Self-evaluation — identifying impact and your school's effectiveness
Initial consideration of the new duty to promote community cohesion needs
discussions to define which aspects of school life contribute to cohesion and
where specific progress is needed. After focus areas are agreed, a little
adaptation of existing self-evaluation practices may be needed in order for
governors and senior staff to form judgements about the success of these areas
in meeting the duty.
An action plan is not a statutory requirement but schools may decide that some form of action plan on community cohesion will make the monitoring of progress and the fulfilling of the duty easier. It may be appropriate to link this plan with work on equalities. At the outset of anynew work, it is always valuable to decide how it will be evaluated; so that relevant information is collected along the way. The following reminders about evaluation may be helpful in evaluating the school's promotion of community cohesion:
Auditing, planning and monitoring
Progress in promoting community cohesion cannot be measured in the same way
that test or exam results are — there is no single indicator for
cohesion. All schools, however, need to develop their strategies to ensure that
they are fulfilling the overall aim of promoting community cohesion in the best
ways to suit their circumstances. In order to plan, it will usually be
necessary to collect some descriptive information and evidence that will inform
decisions.
Many schools will start with an audit — a process that can help school members arrive at a better understanding of what kinds of activities make a direct contribution to cohesion. Schools may wish to collect several different kinds of evidence to help them judge different aspects of cohesion, help them to recognise the school's inherent strengths, show where progress has been made and identify the most appropriate areas for further efforts. Schools could also work with their local authority as a source of information about issues affecting the local community.
Measurements and indicators
Numerical data may be relevant in forming a picture of the ways in which the
school is serving different groups in the community. In the case of such
indicators, a pattern that differs from the overall profile of the school
community may need investigation. Conversely, if these measures show a good
match with the profile of the community this could be evidence that school
provision is not distorted towards any particular group. Such evidence may be
relevant for the schools Self Evaluation Form (SEF).
Some schools will wish to compare some of these measures with the some data from similar schools. In some cases this is easily obtainable from national statistics, in other cases direct negotiations may be needed with selected schools.
Some guidance on self-evaluation
- Define the desirable outcomes as clearly as possible
- Define 'success criteria' (the difference between high quality and mediocre outcomes)
- Discuss types of evidence — what kind and how to collect it
- Agree who is responsible for collecting it (can be time-consuming so be realistic)
- Collect some information that shows how things were before the initiative started
- Make sure that everyone who has responsibility for the actions is clear how they will be evaluated — and how they can contribute to the evaluation
- Agree a process and time to discuss the evidence and findings
- Make best use of the findings to move things forwards
Participation in the evaluation process
Getting people involved in the collection of evidence and in the discussion of
its significance can also be used as a part of raising awareness about cohesion
and help to get more people involved in making the school more effective in
promoting cohesion. In this way, evaluation becomes part of an improvement
process rather than simply a retrospective assessment.
A recent European Union project set out the basic principles for good evaluation processes. An adapted version is summarised here:
- Quality evaluation involves partnership between people who are central to what is being evaluated and people who can offer another viewpoint
- Everyone should have a chance to involved in evaluation if they want to
- Everyone involved should share a vision of the purpose of the evaluation
- Evaluation processes should be open and transparent and respect everyone's rights and sensitivities
- Evaluation should lead directly to the further development of learning and teaching
- Evaluation is an ongoing process which should become part of daily life of the school
- There should be planned opportunities to share findings and build knowledge
- Improving quality of learning through using the findings of evaluation requires continuing professional development of staff
- Bringing in comparative data and information from other relevant projects can be useful
- The roles of everyone involved need to be clear from the start
- Effective evaluation requires an atmosphere of trust and good communications
- The views of one person or agency carry no greater legitimacy than any other
Related sites and downloads
- Based on the 'SYNEVA Declaration' a European Union Socrates project. Further information is available from the website.
- Further guidance on self-evaluation is contained in the Ofsted publication.
Last updated: 29 September 2008
