‘I don't have time to be this busy.’ Exploring the concerns of secondary school teachers towards inclusive education

The trend towards inclusion in mainstream Australian schools has seen the numbers of students with disabilities educated in regular schools grow significantly. This trend has been supported by legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Act and the Education Standards. For inclusion to be successful, a number of factors are vital and teacher support for the programme is crucial. While there is research in the area of teachers’ concerns at the primary school level, little research has been conducted at the secondary school level. Research in this area is needed as the secondary school has differing factors from the primary sector that need to be explored.     

Does secondary school size make a difference?: A systematic review

There is a vast body of literature on school size but comparatively few high quality empirical studies comparing outcomes in schools of different sizes. This systematic review synthesizes the results of the published research from 31 studies on the effects of secondary school size from OECD countries since 1990. Overall the directions and patterns of effect vary for different outcomes. For pupil attainment measured by exam results, and for attendance, larger schools appear to do better up to some optimal school size but estimates of this point or range are insufficiently precise to be useful. The implications of different school sizes on student behaviours are equivocal, but teachers and pupils at smaller schools are more likely to have a positive perception of their ‘school environment’. Costs per pupil appear to decrease as school size increases. The results of the review suggest that there is little empirical evidence to justify policies that aim to ‘change’ or mandate particular school sizes. However, given the evidence that there do appear to be optimal sizes for some outcomes, stakeholders should be made aware that dramatic changes in a school's size may change the characteristics of a school's learning environment.     

Improving schools through collaboration: a mixed methods study of school-to-school partnerships in the primary sector

The principle of schools collaborating to improve is one that has seen growing interest in recent years, and there is emerging evidence that in particular collaboration between high and lower performing schools can be an effective school improvement method. However, this evidence relates primarily to secondary schools, and little research has been conducted on the factors that could make collaboration more or less effective. In this study we specifically looked at partnerships between low and high performing primary schools, in which high performing schools acted as supporters to low performing partner schools. A mixed methods approach was used. A quasi-experimental quantitative study was conducted to ascertain the relationship between partnership and pupil attainment using data from the National Pupil Database. This was followed up by case studies of nine partnerships. Findings showed that there was a positive relationship between partnership and pupil attainment at Key Stage 2, and that successful partnerships were characterised by intensive interventions focused on teaching and learning and leadership.     

The efficacy of small internal networks for improving schools

Through two school case studies in Cyprus, in this paper I explore the role of small internal collaborative networks in promoting school improvement. The analysis of the two cases revealed a series of interrelated themes which indicated issues related to school improvement, and actually, it provided evidence that small internal collaborative networks could contribute to school improvement. This contribution was related to the development of interest in the learning of children coming from vulnerable groups, to the creation of conditions for more effective leadership and management within the schools, and to changes in the culture of the schools.     

What aspects of schooling are important? School effects on tertiary entrance performance

The purpose of this paper is to identify school effects on student performance for tertiary entrance in Australia, taking into account student-level predictors using longitudinal data from the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study. It finds that aspects of schooling, such as positive attitudes to school and disciplinary climate, affect student performance at the student level but not generally at the school level. The socioeconomic context of schools has no effect on student performance when taking into account schools' academic context. Apart from academic context, teacher shortage, academic press, and teacher efficacy were the only school factors that had positive significant effects on student performance. The policy implications are that school-based policies are unlikely to improve performance or promote equity, but, instead, policies should focus more on students falling behind, who are found across the school system, not limited to a small proportion of schools with particular characteristics.     

Pupil mobility and educational achievement in schools: an empirical analysis

One of the problems facing education policy-makers is how to raise achievement in schools. Improving schools and raising achievement requires, at the very least, an understanding of the factors influencing performance in schools. Previous research has looked at a number of factors, including quality of teaching and learning, patterns of resource use, gender, ethnicity, social class and socio-economic background in schools, but there has been little empirical research into the effect of pupil mobility on school performance. Pupil mobility in schools also has implications for many important policy areas, such as school funding, target-setting and league tables, and yet it is only just beginning to be recognized as an important policy issue. This paper examines the relationship between pupil mobility and educational achievement in an inner city LEA. The performance of three cohorts of pupils at key stages 2 and 3 and GCSE are analysed by the mobility factor to illustrate the effect of pupil mobility on educational attainment. This is followed by a discussion of the causes of pupil mobility in schools and strategies adopted by schools to address mobility problems. The final section of the paper addresses the implications of the empirical evidence for school improvement strategies and funding allocations.     

影响学校改进、提升与发展的领导文化

学校领导是学校战略的部署者,也是学校文化的引领者.目前我国薄弱学校领导与管理存在两个极端表现:一是校长的颁导太少、管理太多,二是学校管理粗放、无序、随意.研究表明,领导文化是影响学校改进、提升与发展的学校文化之一.构建领导文化应体现以下四大特点:专业引领的基本范式,多元分权的民主思维,精细管理的实践模式,追究问责的评价机制.     

School improvement trajectories: an empirical typology

This paper is based on a multiple case study of schools which have been identified as improving their performance for about a decade. We proposed different criteria by which to characterize and study these improvement processes and, by applying them to our sample, we elaborated a typology of school improvement trajectories: we identified 4 different trajectories of school improvement. We called the first type restricted improvement because at its center is the management of processes that mainly target academic achievement tests; the second is incipient improvement, which is based on changes that restructure the school processes; the third identified trajectory are cases where school improvement is moving toward institutionalization, while the last are those cases where improvement has been already institutionalized and the schools have achieved high levels of educational effectiveness. We identified challenges that schools face at different stages of school improvement and discussed some related policy issues.     

Measuring systematic long-term trajectories of school effectiveness improvement

The objective of this study was to identify trajectories of school improvement experienced by Chilean elementary schools over the last decade. Using econometric analysis and controlling for potential confounding factors, we created an index of school performance combining outcome indicators focused on different school dimensions, and estimated the 2002/2010 evolution of school improvement for all Chilean schools with available data. Broadly, we estimated an average increase in the school performance of about 0.19 SD; nevertheless, while 41% of the schools increased their educational performance by at least 0.1 SD, 25% of the schools decreased it during the same period; we also found that improving school effectiveness was more probable among schools with lower student socioeconomic status (SES). Finally, we found that the observed school improvement trajectories tended to be non-linear; thus, we estimated that only 13.4% of the schools improved their performance in a systematic way during the entire decade.     

Aligning professional development,school self-evaluation and principals’ performance standards: a UAE case study

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) has introduced professional development (PD) plans and professional standards for school administrators. This was initiated to galvanise the ongoing school reforms. In addition, the Irtiqaa Framework, a school self-evaluation programme that contributes to the broad agenda of school reforms and changes, is currently implemented in public schools throughout the entire Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This study explores school administrators’ experiences of the PD offered in their schools, querying how aligned they are with the school self-evaluation and principal’s performance standards. The research employed a qualitative case-study approach. Semi-structured interviews were used as tools for data collection and they were conceptualised within the framework of the administrators’ performance standards and school-self-evaluation-Irtiqaa documents provided by ADEC. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 school administrators, including principals, vice principals, and academic principals that represent six cycle-1 public schools. Findings and recommendations presented highlight the areas of improvement needed for more effective professional development that is not only in synchrony with school demands in times of change, but also in alignment with professional requirements that enhance effective school self-evaluation.     

Parental Involvement in School Policy‐Making

A positive school ethos is considered a key factor contributing to successful school improvement. Yet, despite its assumed educational influence, little is known about how ethos in schools is experienced by students. This study takes a fresh look at school ethos through the meanings which final year students attribute to their lived experience of secondary school. Implications for school improvement are considered.     

Transfer paths and academic performance: The primary school merger program in china

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, China's Ministry of Education embarked on an ambitious program of primary school mergers by shutting down small village schools and opening up larger centralized schools in towns and county seats. The goal of the program was to improve the teacher and building resources in an attempt to raise the human capital of students in poor rural areas, although it was recognized that students would lose the opportunity to learn in the settings of their own familiar villages. Because of the increased distances to the new centralized schools, the merger program also entailed building boarding facilities and encouraging or mandating that students live at school during the week away from their family. Given the magnitude of the program and the obvious mix of benefits and costs that such a program entails there has been surprisingly little effort to evaluate the impact of creating a new system that transfers students from school to school during their primary school period of education and, in some cases, making student live in boarding facilities at school. In this paper, our overall goal is to examine the impact of the Rural Primary School Merger Program on academic performance of students using a dataset from a survey that we designed to reflect transfer paths and boarding statuses of students. We use OLS and Propensity Score Matching approaches and demonstrate that there is a large “resource effect” (that is, an effect that appears to be associated with the better facilities and higher quality of teachers in the town and county schools) that appears to be associated with the transfers of students from less centralized schools (such as village schools) to more centralized schools. Boarding, however, is shown to have negative impacts on academic performance. However, students who transfer to county school benefit from the transfer no matter where they start and whether they board or not.     

Mechanisms of Change in Dutch Inspected Schools: Comparing Schools in Different Inspection Treatments

In many countries the need for education systems and schools to improve and innovate has become central to the education policy of governments. School inspections are expected to play an important role in promoting such continuous improvement and to help schools and education systems more generally to consider the need for change and improvement. This article aims to enhance our understanding of the connections between school inspections and their impact on school improvement, using a longitudinal survey of principals and teachers in primary and secondary education. Random effects models and a longitudinal path model suggest that school inspections in particular have an impact on principals, but less so on teachers. The results indicate that the actual impact on improved school and teaching conditions, and ultimately student achievement, is limited. Schools in different inspection categories report different mechanisms of potential impact; the lack of any correlation between accepting feedback, setting expectations and stakeholder sensitivity and improvement actions in schools suggests that the impact of school inspections is not a linear process, but operates through diffuse and cyclical processes of change.     

The relationship between inclusion and academic achievement in English mainstream schools

This article presents the key findings and discusses the implications of a major study that explored the relationship between academic achievement and the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools in England. It is based on a statistical analysis of nationally held data on all pupils in England that is collected at the end of each of the 4 key stages, when pupils are aged 7, 11, 14, and 16. The analysis considered the relationship between academic achievement and inclusivity having controlled for a range of other variables. Findings indicate that there is no relationship between academic achievement and inclusion at the local authority (LA) level while there is a small but, for all practical purposes, insubstantial relationship at the school level. In addition, there is also a large degree of variation at the school level, suggesting strongly that there are other factors within a school's make up, rather than its degree of inclusivity, that impact on the average academic achievements of its pupils. The overall conclusion, therefore, is that mainstream schools need not be concerned about the potentially negative impact on the overall academic achievements of their pupils of including pupils with SEN in their schools.     

Adolescents' Declining Motivation to Learn Science: Inevitable or Not?

There is a growing awareness that science education should center not just on knowledge acquisition but developing the foundation for lifelong learning. However, for intentional learning of science to occur in school, out of school, and after school, there needs to be a motivation to learn science. Prior research had shown that students' motivation to learn science tends to decrease during adolescence [Anderman and Young [1994] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 31: 811–831; Lee and Anderson [1993] American Educational Research Journal 30: 585–610; Simpson and Oliver [1990] Science Education 74: 1–18]. This study compared 5th through 8th grade students' self‐reported goal orientations, engagement in science class, continuing motivation for science learning, and perceptions of their schools' and parents' goals emphases, in Israeli traditional and democratic schools. The results show that the aforementioned decline in adolescents' motivation for science learning in school and out of school is not an inevitable developmental trend, since it is apparent only in traditional schools but not in democratic ones. The results suggest that the non‐declining motivation of adolescents in democratic schools is not a result of home influence but rather is related to the school culture. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 48: 199–216, 2011     

Towards a Methodology for Teacher‐Based Classroom Research

Educational research and evaluation for the purpose of improving practice is becoming increasingly common. The teacher‐researcher movement, LEA sponsored self‐evaluation schemes, for example, both involve teachers in reviewing their own practice or the practices of the school as an organization, with the express purpose of utilizing the review data for professional or school improvement. Unfortunately, the methodology for research and evaluation in schools is problematic; one reason for this is the difficulty in deriving valid inferences from data that are often qualitative in kind and subjective in manner. Although there is a body of literature that describes ways of collecting data on the functioning of schools and classrooms, there is little guidance as to how to analyse it. This presents particular difficulties for the teacher or school staff who, for example, are trying to make sense out of a mass of data accumulated from a self‐evaluation exercise. The following paper is an attempt to provide support for teachers and schools in such a predicament: it suggests a method for analysing qualitative data emerging from school‐based research efforts that draws on the traditions of sociological and anthropological field work.     

School Response to a Changing Labour Market

The presumed link between schooling and the economy has been a prime force in motivating educational reform proposals in many countries. Educators feel caught between expectations by many that schools will play a key role in labour market success for young people and the reality that their influence on labour market outcomes is relatively weak. Solving the problem is not possible, but neither is ignoring it. Schools face an intractable yet compelling problem.This paper looks at the way in which school districts in a Canadian province understand and try to respond to changes in the labour market and the nature of work. The paper is based on collaborative case studies of five school districts and surveys of school board members and chief superintendents. We conclude that people in school systems are aware in a general way of labour market changes, and see them as having negative implications for students. However the changing job situation seems to be an important but largely unanalyzed issue. There is relatively little discussion of school-work issues in schools and districts. Administrators and school board members rely on informal sources of information rather than gathering data about their own situation. Schools and districts are using various programmatic devices to address labour market needs, such as partnerships, work experience, or co-operative education, but all of these operate within the confines of a traditional model of schooling. None of the districts has a strategy for this issue or has made it a priority.We conclude with some suggestions for measures schools could reasonably take to respond more effectively to the impact of changes in work.     

The development of schools for all

Abstract

The article contains a support experiment in a series of schools, aimed at making them increasingly inclusive, i.e., capable of responding to all their boys and girls needs. The study follows the school improvement approach in which school assessment does not mean control or supervision but is a previous phase to the introduction of changes which improve how the school operates. The project, promoted by UNESCO, has been undertaken in eight countries located in different continents. In the article, particular emphasis is placed on the importance of each school context and the meaninglessness of attempting to carry out assessment and support processes for the improvement of schools within a totally homogeneous framework. In the project one of the support techniques shown to the teaching staff was the presentation of a series of scenes within schools in very varied countries, providing them with the opportunity to reflect on their practice by comparing it with others.     

School improvement plans and student learning in Jamaica

A school improvement program that provided support to poor-performing schools on the basis of needs identified in a school improvement plan was implemented in 72 government schools in Jamaica, from 1998 to 2005. In this independent evaluation of the program, we use propensity score matching to create, post hoc, a control group of schools that were similar to program schools in the baseline year. By the final year of the program, we find that program schools had received more inputs to improve literacy and numeracy than control schools, and that some inputs associated with the program were correlated with improvements school average achievement: supplementary reading materials, additional training for reading resource teachers, and functioning computers. At the student level, however, we find no evidence that students enrolled in program schools achieved higher reading or math scores than those in control schools. We suggest three possible reasons for this: (a) the lack of sensitivity of the learning measures to improvements at the lower end of the scales; (b) the availability of program-like inputs in non-program schools, provided by other programs and donors; and (c) the growth in student enrollment in the program schools, which may have diluted the program effect for incoming students in upper grades. Schools with school improvement plans did not outperform comparable schools that did not have these plans.