TheDepartment for Education (HM Government, 2010), via the National College, plans to increase the number ofNLEs from about 400 in 2010 to 1,000 by 2014, and the number of LLEs from 1,400 in 2010 to around 2,000by 2014. A specialist leader in education (SLE) role will enable outstanding teachers to share knowledgeand practice with colleagues in other schools. A teaching school designation has also been created withthe aspiration that outstanding schools will lead local school alliances to co-ordinate the training anddevelopment of teachers and provide school-to-school support for improvement. The National Collegeplans to designate 500 teaching school alliances by 2014/15 and announced the first 100 in July 2011. InNovember 2012, there were 217 designated teaching schools.The government is also committed to rapidly increasing the number of schools that are academies, boththrough intervening in low-attaining schools to create more sponsored academies and by enabling schools toapply for academy status as converter academies. All schools can now apply (following an initial restrictionby Ofsted grading). Academies are independent from local authority governance and management. Theygain directly the funding their local authority received to support them as a locally maintained school. Theybecome their own admissions authority and also gain freedoms including those related to the nationalcurriculum and staff pay and conditions.29 © National College for School LeadershipIn October 2012, the Department for Education reported that there were 2,373 academies open in England,up from only 203 in September 2010, meaning 2,170 schools had become academies in 2 years. Overthat period the number of sponsored academies has risen from 203 to 512 and the number of converteracademies from 0 to 1,861. In October 2012, academies accounted for 45 per cent of all secondary schoolsand 5 per cent of all primaries in England. Academy-sponsored chains are a growing, if still small, part of theleadership landscape (see Hill et al, 2012).Hargreaves (2010) has proposed a conceptual model of how schools might draw upon autonomy and systemleadership to establish a ‘self-improving school system’. At its centre is a ‘local solutions approach’ withinclusters of schools that ‘accept responsibility for self-improvement of the cluster as a whole’ (Hargreaves,2010:5) and work together to co-construct effective new practice. School clusters, Hargreaves argues, shoulddevelop social capital (trust and reciprocity), collaborative capital ( joint analysis, investigation, innovation,evaluation), professional development and distributed system leadership (Hargreaves, 2011). The modelhas real strengths, not least in that schools are encouraged to conceive of autonomy collaboratively. Theyare also assumed to lead the process of change, rather than being driven by external compulsion, whichhas been shown to be an unsustainable substitute for professional leadership, ownership and participation(Bryk et al, 2010; Elmore, 2004; Fullan, 2004, 2010; Fullan & Boyle, 2011; Katz & Earl, 2010; Muijs, 2010;Leithwood, 2010; and Thomson et al, 2011).There are, however, several potential constraints to the realisation of Hargreaves’s model in practice. First,the workings of accountability, lingering competition and uncertainty may undermine a system organisedaround local clusters. Second, new autonomies for schools and a reduced role for many local authorities arealso intended to stimulate a new school improvement market. Teaching school alliances and schools willincreasingly compete with chains, consultants, companies and indeed local authorities to sell services toschools. Access to a wider pool of advice, including from other schools, may be welcome, but reconciling amarket with social and collaborative capital may prove difficult, especially where knowledge is to be sold aswell as shared.There may also, in practice, be a segmentation of capacity and willingness to engage with and shape aself-improving system. The National College’s 2012 annual survey indicated that a majority of schools werebroadly"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(4) {
        [0]=>
        string(7) "growing"
        [1]=>
        string(7) "capital"
        [2]=>
        string(6) "school"
        [3]=>
        string(11) "improvement"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Leadership

Review of the school leadership landscape

6 Jul 2017

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#87075"
  ["title"]=>
  string(50) "Can Outstanding Schools Ever Bottle Their Success?"
  ["categories"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(24) "Professional Development"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(80) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/can-outstanding-schools-ever-bottle-their-success/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1591797600)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(12) "post-87075-3"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(229) "Roisin Killick and Peter Matthews analyse an innovative project called Growing The Top, in which the senior leaders of trios of outstanding schools pooled knowledge and expertise to find solutions to systemic challenges."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(428) "... practice and effective innovation. The research dimension was promoted through the inputs to cohort events and by the majority of participant schools,that demonstrated how research had contributed to their strategies and practice. Research informed examples included: approaches to change management, school improvement strategies, subjects such as mathematics, middle leader ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(5) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(50) "Can Outstanding Schools Ever Bottle Their Success?"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(0) {
      }
    }
    ["author"]=>
    array(2) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(14) "Peter Matthews"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(14) "Roisin Killick"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(229) "Roisin Killick and Peter Matthews analyse an innovative project called Growing The Top, in which the senior leaders of trios of outstanding schools pooled knowledge and expertise to find solutions to systemic challenges."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(7) "growing"
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(5781) "maintaining the focus and momentum of discussions –––12115.7Ensured that both the school and visitors could express what they had gained and would take away from the visit  ––––3115.8Added value to your experience of the day  –––1495.6(Matthews and Killick, 2019: 20)Outcomes The GtT programme demonstrably reinforced the group of 21 schools as a virtuous learning community in terms of Berwick’s three characteristics: research, best practice and effective innovation. The research dimension was promoted through the inputs to cohort events and by the majority of participant schools,that demonstrated how research had contributed to their strategies and practice. Research informed examples included: approaches to change management, school improvement strategies, subjects such as mathematics, middle leader development and mental health and wellbeing. Shared best practice included curriculum planning, driving up standards, intervention strategies and student and staff coaching. The schools showcased many innovative approaches including, for example: year 8 baccalaureate, personal development and ilearn, staff personal improvement plans, and maximising boys’ progress. The schools cited many ways in which they learnt from each other by discovering what worked best in other places and pooling knowledge about systemic challenges. The latter included brainstorming solutions as well as sharing knowledge and research about effective practice. Schools were predisposed to following up the most fruitful themes by creating links between other senior and middle leaders in the school trios. The third and final cohort meeting included trio witness statements of what they had taken away for the programme and – in many cases – already begun to implement. The greatest potential of the programme lay in systemic challenges that centre on raising the relative achievement of specific groups, including boys, disadvantaged children and under-performing sixth formers. The findings showed that sharing what works through Growing the Top undoubtedly helped schools to tackle these issues. ConclusionThe Challenge Partners’ Growing the Top programme provides an effective and efficient platform for excellent schools to share existing knowledge of great practice, co-create solutions to challenges that they share and explore their journeys to tackling issues that other schools may just be starting out on dealing with.Although the success factors of the GtT programme align with the attributes of effective PLCs, the GtT programme’s evaluation expands Stoll et al.’s concept of PLCs, limited to the school as a community with PLCs only developing and succeeding with “the active support of leadership at all levels”. The impact of learning cascades beyond the participating school leaders since the GtT model provides space and opportunities for the ongoing collaboration for various inter-school groups during and after completion of the initial programme. Essentially, the development of an effective and inter-school PLC at senior leader level also resulted in a “trickle-down effect” with inter-school pop-up learning groups forming between middle leaders, encouraged and facilitated by school leadership designed to explore issues in greater depth. In trio 6, for example, “The contacts we have made and ideas and policies we have shared are providing the basis for linking people at different levels across the schools. This has started with work on English. We plan to meet again next year to review progress stemming from the programme.”These outward looking “pop-up”, inter-school learning groups were catalysed through the GtT programme and then emulated the processes which encompassed three very important conditions for success.Enhancing the well-established social capital within Challenge Partner schoolsThe development of the Growing the Top programme within the existing Challenge Partners Network of Excellence means that the programme can take advantage of established social and moral capital and outward looking perspectives that are part of the makeup of the partnership. Schools who participate in the GtT programme are already used to opening their doors to visitors and welcoming external challenge through peer reviews.External facilitationBy absolving principals of host schools from facilitation responsibilities, their focus can really be on effectively presenting aspects of the school and contributing to open dialogue and collaboration. The facilitator shoulders the practical responsibility for creating an effective and open learning environment and ensuring that the day runs smoothly and effectivelyChallenge Partners as a brokerCentralised project management ensures that the logistics of visits, identification of topics and quality of agendas were secured before visits took place and that cohort meetings added value to the programme. Additional quality assurance oversight for the programme and training of facilitators ensure that the learning experiences are effective and high quality for all participants.This format of facilitated PLC offers a powerful option for effective and efficient inter-school development at a time when schools are feeling increasingly squeezed. With the success of the pilot year of the Growing the Top programme, Challenge Partners has been able to offer the programme more widely in academic year 2019-2020. The programme has been expanded to include primary and special schools to see whether if the"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "full"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(5) {
        [0]=>
        string(7) "growing"
        [1]=>
        string(8) "research"
        [2]=>
        string(7) "capital"
        [3]=>
        string(6) "school"
        [4]=>
        string(11) "improvement"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(24) "Professional Development"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Professional Development

Can Outstanding Schools Ever Bottle Their Success?

10 Jun 2020