Improving teaching capacity to increase student achievement

Abstract

Purpose – This paper argues that in a well-organised school with strong leadership and vision coupled with a concerted effort to improve the teaching performance of each teacher, student achievement can be enhanced. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that while macro-effect sizes such as “whole of school” metrics are useful for school leaders in their professional development roles, there are important micro-conditions that can be uncovered in a more detailed analysis of student achievement data. Design/methodology/approach – Evidence of student achievement in a variety of standardised and non-standardised assessment tasks was subjected to examination in a post hoc, case study design. The assessment tasks were the South Australian Spelling Test Waddington Reading Test, a school-wide diagnostic writing task, teacher running records and National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy. Performance in selected classrooms was compared on these tests utilising a variety of parametric quantitative statistics. Findings – School-based reform initiatives require external criteria on which to base decision making. Without such criteria based on data and the capacity to interpret it, interactions in the school culture have unanticipated consequences that have the potential to neutralise school improvement strategies. Further, findings suggest that fewer but sharper and quicker data collection tools are more valuable in such teacher decision making, but these require expertise to produce and interpret them. Research limitations/implications – This paper provides insights from one school, but the reported data are embedded in a sustained five year school reform programme. Practical implications – This paper documents a whole school organisational reform model devised by a school head and leadership team to improve student academic performance. The paper offers a process for developing a data-based school reform strategy for professional development to enhance both student achievement and school outcomes. Social implications – The paper outlines a model for school reform that is focused on all students increasing their academic outcomes. By emphasising collaborative teacher work based on research-justified teaching approaches, the model shows that social inequalities can be reversed. Originality/value – The paper outlines a whole of school reform model focused through a combination of distributed leadership, data-driven decision making, within a context of a coaching, mentoring and feedback regime for teachers. Together this model is an application of theoretical ideas to school reform.

Alignment, Capability and Engagement: Is Your School Ready for School Improvement?

“…Gaining momentum in schools (in order to support their quest for improvement) is the focus on a data driven framework (Lynch, Smith, Provost & Madden, 2016). Data-driven decision-making is the systematic process of collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing "data", from a variety of sources and then making corresponding teaching decisions.…”

“…The ongoing research on the Collaborative Teacher Learning Model (Lynch, Smith, Provost & Madden, 2016;Lynch, Madden & Knight, 2014), the combination of distributed leadership (Spillane, 2012) and the job embeddedness of professional development (Fullan, 2011) indicate that the greater the focus on teacher quality, the greater the gains in student learning.…”

Stakeholder Capacity Building in Monitoring and Evaluation and Performance of Literacy and Numeracy Educational Programme in Public Primary Schools in Nairobi County, Kenya

“…Learning process is a good experience for teachers who focus on how to improve their skills, pedagogical knowledge, practices and attitudes towards leaners (Althauser, 2015). Much focus can be put on recognizing the lessons learnt that will help participants enhance the implementation of the learnt skills through the intervention projects on teacher capacity building (Lynch et al, 2016) This is a systematic process for developing results that can apply an impact on outcomes, outputs, processes and activities of the intervention project in educational programme. The impact chain also includes processes, approaches, strategies, and methodologies that are applied to achieve this results.…”

Mentoring, Role Modeling, and Acculturation: Exploring International Teacher Narratives to Inform Supervisory Practices

“…School administrator involvement with mentees has proven crucial globally as school administrators engage in overall school improvement efforts and in developing the school culture to support novice teachers. For example, in a study completed in Australia, Lynch, Smith, Provost, and Madden (2016) found that a collaborative learning model, when conducted in a distributive manner involving the principal, lead teachers, and mentees, led to improved student outcomes in achievement across various measures. In this model, lead teachers provided coaching, mentoring, and feedback to teacher teams, the principal provided the same support for teachers and the leadership team, and specific professional learning for teachers was selected based on teacher needs (Lynch et al, 2016).…”

“…For example, in a study completed in Australia, Lynch, Smith, Provost, and Madden (2016) found that a collaborative learning model, when conducted in a distributive manner involving the principal, lead teachers, and mentees, led to improved student outcomes in achievement across various measures. In this model, lead teachers provided coaching, mentoring, and feedback to teacher teams, the principal provided the same support for teachers and the leadership team, and specific professional learning for teachers was selected based on teacher needs (Lynch et al, 2016). Furthermore, school administrators are responsible for establishing the school culture and processes that buttress mentor-mentee relationships and overall novice teacher induction.…”