Session Information
26 SES 04 A, International Perspectives on the Improvement of Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances
Symposium
Contribution
Over the last decade, how to solve the stubborn underperformance of around 580 schools has been a pressing question in the English government’s agenda. In its 2017 Annual Report, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) highlighted a set of schools judged as ‘requires improvement’, ‘satisfactory’ or ‘inadequate’ in every inspection over the period from September 2005 to August 2017. Subsequently, Ofsted conducted qualitative case studies of 10 stuck and 10 ‘unstuck’ schools. ‘Fight or flight? How 'stuck' schools are overcoming isolation’ concluded that stuck schools needed more targeted assistance, following more thorough and detailed inspections that are not tied to overall grades (Ofsted, 2020). Despite Ofsted’s policy priority on ‘failing’ schools, 2 to 3% of schools nationally, have been systematically stuck or graded as less than good (‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires Improvement’) since 2005, without improving. This paper draws on a Nuffield Foundation’s funded longitudinal mixed-method study oriented to better understand patterns of change over time and stakeholders’ experiences in stuck schools and their comparison group. Whilst its main findings have been reported elsewhere (Munoz-Chereau, Hutchinson and Ehren, 2022), this paper further explores the comparison ‘unstuck’ group formed by six (thee primary and three secondary) schools that after being ‘stuck’ for more than a decade, managed to improve against the odds their overall effectiveness. Methodologically, the qualitative multiple-case study combined the analysis of schools’ documents, semi-structured interviews with headteachers, teachers and governors, and focus groups with stakeholders in order to reconstruct the schools’ longitudinal inspection and improvement trajectory. Whilst ‘unstuck’ schools described how the combination of differentiated inspections, thresholds, sanctions, and public reporting amplified their difficulties and overpowered the attempts of improvement and support, they stressed how after stabilising their teams through strong leadership, managed to improve by identifying and addressing pressing areas for improvement that were under their control (such as discipline, curriculum alignment or continuous professional development) , that allowed them to turn around. Despite this multiple-case study does not provide a blueprint for what works in general, it does provide a thick description of the contexts, challenges, strengths and opportunities that allowed them to construct a positive story. Overall, the ‘stuck’ metaphor distracts attention from the unequal playing field. Findings call for more empirical longitudinal research and contributes to the research base on improvement in low-performing schools.
References
Ofsted (2020). ‘Fight or flight? How 'stuck' schools are overcoming isolation. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fight-or-flight-how-stuck-schools-are-overcoming-isolation Munoz-Chereau, B., Hutchinson, J., & Ehren, M. (2022). 'Stuck'schools: Can below good Ofsted inspections prevent sustainable improvement?. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10149556
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