Educational Effectiveness

Question 1

What is effectiveness research?

Answer 1

It focuses on the achievement of educational goals using specific measures of progress or outcomes. Seeks to disentangle the links between what the student brings to the school and the educational experiences they have at the school, and investigates how both of those things affect the student’s development. Therefore, it is about discovering the ‘value added’ that a school brings to students relative to where they start off.

Question 2

How can school quality be assessed, according to Gray (1999)?

Answer 2

3 performance indicators:
Academic progress
Pupil satisfaction
Pupil-teacher relationships

Question 3

Criticisms of effectiveness research

Answer 3

Becomes too political, identified too much with target setting, league tables and neo-conservatism (governments cherry-pick bits of research to support their agendas)
Focuses too narrowly on the quantitative data, ignores other qualitative experiences (correlation vs causation), too scientific
Findings are usually common sense, nothing new

Question 4

Scheerens and Bosker (1997) research

Answer 4

schools matter more for the underprivileged and low achieving students: the difference that schooling makes for low SES students is more consistent than for high SES students

Question 5

Stoll and Fink’s research (1996) into characteristics of ineffective schools:

Answer 5

lack of vision (teachers have few attachment)
unfocused leadership
dysfunctional staff relationships

Question 6

Stoll and Fink’s research (1996) into characteristics of ineffective classroom practices:

Answer 6

inconsistent approaches to teaching
lack of challenge
low levels of teacher-pupil interaction
high levels of noise
frequent use of criticism and negative feedback

Question 7

Effectiveness operates at 3 levels

Answer 7

Whole school
Department
Classroom

Question 8

There is an indirect relationship between leadership and effective schools… as leaders can impact culture which in turn can impact what happens in the classroom.

Answer 8

‘School leaders do not make effective schools… [Effective leaders] are able to work with and through the staff to shape a school culture that is focused yet adaptable’. Hallinger and Heck, 1999, p. 185

Question 9

Hofman et al’s research (2001) into effective school leadership and effective departmental leadership in the Netherlands

Answer 9

Schools with this cohesive leadership and management showed significantly better results in mathematics

Question 10

Harris et al (1995) identified factors of effective departments through research into secondary schools

Answer 10

a collegial management style, a strong vision; good organisation; good monitoring; clear structure to lessons; a strong focus on the pupils and on teaching and learning.

Question 11

Reynolds et al., (2002) on classroom effectiveness

Answer 11

‘At the classroom level, the powerful elements of expectation, management, clarity and instructional quality transcend culture’

Question 12

Clarke et al. (2009) on the school improvement initiative (IQEA) in other countries

Answer 12

Ideas and approaches for improvement and effectiveness cannot simply be lifted from one culture to another. To ignore local culture is to limit the capacity of an school to learn and grow. The key to improving is to make what is familiar strange, in other words, seeing your own context through a different lens.

Question 13

Harber and Davies (2005) critique of effectiveness research

Answer 13

relative to situation and culture, may relate to attendance, violence, running water, electricity…

Question 14

What is an effective school?

Answer 14

Students make further progress than would be expected given their innate abilities, compared to similar schools. VALUE ADDED