The Impact of School Development Plans in Primary Schools∗

Abstract

A 32-month project has been designed to study the process of school development planning in British primary schools and to evaluate the impact of such planning on the work of individual schools, the learning opportunities for individual pupils, and the professional development of individual teachers. When completed in June 1994, this project should be able to provide answers to the following questions: (1) what impact do school development plans and the planning process have on whole school management, classroom learning, and pupil learning; (2) are some plans more effective than others;(3) what are the key elements of successful practice and the implications of these for Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and schools; and (4) do the theoretical postulates apply to the results, or do they need to be modified in light of the study? Interviews, classroom obrervations, and questionnaires are beinL used to gather data in 18 classrooms in 9 schools, all located in 3 contrasting LEAs. (MDM)

An Examination of Teachers Perceptions of Stakeholders Involvement in School Improvement Planning: The Case of Uganda

“…The participation of SMC varied from low, medium, to high across case study schools as indicted in previous research by Cuckle et al [2]. Similar reasons to those found in England accounted for limited involvement of SMC in Masindi, such as lack of confidence and knowledge of the planning process, community apathy, personal attitude, communication barriers, and lack of training [11].…”

“…The participation of SMCs in improvement planning varies from low, medium to high within schools [2]. Experience from England, shows that involvement of SMC in SIP is limited by lack of confidence and knowledge of the planning process, illiteracy, community apathy, personal attitude, communication barriers, and lack of training [11]. The SMCs cannot be involved in all aspects of SIP, but it is vital for them to understand the rationale and contents of the school improvement plan, and therefore contribute to implementation and outcomes.…”

Improving self-improvement?

“…MacGilchrist et al (1995) studied the impact of the use of development planning as a school self-improvement strategy. They found that only two out of the nine schools engaged in the research were able to use the processes of internal review and evaluation to establish a plan for improvement that brought about tangible improvements across the school as a whole and in classrooms.…”

“…. is seen as a means whereby the planning for different aspects of the life and work of a school can be brought together in an integrated way ' (MacGilchrist et al, 1995;p. 9).…”

“…This approach to school improvement has been adopted by schools in the UK (Beresford, 1994) and in a number of other countries such as Australia (Dempster et al, 1994), Canada (Stoll and Fink, 1992) and Denmark (Kruchov and Hù oyrup, 1994). Development planning has not been without its critics (Smyth, 1991;Fidler, 1996) and a number of researchers (Hargreaves and Hopkins, 1991;Hargreaves and Hopkins, 1994;Wallace, 1994;MacGilchrist et al, 1995) have examined the ef® cacy of development planning and the extent to which this means of self-improvement has achieved the desired ends.…”