Weaving evidence, inquiry and standards to build better schools

Professional reading focus for our SLT this term.

Having left the UK specifically because of my 7 year old having to sit standards tests and the trauma this caused him, I am wary of the implementation of standards in NZ.  I'm hoping that reflecting on the contents of this book, specifically with a lens on our particular schools' context, will enable me to find positives in the integration of the standards.

Chapter 1 reflection

On page 9, Timperley and Parr state that the approach most likely to have the highest impact on student learning has 3 strands:

• use a range of evidence to inquire into the effectiveness of current practices
• decide what should stay because it is working
• decide what needs to change, and how it needs to change

Thankfully they then go on to state that  'the processes involved are not as simple as this description makes them appear'. At this point in my leadership practice and also within the context of our teachers practice and our school situation, this statement is very true. I know both evidentially and also from that 'hunch' we have as teachers that the 3 strands to raising achievement are a solid base from which to evince change. However I am also very conscious of the range of complexities hidden within attempting change. 

For these strands to all pull together in order to make the changes required, we need certain states to be in situ. Such as:

• Strong relationships within and across our school
• Collegiality and collaboration based on shared understanding of our purpose for change
• Trust- exactly the same trust that we strive for in our classes. That empowers people to open themselves up to risk of failure, knowing that it is ok to fail, that we never achieve success until we are aware of what we need to do, personally to change and raise our practice
• An agreed direction, aligned with differentiated levels of supportive PLD to facilitate pedagogical growth

page 11 sees Timperley and Parr addressing the very issues I have with standards in our wonderful NZ curriculum 

"Part of our motivation for putting this book together is to try to avert the kinds of negative consequences experienced in many other countries and to optimise the chances that standards will be used to promote the kinds of learning that are valued in the curriculum through using the rich descriptions that accompany the standards as a source of information for advancing teaching and learning."

The rich layers of resources that surround our standards have huge potential to support and advance learning, to create ownership of learning between teachers and learners, through the development of deep understanding of what success looks like at any given point in a child's education. However to create the optimum learning environment for this integration of standards, curriculum and teacher inquiry, we again come back to the states we need in situ before this can happen. As Timperley and Parr put it " This will only happen, however, if professional and community learning- rather than punitive accountability- remain to the fore."

Within our context, reaching this point is our biggest challenge on the road ahead....