School Improvement Partnership Programme:Summary of interim findings

March 2014

University research and support

The main aims of the project were:

•to underpin the use of effective evaluation techniques by up to 10 individual partnership projects in different areas of Scotland

•to determine how well the overall Project and individual partnership projects have been implemented

•to assess whether the Project as a whole has contributed to teachers’ learning and development – particularly in the area of tackling disadvantage in Scottish education.

Evidence base to date

At this interim stage, the project has:

• reviewed research literature to provide a context and to inform the project’s conceptual framework regarding school improvement and collaborative enquiry

• monitored and summarised known progress to date across those partnerships currently engaged with the Programme

• drawn on a range of data and sources to consider emerging themes pertinent to the Programme’s aims and highlighted issues for consideration to inform the development of the SIPP

Evidence base to date

The evidence base for the report comprises:

• partnership projects’ feedback both verbal and email to the Research team and Education Scotland contacts

• accounts gained during research support liaison with the partnership projects

• researcher observation during support visits and events

• responses (n=38) to a baseline on-line survey

• Collaborative working across boundaries

• Focus on closing the achievement gap

• The commitment to mutual benefit and the creation of leadership opportunities and professional learning of staff

• Commitment to long-term sustainability and capacity building

• Explicit links to strategic improvement planning in schools and local authorities

• The use of systematic enquiry to develop innovative practices and monitor developments

Core Principles

Interim findings

• The partnerships have developed at a different pace to one another.

• There is sufficient information to highlight evidence of interesting practice, progress and to identify some emerging issues that can inform the development of the overall initiative

• There are a number of different kinds of partnerships developing within and across education authorities. Some involve partnerships within an authority and others involve schools from different authorities. Some are cross-sectoral whilst others involve different agencies

Interim findings

• Partnerships have taken time to develop and agree their proposals and to establish lines of communication to facilitate the organisation and operation of the partnerships

• This activity has been particularly important where there are numerous schools and organisations involved and more than one local authority

• The role and commitment of the local authority coordinator, school management and those with responsibilities for developing and running the various partner initiatives has been crucial

• Where partnerships are well-coordinated the trios have been able to work as an integral component to guide both the educational and research developments.

Interim findings

• The more established partnerships show signs of developing forms of working that reflect what is known from the literature about effective collaboration for school improvement (eg Kerr et al. 2003, Fullan 2013)

• For example, in three partnerships the local authority has been instrumental in fostering networks that are in line with those that facilitated joint problem solving as identified by Wohlstetter (2003)

• In such cases, the partnership teams are working collaboratively to put working groups in place with responsibilities to develop aspects of their intervention, develop enquiry and evaluation and share lessons learned across the partnership

Interim findings

• The baseline survey also indicates that there are initial developments regarding the Programme’s impact on promoting opportunities for teachers to collaborate and share ideas

• Despite varying levels of research expertise and experience there is a commitment in these partnerships to work with the research team to develop their own research and enquiry systems

• The baseline survey reveals that the majority of respondents believed that the Programme was already having positive impact on raising awareness and confidence regarding self-evaluation and enquiry

Issues and tensions

The main issues and tensions to emerge to date from our feedback can be summarised as:

•communication: a) local authorities understanding the proposal process and deadlines and the levels of funding available and b) stakeholders establishing a shared understanding regarding the SIPP project aims and what this means for their partnership.

•issues of the SIPP planning and budget timing not always matching the planning timetables of schools and local authorities

•finding time for partnership planning activity

•synchronising Trio activity and diaries to match the needs of the schools.

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Conclusion

• The Programme has stimulated the imagination and creativity of partnership teams to devise diverse and complex collaborative networks and programmes to tackle inequality in education

• Secondly, there is evidence that some of the partnerships are becoming established and putting in place interventions that reflect wider research and principles of effective enquiry and practice

• Third, the Programme is facilitating collaborative networks that are, in the words of one participant, helping to ‘establish a wiser ‘professional learning community in order to develop teachers’ confidence in using a variety of teaching strategies and working at inter-authority level’