School Development Internal Review Building a Professional Learning Community

School Development Model

Internal School Review The purpose is to examine the school’s current processes, practices and assessment results in order to determine its strengths and areas needing change. The focus is on identifying opportunities to improve student learning and achievement. Using the provincially established Criteria Statements, the school establishes baseline data that is used to measure future growth and development.

Internal Review Component Starting point for provincial model Completed within a 2-4 month period Requires a comprehensive assessment of the school using Criteria Statements Results in a 3-4 Year School Development Plan Includes the full school community

Internal Review: Steps and Procedures Establish a School Development (Leadership) Team Gather and organize relevant data according to Criteria Statements Establish Data Recording and Analysis Teams Record and analyze the data Report on data and reach consensus on strengths and challenges Goal Identification

Step 1: Establish a School Development (Leadership) Team The leadership team has a general responsibility to lead, support and monitor the school development process at the school level. 4-6 members: includes the administration, teachers and representation from parents, community and students (where appropriate) Select a chairperson Build a culture and capacity for school development Establish timelines for each phase of the internal review

Step 2: Gather and organize relevant data according to Criteria Statements There are 15 provincially established criteria statements designed to identify strengths and challenges in four areas: School Organization (1 & 2) Leadership (3 & 4) Teaching and Learning (5 – 13) Culture and Climate (14 & 15)

Criteria Statements Each criteria statement has: o “Questions to Consider” o Data Sources o Examples The School development team, with District support, facilitates the gathering of all data

Data Collection Data is derived from three broad sources: o School actions and practices o Assessment o Surveys/Focus Groups

Step 3: Establish Data Recording and Analysis Teams All staff should be on a team Teams of 3-5 work best Where appropriate, teams should have representation from the school community Teams, where appropriate, should be representative of a cross section of the school’s staff A member of the school development team should lead each data recording and analysis team

Step 4: Record and analyze the data To facilitate the recording and analysis session, the school development team should: o Set up an electronic file system o Ensure technology is functional

Close-out: Day 1 Provide access to digital folders and files required to answer the criteria statement questions Enter data on the Criteria Statement Recording Template Hyperlink all supporting evidence to its source Limit conversations during data entry After data entry, begin to analyze the data for Strengths and Challenges using the Criteria Analysis Template

Cross reference all Strengths and Challenges statements (by number) with the data entered on the recording templates Ensure all electronic files are named, saved, and secured

Step 5: Report on Data and Consensus on Strengths and Challenges Data recording and analysis teams report their list of strengths and challenges for each criteria statement The full group must reach consensus on the strengths and challenges of each criteria statement before proceeding to the next one

Step 6: Goal Identification Purpose is to categorize the challenges into similar areas Operational Issues are removed Each team completes the Challenges to Goals Template One team reports to all for comparison, discussion and consensus

Close-out: Day 2 Each Data recording and analysis team reports to the full group Encourage analysis and discussion to facilitate clarification and appropriate changes Reach consensus on the Challenges Complete the Challenges to Goal Areas Template Remove Operational Issues from the master challenge list Reach consensus on the goal areas Ensure all electronic files are saved and secured

“It has often been said that an improvement process represents a journey rather than a destination, but even a journey needs ports of call along the way. Goals provide these ports of call and serve as landmarks in an improvement process.” (DuFour and Eaker, 1998)