'Intractable' schools: can an Ofsted judgement prevent sustainable improvement?

Schools in England are held accountable for a variety of aspects of their performance. Ofsted routinely judges schools’ quality, using national test and examination results and these results inform performance tables which are published by the Department for Education. Ofsted classifies schools on a four-point scale and those with failing inspection outcomes (‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires Improvement’) are urged to improve. However, a small number of schools named ‘intractable’ by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) have been classified as less than good since 2005 (Ofsted, 2017a), without this judgement leading to improvement. Recently, some head teachers have claimed that this classification acts as a barrier for change (Riall, 2017). This project aims to investigate: 1) What are the characteristics of ‘intractable’ schools? 2) Why Ofsted judgements haven’t led to improvement of these schools? Our study builds on research by the Education Policy Institute which found a negative correlation between schools with a disadvantaged intake and low prior attainment and a favourable Ofsted judgement (Hutchinson, 2016), and wider work looking at (side)effects of school inspections (Ehren, 2016). A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Design (SEMMD) combining quantitative data analysis followed by qualitative case studies in sixteen schools (intractable and comparison) will be conducted. We aim to identify characteristics and patterns of change, as well as give ‘intractable’ schools a voice in the debate. Our findings will inform policy makers, researchers and practitioners about how inspections of these schools can lead to improvement

The relationship between school inspections, school characteristics and school improvement.

The effects of school inspections on school improvement have been investigated only to a limited degree. The investigation reported on in this article is meant to expand our knowledge base regarding the impact of school inspections on school improvement. The theoretical framework for this research is partly based on the policy theory behind the Dutch Educational School Supervision Act (the latter includes assumptions about how school inspections lead to school improvement). Interviews and a survey with school inspectors gave insight into how school inspectors implement the Supervision Act and how they assess schools, and stimulate schools to improve. The results of ten case studies showed that all schools started to improve after a school visit. The innovation capacity of the school and the school environment do not seem to contribute to school improvement after school inspections. No effects were found on school-improvement processes of the number of insufficient scores that schools received from inspectors, the extent of feedback and suggestions for improvement, and the number of agreements. The provision of feedback about weaknesses, the assessment of these weak points as unsatisfactory, and the agreements between an inspector and the school regarding improvement activities do appear to make a difference in promoting school improvement

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Number of Pages: 10Integrative BiologyGeological Science

The content literacy continuum: A school reform framework for improving adolescent literacy for all student

This is the publisher's version, also found here: http://www.sped.org!n this column. Bridging Research and Practice, three of the federally funded special education research institutes report to you, the practitioner, on their progress in areas that will be particularly helpful to you in working with your students. The U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has funded these three research institutes to study specific curricular and instructional interventions that will accelerate the learning of students with disabilities in curricular Center on Accelerating Student Learning (CASL) focuses on accelerating reading, math, and writing development in Grades K-3. The Directors of CASL are Lynn and Doug Fuchs of Vanderbilt University. Principal Investigators include Joanna Williams at Columbia University and Steve Graham and Karen Harris at Vanderbilt University. Research Institute to Accelerate Content Learning Through High Support for Students With Disabilities in Grades 4-8 (REACH) is examining interventions that reflect high expectations, content, and support for students. The Director of REACH is Catherine Cobb Morocco at Education Development Center in Newton, MA. Research partners include the University of Michigan (Annemarie Palincsar and Shirley Magnusson), the University of Delaware (Ralph Ferretti, Charles MacArthur, and Cynthia Okolo), and the University of Puget Sound [John Woodward). The Institute for Academic Access (IAA) is conducting research to develop instructional methods and materials to provide students with authentic access to the high school general curriculum. The Institute Directors are Don Deshler and Jean Schumaker of the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Research partners include the University of Oregon and school districts in Kansas. California, Washington, and Oregon. This issue features the CASL

Impact of school inspections on improvement of schools—describing assumptions on causal mechanisms in six European countries

School inspection is used by most European education systems as a major instrument for controlling and promoting the quality of schools. Surprisingly, there is little research knowledge about how school inspections drive the improvement of schools and which types of approaches are most effective and cause the least unintended consequences. The study presented in this paper uses interviews with inspection officials and a document analysis to reconstruct the “program theories” (i.e. the assumptions on causal mechanisms, linking school inspections to their intended outcomes of improved teaching and learning) of Inspectorates of Education in six European countries. The results section of the paper starts with a summary of the commonalities and differences of these six national inspection models with respect to standards and thresholds used, to types of feedback and reporting, and to the sanctions, rewards and interventions applied to motivate schools to improve. Next, the intermediate processes through which these inspection models are expected to promote good education (e.g. through actions of stakeholders) are explained. In the concluding section, these assumptions are critically discussed in the light of research knowledge

Evaluation and decentralised governance: Examples of inspections in polycentric education systems

Across Europe schools and other service providers increasingly operate in networks to provide inclusive education or develop and implement more localized school-to-school improvement models. As some education systems move towards more decentralized decision-making where multiple actors have an active role in steering and governing schools, the tasks and responsibilities of Inspectorates of Education must also change. This paper reflects on these changes and suggests ‘polycentric’ inspection models that fit such a decentralized context. Examples of inspection frameworks and methods from Northern Ireland, England and the Netherlands are provided, as well as a brief discussion of the potential impact of such ‘polycentric’ models