Professional Development

Understanding Peer Review

Susan Cousin describes a book which examines the practice of school peer review across the globe and its improvement contribution

Book Review: Godfrey, D. (Editor) (2020) School peer review for educational improvement and accountability: Theory, practice and policy implications. - Springer

Ambitious international mix

The field of school peer review is, as the book claims, both under-researched and growing in importance. This is a much-needed and original contribution to the field, capturing emerging practice and offering an evaluative framework. It contains an interesting mix of empirical case studies from six countries, as well as an attempt to conceptualise the concept of ‘peer review’ in order to allow comparison of the different manifestations.

The book is ambitious in scope. A considerable strength of the book is the range of contexts included in thirteen chapters organised into seven sections. Part 1 presents an overview of current research in the field, framing the growth of peer review within research into external and internal school evaluation. It concludes with a helpful list of conditions for effective peer review.

Part 2 presents examples from Queensland (Australia) and Wales (UK) of peer reviews introduced at system level to complement existing accountability and school improvement strategies. Part 3 considers theoretical and practitioner perspectives of the interaction of peer review models with the English high-stakes accountability framework. Chapter 4 looks at peer reviews through the lens of isomorphism1, asking whether peer reviews reinforce a hierarchical external accountability system or whether they represent a move towards a more professionally-network-based form of accountability. Chapter 5 reports a case study of three primary schools implementing the INSTEAD peer review programme, run by the National Association of Headteachers as an alternative to Ofsted, the national inspection service.

Part 4 captures the challenges of introducing peer review in systems without an established culture of school self-evaluation. Chapter 6 offers a case study of a network of schools in Sofia City, Bulgaria, developing peer review as part of a polycentric approach to evaluating a network. Chapter 7 describes the challenges of introducing the use of peer review in the Czech Republic. Both report positive benefits of peer review for school and staff development; and the need for a supportive national infrastructure to develop more sustainable practice.

Contribution to school improvement

Part 5 contains two chapters describing in detail long-standing collaborative peer review models which have evolved as part of large school improvement partnerships in England. The Challenge Partners peer review (Chapter 8) is administered annually across over 400 schools, underpinned by a clearly articulated Theory of Action. The Education Development Trust’s Partnership Programme, engaging over 1,400 schools since 2014, has a three-stage cyclical Theory of Change detailed in Chapter 9. Both models claim an impact on student learning and outcomes; both stress the importance of shared responsibility for improvement within and between schools; reciprocity; enquiry-based learning and open and transparent systems and processes designed in line with the Theory of Action.

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