School Improvement Planning

Part 1 Key Principles

The outcomes of schooling are influenced by the opportunities for effective learning and teaching that are available to students. The latter in turn, are determined by the way in which the resources available to the school are used to meet the educational needs of the students attending the school, the level of support given to the school and the culture of the school and its local community.

The main aims of planning for school improvement are:

• enable the school to focus on the quality of learning and teaching which have a direct impact on the outcomes of the educational process
• help the individual school to integrate both local and national policies into its own life and culture
• build strong partnership, between teachers, parents, local community, Regional/Georgetown Education Departments and Central Ministry, in which there is a schared understanding and commitment to school improvement and a shared responsibility for the school's success in achieving such improvement
• improve and strengthen the management of change by increasing the school's control over the content and pace of change
• enable manageable priorities to be decided between competing claims for resources with respect to the school's aims and Mission Statement
• enable the school to become a self-evaluating institution
• improve accountability for the quality of education provided by the school

Planning for school improvement thus provides a systematic and sustained approach for the raising of student achievement and includes a thorough evaluation for establishing new strengths on which to build.

THE WHOLE SCHOOL APPROACH

Individual schools have their own unique culture concerning values, priorities and the way the school is managed.

A whole school approach to school improvement requires that planning is coherent and integrated, is part of the life of the school and is related to the school's aim of raising student achievement.

A whole school approach to school improvement begins with the school as a whole and emphasises the whole process of change, from defining the need for and the value of policy, through its formulation, to its implementation and evaluation.

A whole school approach requires the stakeholders of the school to work together for the school's improvement. Figure 1 shows the interactions that will exist when the stakeholders all share and contribute to the school's values and priorities for school improvement.


Figure 1: The interaction of a school's stakeholders working together for School Improvement.

In the first year of the planning process, planning for school improvement begins with an audit of the school and providing answers to the following questions:

1. Where are you now?
2. Where do you want to get to and by when?
3. How will you get there?
4. What will you need to get there?
5. What are your performance criteria for success?

1. Management of Change

A whole school approach to planning for school improvement requires that the management of change becomes integrated with the daily life of the school and thus a normal part of school management.

A key indicator of an effectively managed school is the management of the school being seen as a shared responsibility of all concerned with the life of the school. Schools therefore need to create management systems which empowers the people concerned with the life of the school to achieve the school's aims. These systems should be about:

• making decisions
• allocating roles and responsibilities
• monitoring the work of the staff of the school
• evaluating the work of the school
• consultation with all concerned with the life of the school
• communication with all concerned with the life of the school
• allocating time to various activities
• supporting the staff of the school

The creation of these management systems are important because together they will define the culture of the school.

Since the ultimate goal of school improvement is to improve the quality of learning and teaching so as to raise the level of student achievement, the contribution of classroom teachers to the management of school improvement is crucial.

An essential feature of the management of school improvement should therefore be a creation of a school culture which supports planning and management of change.

2. Policy Statements

Effective school management requires the establishment of a framework which guides the actions of all involved in the life of the school.

A school's policy statements are the guidelines which provide a framework for achieving its goals. The documentation of these guidelines are essential for helping the staff, students, parents, members of the wider community, school supervisors as well as the Inspectorate to understand what the school is trying to do.

Planning for school improvement will involve some changes to existing policies. If the latter are documented, it will be much easier to recognize the change(s) that are needed.

Written policy statements should not exceed about one page in length and they should:

• give clear guidelines for action which ensures consistency of action taken by those with responsibility for implementing the policy
• enable the stakeholders of the school to understand what the school is trying to do
• support planning for maintenance
• be explicit in linking the goals of the school with actions to be undertaken by those involved in turning policies into practice

Schools should develop policies which will impact on the effectiveness of the school in meeting the needs of the students and community it serves. These will include policies concerniong:

• the curriculum to be offered to students, including extra-curricular activities
• the teaching and learning approaches to be used for the delivery of the curriculum
• attendance and punctuality of students and staff
• discipline and the pastoral care of students
• meeting the needs of students with learn ing difficulties
• a school homework timetable
• the nature and care of the school environment
• the assessment and recording of student achievement
• safeguarding the health and safety of students, staff and other persons using the school building(s) and grounds
• home-school and school-community relationships
• monitoring and evaluating the work of the school

An essential feature of school improvement is the maintenance of stability, interms of policies and practices, which provide the foundation for the introduction of change. This need to provide stability often creates tensions between maintenance and improvement.

A school's approach to planning for school improvement is a characteristic of its management arrangements for making choices. The choices a school makes will highlight the tension between planning for improvement and maintenance. The choices will include being in favor of planning for improvement or maintenance or at some point between the two. Schools can, however, also choose to operate at either of the former two extreme positions in some areas while taking a more central position in others.

Schools will have to make choices about:

• the aims of the school and how these are to be achieved
• the ethos of the school, how it can be developed and improved
• the nature of the curriculum
• how learning and teaching should be organized
• the management arrangements to be used in order to sustain the organization for an effective delivery of the curriculum
• which changes to make and the strategies for implementing them in order to promote school improvement whilst retaining existing good practice
• who are the stakeholders of the school and what is their role in the life of the school
• when and how to mobilize support to assist in the implementation of change

It is important to recognize that one year's school improvement plan becomes part of next year's program for maintenance.

Management of school improvement should therefore include the elimination of tension between school improvement and school maintenance by providing adequate support for maintenance.

An important aspect of planning for school improvement must therefore be to ensure consolidation of the change(s) by the inclusion of a plan for maintenance.

THE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

1. Constructing the School Improvement Plan

The formulation and construction of the School Improvement Plan (SIP) should:

• arise out of discussions involving all the people in and connected with the life of the school
• be related to the aims and Mission Statement of the school
• focus on whole school issues including the policies and practices which define the:
  • quality of learning and teaching
  • management and organization of the school
  • planning for curriculum development
  • processes associated with monitoring, evaluationa and review
  • process of responding to the staff development needs for improving the effectiveness of the school
• combine an accurate analysis of work and developments to date with clear statement of priorities for the short, medium and long term future of the school, taking into account the limitations of time, resources and feasibility.

2. The Planning Cycle

School improvement planning is a cyclical process as shown in Figure 2. The essential processes, key tasks, personnel involved, activities, recommended target dates and expected outcomes at each stage of the planning cycle are indicated in Tables 1-7 of Part 2 of this document.


Figure 2: The Planning Cycle

3. Reviewing the School Improvement Plan

It is important to remember that the SIP is not "cast in concrete" and that it should be subjected to a regular review process.

The main purpose of reviewing the SIP is to take account of a number of factors which impact on implementing the SIP. The latter will include:

• the rate of progress of implementation
• changes in resources, facilities and equipment that may have occured during the previous school year
• changes in policy, priorities and emphases

An annual review of the SIP should therefore be incorporated in the process of planning for school improvement.

After the first year many of the tasks identified in Tables 1-7 will be included in an annual review process. Figure 5 in this document shows the link between the tasks leading to the formulation and construction of the first SIP and the annual school improvement planning cycle for successive years.

4. Documenting the School Improvement Plan

It is important that schools make provision for an adequate amount of time for the documentation of the SIP to be both accurate and comprehensive. The information which should be included in the documentation of the SIP is identified in Part 3 of the guideline.

The SIP Proforma, which is also included in Part 3 of the guidelines, could be used for recording a summary for each of the individual components of the SIP.

ACTION PLANNING FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

The implementation of a SIP involves several tasks, each with a set of outcomes and activities.

The effective implementation of the SIP requires the preparation of an action plan for each task, which describes everything that needs to be done to implement, monitor and evaluate the progress of each task. Each action plan should therefore identify:

• the task
• the expected outcomes for the task
• all the activities, including staff development, to be undertaken to achieve the expected outcomes
• the personnel (an individual or team) that will be responsible for the implementation and supervision of the activities
• the resources (staff, materials, equipment, finance, etc.) needed for successful completion of the task
• the success criteria or performance indicators against which progress and the level of success in achieving the expected outcomes will be judged
• the schedule of meetings to review progress

Constructing an action plan should be a team effort with the team assigned responsibility for the action plan meeting to discuss all that has to be done to implement the task.

The program of implementation is, however, likely to be over a period of several months. The action plan is thus a practical guide designed to help the team to effectively complete the task.

It is important that progress checks are included in the action plan since these will allow the team to answer questions such as; "Is the plan being implemented in accordance with the planned target date(s)?" and "Are standards being observed?".

The process involved in constructing an action plan are summarized in Figure 3.

TASK<>	EXPECTED OUTCOMES-->	ACTIVITIES-->	RESOURCES-->	ACTION PLAN
	define success criteria check evidence of success	sequence activities identify team leader(s)	identify requirements for implementation check on availability	time-schedule of activities check on readiness for implementation of action plan

Figure 3: Processes for Constructing the Action Plan

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS

The outcomes of schooling depend on the variables which exist at the level of the school input as well as the processes involved in promoting effective learning and teaching as shown in Figure 4.

INPUT >	PROCESS >	OUTCOME >
student intake support resources	school ethos management learning and teaching process	student achievement social skills employment empowerment

Figure 4: Factors influencing school effectiveness

A performance indicator is a qualitative or quantitative measure for assessing the performance of an individual, department, institution or system. The most common performance indicators used in Headteachers's annual reports include, examination results, attendance, attitudes, the quality of relationships, extra-curricular activities and special projects.

Performance indicators have the effect of exerting a positive influence on school effectiveness in that they:

• distinguish between process and outcome
• enable desirable goals for schools to be identified
• provide appropriate standards for the goals
• promote the development of an action plan to achieve agreed standards
• indicate the evidence needed to judge success in achieving specific objectives
• guide further action if the degree of success is below that expected
• help in reporting positive achievement

A selection of performance indicators which can be used for judging a school's effectiveness is provided in Appendix 2. Having identified the relevant and most appropriate performance indicators, schools will next have to determine the evidence that will need to be provided in order to support the school's clain of effectiveness.

Performance indicators are therefore relevant both to the accountability and improvement of the school.