Do classical Models of School Effectiveness and School Improvement Work in Russian Context?
Author(s):
Irina Grunicheva (presenting / submitting) Marina Pinskaya (presenting) Sergey Kosaretsky
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance
Format:
Paper

Session Information

11 SES 10 A, Use and Effect of Evaluation to Improve the Quality of Education

Paper Session

Time:
2014-09-04
15:30-17:00
Room:
B231 Sala de Aulas
Chair:
Heidi Flavian

Contribution

This study represents itself the description and the main outcomes and findings of the final phase of the  project which was implemented in some schools of Russia (2009-2013) as an applied project of the fundamental research  devoted to the genesis of the educational inequality  and possibilities of its overcoming. Actually it renders the results of the development and applications of the improvement programs in pilot schools in one of the Russian regions. Models of School Effectiveness (R.Marzano, P.Mortimor) and School Improvement (D.Hopkins, D.Hargreves, M.Fullan), which turned to be widely used in developed countries, but had never been used in Russia before this project, became the theoretical and conceptual frame of these programs. And the model of Professional Learning Communities (P.Senge, M.Fullan, A.Harris, M.Jones) was chosen as a special focus. Low-performing schools facing challenging circumstances and working with disadvantaged students became the targeted group of the project. The choice of this group could be explained by the fact, that the problem of stable segment of low – performing schools operating in complex social and economical contexts is acute for many countries and Russia is not an exception here. So looking for effective ways of improving these schools is a task to solve by both researchers and practitioners on the national and international level. And the main goal of this particular project was to involve national practices into the mainstream of the world research, and to justify the capacity and possibilities of applying model of school effectiveness and school improvement that can provide large-scale changes in national educational systems. It is important to mention that the research was conducted in cooperation with the University of London’s Institute of Education and in particular with outstanding world experts and consultants  in School Effectiveness and School Improvement Alma Harris and Michelle Jones.  The main research questions were the following:

- can classical models of school effectiveness be used in context of Russian school practice;

- can these models serve as a basis of improvement programs for low- performing schools in challenging circumstances;

- do domestic traditions of school culture and domestic strategies of school management allow to introduce  into our practice the model of Professional Learning Communities, which effectively works in western school systems.

            The answers to the questions above were given in descriptions of cases of schools that can be defined as indicative cases of the whole sample.

Method

During the research the following methods were used: - semi-structured interviews of all participants of educational process: pupils, teachers, school administration, parents; - semi-structures interviews of potential partner schools in the territory, including educational institutions, institutes in the following spheres: social, cultural, spots, police, economic ones; - questioning of teachers; - questioning of pupils; - ethnographic methods; - classroom observations. Initially 10 schools from three regions of Russia were involved into the project. These ten schools were selected as pilot ones as a result of a special selective procedure. Schools were selected on the basis of the statistical analysis of the wide list of the contextual information including characteristics of the contingent, human resources and students’ educational outcomes. All schools, which had entered the research as pilots belonged to the least successful in their territories and worked with the contingent of students from dysfunctional families. Their academic results were contextualized. The monitoring of the progress of pilot schools was carried out in the following directions with the use of relevant methods: - changing of the school image in community (statistic data analysis of the dynamics of school contingent); - dynamics of academic performance (analysis of school documentation of academic performance, analysis of the USE results, semi-structured interviews with participants of the educational process and school partners); - changes in the curriculum and set of extra- curricula activities (analysis of curriculum plans and reports and plans and reports of extra-curricula activities, semi-structured interviews a with participants of the educational process, questioning of pupils ); - changes in teachers professional beliefs (semi-structured interviews and questionnaires); - changes in school environment and school climate (semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, observations); - changes in teaching and learning (questionnaires, observations).

Expected Outcomes

In pilot schools of the project for the first time in history of Russian school education classical western models of school effectiveness, school improvement and the model of Professional Learning Communities were introduced. As far as we can judge the implementation of the above mentioned models and corresponding strategies was successful, that can be proved by the main findings of the research: - the negative dynamic of school contingent was turned into positive one; - school practice of teaching and learning became less traditional and more constructivistic; - teachers professional beliefs changed their orientation from culture of isolation to culture of collaboration and partnership, from low self-professional evaluation to professional development and self-professional efficiency; - schools started to practice distributed leadership through forming within schools groups (teams) of active teachers that work in close collaboration with the school administration in the development and correction of improvement programs and in taking strategic decisions concerning all school processes; - schools declared the strategies of high expectations which are supported by the extension of educational options for academically motivated pupils and options of extra-curricula actinities; - schools became more attractive for professional community that can be proved by inflow in schools both young teachers and experienced highly qualified teachers from other schools; - schools managed to achieve more deep and systematic level of parents’ involvement through the enhancement of the information and consultation channels; - the main reason why some pilot schools of the project failed to achieve desirable progress can be defined as non-willingness or non ability of the school principal to assume the role of main initiator and facilitator of changes. Thus we can conclude that models of school effectiveness, school improvement and professional learning communities can be successfully used in Russian context for improvement of low-performing schools working in challenging circumstances- which could be considered as the main result of the project.

References

1. Fullan,M.G.(1992) The New Meaning of Educational Change. London:Cassel. 2. Harris, A. (1997).The School Improvement Resource Pack. London.Kogan page. 3. Harris, A., Clarke ,P., James,S.,Gunraj,J.and James.B.(2006). Improving Schools in Exceptionally Challenging Contexts: Tales from the Frontline. London.Continium 4. Pinskaya M., Frumin I., Kosaretski S. Schools that operate effectively in difficult contexts. Voprosi obrazovania. 2011. N 4, p.148-177. 5. Reynolds, D., Hopkins, D., Chapman, Ch. and Potter, D. School Improvement for Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances: a Review of the Research and Practice. School Effectiveness and School Improvement: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice Volume 20, Issue 1, 2009. 6.Chapman Ch., Sammons P.School Evaluation for School Improvement.What works and why?//http://cdn.cfbt.com/~/media/cfbtcorporate/files/research/2013/r-school-self-evaluation-2013.pdf 7. Sammons P. School Effectiveness and Equity. Making Connections//http://www.coe.fau.edu/research/conferences/icsei2006/documents/Sammons_keynote.pdf 8.Bert P.M. Creemers (2002) From School Effectiveness and School Improvement to Effective School Improvement: Background, Theoretical Analysis, and Outline of the Empirical Study, Educational Research and Evaluation: An InternationalJournal on Theory and Practice, 8:4, 343-362 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/edre.8.4.343.8814

Author Information

Irina Grunicheva (presenting / submitting)
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Moscow
Marina Pinskaya (presenting)
Higher School of Economics
Moscow
Sergey Kosaretsky
Higher School of Economics
Moscow

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