Leadership

Improving Teaching Effectiveness: Final Report

This report published by the RAND Corporation, shows the findings from an evaluation of a $575 million programme to improve teacher performance. It found that while sites implemented new measures of teaching effectiveness and modified personnel policies accordingly, the programme had no impact on pupil outcomes.

The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, designed and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed to dramatically improve pupil outcomes by improving pupils’ access to effective teaching.

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      string(397) "... iii) Gorard S & Siddiqui N. How trajectories of disadvantage help explain school attainment. SAGE Open 9(1): 1-14 (2019)(iv) Stecher BM et al, Improving Teaching Effectiveness: Final Report: The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching Through 2015–2016. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, (2018).(v) Wiliam, D, Seminar for ..."
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      string(5674) "the amount of improvement that evidence-based reform can deliver. It would be enough to close perhaps 50-75% of the gap between disadvantaged students and their peers (although the peers would also improve). Put another way, it would ensure that many more disadvantaged and previously lower-attaining students had the reading and maths skills to help them access the future curriculum and then succeed beyond school. A future whole-school improvement programme where the school uses research evidence itself might achieve more or less than this, but this is the area of impact we can expect.This level of impact is only possible with intensive, whole-school implementation of evidence-based reform. Less intensive implementation than this will clearly have much less impact. So, for example, introducing metacognitive strategies across school or using retrieval practice starters is likely to have much less impact, impact that may be almost undetectable. What kind of impact are teachers and schools expecting from introducing such approaches, and how will they know if they have achieved it? The evaluation projects that we have supported have shown that this evaluation can be done, but it is not easy, or commonly carried out at the moment. It is more likely that teachers and schools will rely on the existing approaches they have to evaluate change. This may be fine, but as with the implementation of many new approaches in schools (the social-emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) programme comes to mind (x)) is likely to result in a mix of beliefs about the effectiveness, from enthusiastic evangelist to disappointed sceptic. And here lies the risk, that evidence-based reform might end up being treated like any other fashion within schools – embraced or dismissed based on belief rather than science.I think there are a number of issues that need further discussion and communication in order to ameliorate this risk:The potential impact that evidence-based reform can have within the school system. Let us all be clear about how much change can actually be achieved. How is this then presented to the wider community of parents and public? Can we agree a culture of realistic expectations?The effort that is required, from teachers and schools, to achieve this impact. To achieve the most impact requires “relentless” effort, but how should we balance this with the workload, mental health, recruitment and retention challenges that schools face?More and better evaluation of the impact that changes to practice are having, whether at a small-scale in-school level, all the way up to continuing randomised controlled trials, particularly of the interventions that schools are actually using.And as always, in any research-based article, more research, particularly on issues that are important to schools, but under-researched.I still believe that evidence-based reform is the best way of achieving significant, worthwhile improvement in outcomes for children, but I think it is vital that we have a shared understanding of how difficult these gains are to achieve, in order to avoid disappointment and disillusion with the evidence-based movement.Top tips for practitionersIt seems likely that sustained, school-wide engagement with research evidence is required to make a significant difference to pupil outcomes.For individual practitioners, though, there is still benefit to be had from engaging with the research evidence, providing a rich source of ideas and challenge. Where it exists, research evidence provides a secure foundation and framework for practice.Interest in research engagement has never been higher, and there is a vibrant, supportive community out there from whom you can benefit – distilling, reflecting, and applying research in practice.Jonathan Haslam was until recently the Director of the Institute for Effective Education and has been working for the last twelve years to help practitioners and policy makers use research evidence in practice. He has been involved in a wide range of projects supporting evidence use, including the Research Schools Network and Evidence for the Frontline.References(i) Lortie-Forgues H, Inglis M, Rigorous Large-Scale Educational RCTs Are Often Uninformative: Should We Be Concerned? Educational Researcher 48(3) 158-66 (2019)(ii) Coleman J, Campbell E, Hobson C, McPartland J, Mood A, Weinfield F, & York R. Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington: US Department of Education and Welfare. (1966).(iii) Gorard S & Siddiqui N. How trajectories of disadvantage help explain school attainment. SAGE Open 9(1): 1-14 (2019)(iv) Stecher BM et al, Improving Teaching Effectiveness: Final Report: The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching Through 2015–2016. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, (2018).(v) Wiliam, D, Seminar for district leaders accelerate learning with formative assessment 2013 https://www.slideshare.net/NWEA/dylan-wiliam-seminar-for-district-leaders-accelerate-learning-with-formative-assessment-2013-19027603 accessed November 2019(vi) Education Endowment Foundation, Putting Evidence To Work: A School’s Guide To Implementation (2018)(vii) Haslam J, What are active ingredients?, IEE blog, (2020) https://the-iee.org.uk/2020/10/22/what-are-active-ingredients/(viii) Murphy R, Weinhardt F, Wyness G and Rolfe H, Lesson Study, Evaluation report and executive summary, Education Endowment Foundation (2017)(ix) Rose J, Thomas S, Zhang L, Edwards A, Augero A, Roney P, Research Learning Communities, Evaluation report and executive summary, Education Endowment Foundation"
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Professional Development

Searching For The Diamond In The Mine -Evidence That Classroom Practice Works

27 Mar 2021

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Leadership Briefing 9.07(103)"
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      string(5717) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.ASSURING QUALITY IN EDUCATION: POLICIESAND APPROACHES TO SCHOOL EVALUATIONIN EUROPEKeywordsQuality,education,policies,approaches,SchoolEvaluation,Europe,effectiveness,investment,procedures,tools,qualification,evaluators SummaryImproving the quality and effectiveness of investment in education throughout the EU is oneof the key objectives of the European Strategic Framework for Education and Training. ThisEurydice Report gives a comprehensive picture of how 32 European countries evaluate thequality of their schools. The report compares approaches, structures, and the roles playedby external and internal school evaluation systems, while analysing the concrete procedures,tools, qualification of evaluators and the use made of results.School evaluation aims at monitoring or improving the quality of the school as a whole. Schoolevaluation may relate to a broad range of school activities, including teaching and learning and/or allaspects of school management. There are two major types of school evaluation: external evaluation,which is conducted by evaluators who are not staff members of the school concerned, and internalevaluation, performed primarily by members of its staff.This report deals with the evaluation of schools providing compulsory fulltime education in all EUMember States, as well as Iceland, Norway, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey.Main Findings: ■ External evaluation of schools is currently carried out in 31 education systems located in 26countries. External evaluation focuses on the school as an entity and essentially aims to monitorand improve its quality. In most cases, external school evaluation assesses a broad range ofschool activities, such as educational and management tasks, student outcomes, the quality ofteaching, and compliance with regulations. The exact areas monitored differ from one countryto the next. In most systems, evaluation criteria are set at central level and outline not only whatthe external evaluation should focus on but also define what a ‘good’ school would look likeaccording to a set of standards. ■ While the scope and range of activities evaluated can differ from one country to the next, theimplementation aspects of external school evaluation are very similar across Europe. Theprocess is largely based on a three step approach: (1) preliminary analysis, (2) site visits, and(3) reporting. Six education systems (Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UnitedKingdom – England and Northern Ireland) incorporate a risk assessment as a very first stepwith the aim of focusing evaluation efforts on schools that seem to perform below standard orchoosing among different typologies of inspection. ‘Site visit’ are a common pattern to all externalschool evaluation processes and are meant to provide evaluators with first-hand evidence ofschool performance and functioning. During such visits evaluators consult school documents,Week Commencing 9th February 2015http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/178EN.pdfhttp://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/178EN.pdfhttp://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/178EN.pdfhttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/359483/DFE-RR286_-_Are_free_schools_using_innovative_approaches.pdfLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.observe teaching practices, and discuss with in-school actors and, if foreseen, with externalstakeholders. The third ‘reporting’ phase consists of preparing a final school evaluation report. ■ Outcomes of external school evaluation can be slotted into three broad categories: remedialactions, disciplinary actions, and profile-raising actions. Of the three, remedial actions are byfar the most common. They aim at addressing weaknesses found or at rectifying breaches inthe regulations. In some systems, when remedial actions do not reach their goal, educationauthorities apply disciplinary measures which can target the school as a whole or in rarecases specific individuals. In six education systems (France, Lithuania, Poland, and the UnitedKingdom – England, Wales, Northern Ireland) external evaluations are used not only to findflaws in schools performances, but also to identify strengths and good practices, and to makethem visible to the larger education community. This profile-raising approach supports a cultureof positive feedback, visibility of what works, and can initiate a mechanism of peer-learning withpositive returns on the entire education system. ■ External evaluation reports are handled in one of three ways across Europe: (1) the final report ismade public, (2) the report is distributed with certain restrictions (e.g. only upon request), or (3)it is not made public. While only a few systems (Belgium – French Community, Denmark, Spain,Cyprus for lower secondary education, Hungary, Austria, and Turkey) do not make their reportspublic, all others fall into one of the first two categories. Publishing school evaluation reportsprovides an important source of information for school stakeholders, which may contribute togenerate"
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Leadership

Policies and Approaches to School Evaluation in Europe

4 Feb 2015

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Leadership Briefing 5.12 (60)"
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      string(5497) "ResourceTHE USE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF ANTI-BULLYING STRATEGIES IN SCHOOLSOriginal DocumentThe Use And Effectiveness Of Anti-Bullying Strategies In Schools. This Department for Education project aimed to examine which strategies schools in England use to deal with episodes of bullying, which are supported by local authorities, why schools choose these strategies, and how choice of strategy varies by sector and type of bullying. It also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a range of strategies, from the perspective of the anti-bullying lead, pupils and other school personnel.KeywordsBullying, school, children, interventions, strategies, scheme, community, approachesSummaryThis report on the effectiveness of anti-bullying interventions started in September 2008 and lasted until November 2010. It was conducted by the Unit for School and Family Studies, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, with support from the Anti-Bullying Alliance.The project aimed to examine which strategies schools in England use to deal with episodes of bullying, which are supported by local authorities, why schools choose these strategies, and how choice of strategy varies by sector and type of bullying. The study also aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a range of strategies, from the perspective of the anti-bullying lead, pupils and other school personnel; and to make a final report and recommendations to Department for Education (DfE). A further aim was to provide some evaluation of the peer mentoring pilot scheme commissioned by the former Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).Key Findings:· Whole-school approaches to tackling and preventing bullying in schools involve working with children and young people, parents, school staff and the whole-school community to provide a solid foundation from which to embed developments and improvement in a systematic way. A range of whole-school approaches were widely used (81%-99% of schools), and were mostly seen as moderately effective.· Classroom strategies are strategies that are delivered through the curriculum to educate students about bullying and discuss anti-bullying work. A range of classroom strategies were widely used (86%-96%), with the exception of quality circles (16%). All were rated moderately effective.· Playground strategies are strategies to prevent bullying in the playground require specific measures as part of the implementation of a whole-school approach to bullying. Improving school grounds and training lunchtime supervisors were widely used (80%-81%), but fewer schools reported a playground policy (46%). All were rated moderately effective.· Other proactive strategies are strategies mentioned and used by schools in all sectors that are in addition to those named in our questionnaire. Other proactive strategies reported by schools included anti-bullying groups and zones; rights respecting schools award; protective behaviours; golden rules; UK resilience training; rules, policies and charters written by students; vertical tutoring; assemblies; anti-bullying awards; assertiveness behaviours and whole-school campaigns.ActionWhole-school recommendations:· Anti-bullying policies need a clear definition of bullying and set of procedures if bullying happens – what to do and what the schools does; they should cover a range of bullying (including homophobic, race-related, gender-based, faith-based, disability-based, and cyberbullying).· The anti-bullying policy provides a framework for a consistent whole-school approach. As such it needs to be effectively disseminated to all teaching and support staff; parents and pupils.· A toolkit of strategies is needed to provide a range of interventions as all students and bullying incidents are individual – what works for one will not necessarily work for all.· Having a consistent approach to bullying includes using a whole-school approach which needs to be expressed in the anti-bullying policy; all staff need to be trained; students briefed; parents informed; peer supporters trained and embedded in the curriculum.· Staff training including knowledge about bullying, and the range of anti-bullying interventions, should be a part of initial and ongoing teacher training, for a wide range of staff.· Auditing for bullying behaviour provides base line information from the students about the levels and types of bullying prevalent in the school.· Multiple reporting systems for students and parents need to be non-stigmatising and exposing. If through a bully box; email or text system, schools also need to acknowledge they have received the student’s report and that they will take action.· A centralised recording system which identifies vulnerable children and students at intake; tracks student behaviour to target additional peer support and provides evidence for the effectiveness of interventions including peer support.· Regular evaluation of anti-bullying work – know that what you use works – the only way to do this is to have regular evaluations with staff and students.· Training providers and resources need to be evaluated; regulated or have an approved standard so schools and local authorities can make an informed choice.NotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Imaginative MindsDate CreatedMay 2011Enquiries to:raspal.chima@yahoo.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of 1©Birmingham City Council"
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Leadership

Anti-Bullying Strategies In Schools

12 May 2011

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      string(361) "... direct consequence ofthe demands made upon them when deployed inteaching roles. We question whether TAs are adequatelyprepared to take on the role, and in our final report forthe DCSF we made the following recommendations topolicymakers.Schools should examine the deployment of classroomor pupil-based support staff to ensure that they ..."
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      string(5667) "Child JournalWe also found that pupils with School Action Plus/SEN hadfar more active and more sustained interactions with TAsthan they did with teachers. So we can conclude that thepupils with the most need of adult support for their learninghave more and longer focused attention with TAs – and as weshow below, this has a cost.In terms of separation from teachers and the curriculum,we found that:Support from TAs reduces the overall amount ofinteraction pupils have with the teacher.Secondary school teachers’ interaction with individualpupils is almost halved, and pupils’ active interaction withthe teacher (where two-way interaction is initiated andsustained) is also nearly halved.TA-supported pupils tend to miss out on everydayteacher-to-pupil interactions, as TAs are handedresponsibility for teaching and learning tasks (inparticular, literacy and numeracy interventions for whichpupils are withdrawn from the class).Our study shows that the characteristics of the teaching rolein which assistants are deployed have a consequence: theneediest pupils are in most danger of becoming regularlycut off from their teachers. We conclude that TA support isalternative, not additional, to teacher input.Furthermore, we found much differentiation in tasksfor supported pupils: 61 per cent of our observations inprimary schools, and 87 per cent in secondary, showed thatnnnsupported pupils worked on a different task from the one themajority of the class were doing (often it was an interventionprogramme). So, in addition to being cut off from the teacher,the way TAs are currently deployed means that supportedpupils can be separated from the coverage of mainstreamcurriculum topics experienced by the rest of the class, andcoverage can be interrupted.At the point of actual talk with pupils, even more detailabout the pedagogical role of TAs is revealed.6 We foundthat teachers spent more time explaining concepts to pupils,providing feedback, making links to pupils’ prior knowledge,and promoting pupil thinking and cognitive engagementin the tasks. TAs, conversely, sometimes gave inaccurate orconfusing explanations, were more likely to prompt pupilsand supply them with answers, and were more concernedwith tasks being completed than pupils understandinglearning points.Support from assistants, then, clearly has negativefeatures, which we see as a direct consequence ofthe demands made upon them when deployed inteaching roles. We question whether TAs are adequatelyprepared to take on the role, and in our final report forthe DCSF we made the following recommendations topolicymakers.Schools should examine the deployment of classroomor pupil-based support staff to ensure that they do notroutinely support lower-attaining pupils and pupils withSEN.nwww.teachingtimes.com n Vol 1.2Research & Policy Every Child Journal67NotesDCSF (2009) Statistical First Release (SFR 09/2009): School workforce inEngland, January 2009 (provisional).See, for example, Howes et al (2003), Finn et al (2000), Giangreco et al(1997) and Reynolds and Muijs (2003).We would encourage readers who wish to find out more about the DISSproject and findings to download our research summary from www.ioe.ac.uk/study/departments/phd/5619.htmlThe ideas in this paper come from the authors and are not necessarily inagreement with those of the DCSF or the Welsh Assembly Government.Government has also proposed that support staff should have a directimpact on pupil attainment, through overtly pedagogical input (DfES 2002).Much more detail on adult-pupil interactions can be found in the Strand 2Wave 2 report (Blatchford et al 2009).1.2.3.4.5.6.ReferencesBeeson, C; Kerry, C; Kerry, T (2003), The Role of Classroom Assistants,National Primary TrustBlatchford, P and others (2009), ‘The impact of support staff in schools.Results from the deployment and impact of support staff (DISS) project’,Strand 2 Wave 2, London: DCSFDCSF (2009), Statistical First Release (SFR 09/2009): School workforce inEngland, January 2009 (provisional)DfES (2002), Time for Standards: Reforming the school workforceFarrell, P; Balshaw, M; Polat, F (1999) The management, role and training oflearning support assistants, DfESFinn, J and others (2000), ‘Teacher aides: an alternative to small classes?’in: Wang, M; Finn, J (eds), How small classes help teachers do their best,Temple University Center for Research in Human DevelopmentGiangreco, M and others (1997), ‘Helping or hovering? Effects ofinstructional assistant proximity on students with disabilities’, ExceptionalChildren 64, pp7–18Howes, A and others (2003), ‘The impact of paid adult support on theparticipation and learning of pupils in mainstream schools’, Institute ofEducationMoran, A; Abbott, L (2002), ‘Developing inclusive schools: the pivotal roleof teaching assistants in promoting inclusion in special and mainstreamschools in Northern Ireland’, European Journal of Special Needs Education17:2, pp161–173Reynolds, D; Muijs, D (2003), ‘The effectiveness of the use of learningsupport assistants in improving the mathematics achievement of lowachieving pupils in primary school’, Educational Research 45:3, pp219–230Schlapp, U; Davidson, J; Wilson, V (2003) ‘An “extra pair of hands”?Managing classroom assistants in Scottish primary schools’, EducationalManagement and Administration 31:2, pp189–205Takala, M (2007), ‘The work of classroom assistants in special andmainstream education in Finland’, British Journal of Special Education 34:1,pp50–57nnnnnnnnnnnnPupils in most need should get more, not less,"
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Special Needs

A help or a hindrance?

16 Dec 2009