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The Nine Foolproof Steps To Transform Your School

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Turning round a struggling school is one of the hardest jobs in education - but now experts have come up with the nine foolproof steps leaders need to take to transform a school.

Researchers analyzed data from hundreds of schools to come up with a blueprint for not only improving results, but making that improvement sustainable.

But the study, published today in the Harvard Business Review, also found the schools that improved the most did not see a rise in test scores until year three.

Worryingly, nine out of 10 leaders who went on to deliver lasting improvements were almost fired after two years, before the changes they made could start to come to fruition.

Academics at the Centre for High Performance in the U.K. came up with the blueprint after examining the actions and impacts of 411 school leaders over an eight-year period.

Focusing on the 62 leaders who had managed to sustainably transform their school, they used more than 80 performance measures to tease out what they did, when they did it and what impact their actions had.

They found that leaders who had turned around a struggling school took nine steps, a combination which challenged how the school operated, engaged the community and improved its teaching.

But although the biggest impact was seen in schools where all nine building blocks were in place after three years, the tipping point was six blocks, yielding 90% of the gains.

Leaders who put all nine blocks in place saw results rise by 50%, but those who only managed six still saw results go up by 45%. Five blocks, however, saw a much wider spread, from 20-45%.

No one measure was found to be more important than any other, nor did it matter in which order they were implemented.

Instead of a silver bullet, school leaders should look to put in place as many blocks as they can, according to the study’s authors.

The study was a follow-up to the team’s research published last year, which identified five different types of leader, with only one, the architect leader, who sets about redesigning a school to meet the community’s needs, making lasting improvements.

The nine building blocks identified in the latest study are:

1. Commit to staying in post for at least five years: developing a 10-year-plan shows the school community parents, teachers and students that you are in it for the long haul and prepared to manage the consequence of your decisions.

2. Expel fewer than 3% of students: this shows parents and students you want to help them and fix the problem, not pass it on to someone else, and this involves only expelling students as a last resort.

3. Teach from 5 to 18: this helps embed good behavior and consistent teaching for longer, as well as giving students something to aim for. This was the change found to have the most consistent impact, although it took five years to see results.

4. Change 30-50% of the staff: leaders who changed less than 30% of the staff had little impact, while changing more than 50% created too much disruption.

5. Keep 95% of students in class: successful leaders took steps including bringing in external speakers, making students feel part of the process by encouraging them to evaluate teachers, and getting older students to mentor the younger ones.

6. Manage 30-60% of the school board: by shifting discussion away from results onto other metrics, such as student attendance and staff absence, leaders can help the board understand why this year’s results are not the focus. Less than 30% challenge leads to poor decisions, however, while more than 60% means the principal loses control of the school.

7. Have 50% attendance at parents’ evenings: successful schools increased attendance by making it a social event, offering careers and IT advice, and outreach programs.

8. Have 70% of staff with no absence: this may mean managing out staff on long-term absence, but it also means making teaching more fulfilling, using CPD, team-teaching and visits to other schools.

9. 100% capable staff: this means recruiting good teachers but also developing the existing staff, by informal observations, mentoring programs and sharing best practice.

However, many of the leaders who delivered the biggest improvements reported that they were almost fired after two years, according to Alex Hill, one of the researchers on the study and a director of the Centre for High Performance.

This two-year ‘probation’ period also found in business encourages a short-term approach, which in school often translates into looking for ‘quick fix’ solutions, such as excluding poor-performing students.

‘A board will give you two years’ grace, but at the end of the second year they want to see results,’ Prof Hill said.

School leaders need to explain what they are trying to do and persuade the board that other metrics are also important and they're creating the foundations for future success, he added.

Centre for High Performance

But the long-term outlook was consistent, he said. School leaders who put in six or more of the building blocks saw results improve by 40% or more. Those who put in all nine saw results up by at least 50%.

And although the change happens more rapidly in inner city than in rural or coastal schools, the outcome at the end of eight years was the same.

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