Raising Student Achievement

Raising Student Achievement Through Targeted Actions

ERO produced a report at the end of 2015 which outlined for teachers (and school leaders) insights into effectively creating targets to accelerate students learning.  

This document represents a substantive analysis into what specific actions school leaders are taking to review the impact initiatives are having upon student progress.  The material specifically challenges management to justify their choices around measurable gains.  

I found this report to be extremely useful as it works through multiple aspects of education from BOT (governance level), through leadership, teacher and students/parents.  Many of the findings of the reports used case examples to juxtaposition success variations of strategies on less successful attempts.  

The importance of data is evident throughout this report.  The authors emphasising that schools are most likely to have the correct initiative/ideas in mind when planning change.  But often the success of these initiatives/ideas is inhibited by some simple failings.  The use of quality data (and by default reports) is a primary focus.  ERO challenges schools to strive to build up the capacity within staff for making improvements.  "The most significant difference between schools that succeeded and less successful schools was the explicit commitment to both equity and excellence." (p.36) 

This post is related to RTC #6. "Conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme - i. articulate clearly the aims of their teaching, give sound professional reasons for adopting these aims, and implement them in their practice."  And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 2 Leadership of conditions for equity and excellence - "Leadership build capability and collective capacity in evaluation and inquiry for sustained improvement and innovation." 

NASDAP Conference 2015

Thoughts from Conference

I had been looking forward to this year's Deputy Principal's annual conference.  The theme for this year was 'Disobedience - Jump out of the safe zone'.  The idea being that we should be avoiding getting comfortable in our roles and how our schools sit in education.

The conference was extremely well attended with approximately 350 senior managers from around the country.  The bi-annual conference is a nationwide event covering all the regional areas.  This year was held at Skycity.  

During this conference there was a consistent theme about questioning the perceived limitations of schooling, curriculum and traditional assumptions around education.  This was, naturally, a theme eagerly grabbed by our key note speakers.

I very much enjoyed the speech by Mai Chen who presented an excellent summary of education from the perspective of a parent.  Her story of immigration to New Zealand as a six year old and inevitable rise in Law whilst inspirational was grounded in the nitty gritty of life. 

Mai presented her notion of 'disobedience' as deliberately avoiding getting too comfortable with life.  That when we're overtly familiar with our surroundings and systems that we should "choose which tiger to throw a stone at".  

Nathan Makaere Wallis was another keynote speaker who I found to be excellent.  I have already posted a entry on his ideas (click here).  For me Nathan's core message was about getting young people to cognitively process their ideas/actions/words prior to decisions.  He illustrated this well by describing sitting with a young person and going through the 'game' of "what would you do if insert idea happened?"  The notion being that rehearsal.  [Nathan is coming to speak at the college on the 22nd of next month].  
  
The third keynote address I enjoyed greatly was by Steve Maharey (former Education Minister and current Vice-Chancellor of Massey University).  He presented a very good synopsis of what are the key characteristics of those students who will thrive in the future (critical thinking, self management, collaboration, innovation etc).  

This post relates to RTC #4. "Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice - ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community." And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 2. "Leadership promotes and participates in a coherent approach to professional learning and practice."