A toolkit to develop a data-informed improvement plan.
Description
Based on the conceptual map and the case studies, a toolkit will be developed. This toolkit consists of strategies to help members of schools to implement School Self Evaluation and Planning mechanisms in schools that are data-informed. The toolkit will also be published in each country’s native language. The toolkit will include guidelines for school leaders and teachers on the implementation of the data-informed Self Evaluation process at schools; Session plans for the organisation of various types of creative, participative consultation processes with each of the key stakeholder groups; A wide range of tools (e.g.. questionnaires, focus group questions) that can be used by school leaders and teachers for the purpose of consultation with stakeholders in relation to key topics/ foci of the data-informed Self Evaluation process; Guidelines and tools to support teachers to provide training in research skills to stakeholders so that students, parents and Boards of Management can begin to interrogate data used to make judgments about quality.
Elements of innovation
The creation of this toolkit will generate a whole new understanding of what schools can do to enable different voices within the School Self Evaluation process when decisions are made based on data. The materials will be hands-on and will scaffold schools in their evaluation practices.
Expected Impact
The main impact is consequently situated at the level of schools in the different programme countries and beyond. It will establish a whole new nature of partnerships with stakeholding groups in schools.
O3 will be coordinated by CEYE-JUNTAEX and will involve all partners.
The discussions planned for in this Output will take place at project meeting 3 and in the course of bi-monthly Skype / online meetings. Each partner will be required to bring a local contextual perspective to the creation process.
O3-A1 Development of Guidelines for school leaders and teachers on data informed School Self Evaluation and Planning.
A set of universal guidelines for school leaders and teachers that will facilitate their development of the capacities needed to include multiple stakeholding groups in the process of school evaluation will be developed. These guidelines will draw on the materials developed already including:
. Literature review
. Conceptual Map
and will begin with a clear outline of the School Self Evaluation and planning principles and priorities.
Acknowledging the challenges of changing the mode of evaluation from centrailsed to School evaluation guidelines will concentrate on the development and analysis of
– Reasons why a school might adopt a data-informed School Self Evaluation and Planning approach
– Participant capacity and mindset
– Organisational culture
– Barriers to inclusion of other voices
In particular, it will seek to help schools with the processes of
• Identifying appropriate goals
• Choosing mode of engagement and content that is consistent with the goals
• Identifying ways that might help achieve the goals
• Initiating a dialogue about how they might assess impact
School leaders and teachers will also be asked to think about
• Their own teaching style
• The learning styles of the participants
• The role of the course in the overall process of developing a data-informed School Self Evaluation and Planning model
CEYE-JUNTAEX will coordinate the process, sending out a draft of initial ideas and asking each partner to provide additional material that is contextually relevant and draws on their expertise.
O3-A2 Development of session plans for the organisation of various types of creative, participative consultation processes with each of the key stakeholder groups.
The project team will develop sample session plans for use by schools who are developing data-informed School Self Evaluation plans.
As most of the participants will be experienced teachers the necessity to provide in-depth training in the area will be lessened. However there will be a series of design principles suggested and some session plan templates will be provided.
Design principles
Each session plan will require
• Objectives for participant learning
• Teaching/learning activities
• Strategies to check participant understanding
A six stage process will be proposed
1. Outline learning objectives
2. Develop an introduction
3. Plan the specific learning activities
4. Plan to check for understanding
5. Develop a conclusion and preview
6. Create a realistic timeline
Attention will also be paid to:
– Age of participants and requirements of each cohort – drawing on andragogic and pedagogic principles
– Cultural background and expectations
– Organisational background and expectations
Thematic areas to be addressed may include:
-What is SSE and Planning?
– What is your role in evaluation and quality assurance?
– What is data?
Each partner will be asked to develop a series of plans using the process outlined and these will be shared for discussion and development. A series of agreed templates will be drawn up by CEYE-JUNTAEX and provided alongside a series of optional templates for different:
– organisational backgrounds
– cultural backgrounds
– age profiles etc
O3-A3 Development of SSE and planning templates (e.g….. questionnaires, focus group questions) that can be used by school leaders and teachers.
These will concentrate largely on data gathering and analysis tools for schools seeking to engage in SSE They will include guidelines on:
– How to develop a questionnaire, a focus group, conduct interviews, manage conversations about quality with parents, students, inspectorates.
The templates will provide actual tools for use by schools under each of these headings
O3-A4 Development of guidelines and tools to support schools in the interpretation of data to make judgments about quality.
One particular subset of this project will be the creation of methods to help stakeholders interpret data. It is acknowledged that this is a complex area and only a basic introduction can be given however it is considered important to provide schools with the tools to introduce groups to types of data and how to read different them.
O3-A5 Translation of Toolkit into all programme country languages
The initial toolkit will be translated into to all project languages
As with other Outputs, Administrative staff will be required to organise the log in of participants in the platform to use the toolkit and Managers will have similiar tasks to the ones decribed in O1 and 2 (develop and implement an output development plan, etc).