Influencing Educational Practice through Performance Indicators

Tymms, Peter

doi:10.1080/0924345950060204

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Of most relevance to the current discussion, however, would be studies of the impact of performance feedback conducted in school contexts. Such studies include those by Fuchs and Fuchs (1986), Cohen (1980), L"Hommedieu et al, (1988,1990), Edelenbos (1992, 1998), Tymms (1995Tymms ( , 1997aTymms ( , 1997b and Coe (1998b). All these studies have been reviewed in more detail by Coe (2002).…”

Section: Specific Application To School Performance Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

School Performance Feedback Systems: Conceptualisation, Analysis, and Reflection

Visscher¹,

Coe²

2003

School Effectiveness and School Improvement

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This is an electronic version of an article published in Visscher, A. J. and Coe, R. (2003) 'School performance feedback systems : conceptualisation, analysis, and reection.', School eectiveness and school improvement., 14 (3). pp. 321-349. School eectiveness and school improvement is available online at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content db=all?content=10.1076/sesi.14.3.321.15842. Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. IntroductionThere is an increasing trend internationally to publish and feed back information to schools and teachers on their performance. School improvement is often the main objective for this, but accountability and the promotion of parental/student school choice also play important roles. However, practical initiatives and research in this field often fail to recognise the full complexity of improving schools through school performance feedback. Relevant issues are, for example: is the information fed back to schools valued and understood by school staff? does school performance feedback enable appropriate diagnosis and remediation to take place in schools? does the use of the feedback generate conflicts and tensions for teachers and administrators? do the features of the implementation process and school organisation influence the utilisation of school performance feedback systems? do schools actually improve as a result of performance feedback? do the feedback systems have unintended effects?

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Section: Specific Application To School Performance Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

School Performance Feedback Systems: Conceptualisation, Analysis, and Reflection

Visscher¹,

Coe²

2003

School Effectiveness and School Improvement

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“…It is clear, however, that the current system of National Targets is not the only possible form of target setting in education policy. There are four main criteria for effective educational targets (Williamson et al, 1992;Nuttal, 1994;Tymms, 1995;Donald & Denison, 1996;Loveman, 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Targets must be accepted and valued by those expected to achieve them if they are to succeed. Research into the use of performance indicators in A level provision has highlighted the need for such measures to be seen by practitioners as 'tools for the professional', to inform future provision rather than external, punitive means of public accountability, if they are to be accepted (Tymms, 1995). As Williamson et al (1992, p. 186) conclude, 'empowerment rather than prescription must be the way forward'.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Privileging the Visible’: A critique of the National Learning Targets

Gorard

Selwyn

Rees

2002

British Educational Res J

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This article takes as its background the shift over time in Britain towards models of target setting in education which are based almost entirely on measurable outputs. The original 'headline' targets proposed by the National Council for Educational Technology were of a very different nature, as are those of many other developed nations. The article outlines some alternative models involving targets for both inputs and processes, and the use of targets which are exhortative rather than directly measurable. It is suggested that the main reason these more 'qualitative' targets have disappeared from British policy-making is that they are not considered to be directly measurable. This is contrasted, at least in some accounts, with the more visible output indicators. However, the substantive purpose of this article is show how weak the claim is that we can ever adequately measure even these privileged targets. The article therefore argues that if a policy of target setting is to be pursued, and given other ndings from the authors' study in Wales this is far from clear, then more sophisticated models than those in current vogue may be required. The expense involved in setting up such an extension to our already heavily audited society may be unjusti ed-for it is surely better to spend money on improving lifelong learning even if we cannot measure that improvement de nitively, than to have an accurate metric revealing a picture of stagnation or worse. Target-Setting for Lifelong LearningOne of the most striking features of recent educational policy has been the introduction of target setting, aimed at improving the performance (variously de ned) of educational systems by specifying desirable future levels of attainment and activity. In Britain, for example, this trend is re ected in the setting of the National Learning Targets. Of course, the use of attainment targets in education is by no means a new phenomenon, dating back at least to the nineteenth-century school-based practice of 'payment by results' (Marsden, 1991). However, more recently, there has been a burgeoning use of target-setting in education in Britain and elsewhere, leading Neave (1988) to identify such targets

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“…Many projects in this field have also demonstrated that providing school-focused training courses can help establish this precondition. For example, Tymms notes how inviting teachers to attend an inservice workshop about handling student performance data gave rise to more positive attitudes towards one such system (ALIS, A-level information system : Tymms 1995;1997). Demie (2003) also notes how successful an inner-city local education authority's school-focused training courses were for head teachers and senior management teams in schools.…”

Section: U Maiermentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards state‐mandated testing in Germany: how do teachers assess the pedagogical relevance of performance feedback information?

Maier

2009

Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice

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The paper analyses how teachers view state-mandated tests in Baden-Württemberg, a large state in the south-west of Germany. For the first time in 2006, public secondary schools were bound by law to administer Vergleichsarbeiten [state-wide tests] in up to three relevant subjects after Grade 6. Scholars in the field of school improvement emphasise that there is a gap between performance feedback provided by external tests and how this information is internally processed. To bridge this gap, a crucial precondition is that teachers must accept state-wide testing as a useful instrument for improving the performance of schools. To examine how teachers view the pedagogical relevance of performance feedback information, 256 secondary schools were approached, and an anonymous questionnaire was completed by a representative sample of 307 teachers with Grade 6 classes. Analysis of the quantitative data reveals that teachers in general secondary schools (the lower level of the academically streamed secondary system) are more openminded towards the tests than their colleagues in intermediate schools or in grammar schools (the highest level). Even so, only a small percentage of teachers in general secondary schools acknowledge the pedagogical relevance of performance feedback information for improving teaching strategies. This result suggests that state-mandated testing in Baden-Württemberg is highly unlikely to initiate or support school improvement activities for the time being.

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Influencing Educational Practice through Performance Indicators

Cited by 13 publications

References 19 publications

School Performance Feedback Systems: Conceptualisation, Analysis, and Reflection

School Performance Feedback Systems: Conceptualisation, Analysis, and Reflection

‘Privileging the Visible’: A critique of the National Learning Targets

Towards state‐mandated testing in Germany: how do teachers assess the pedagogical relevance of performance feedback information?

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