© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 1 Consider the Evidence Evidence-driven decision making for secondary schools A resource to assist schools to review their use of data and other evidence 4 Evidence-driven Strategic Planning

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 2 Consider the Evidence A resource to assist schools to review their use of data and other evidence What is meant by ‘data and other evidence’?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 3 Evidence Any facts, circumstances or perceptions that can be used as an input for an analysis or decision how classes are compiled, how classes are allocated to teachers, test results, teachers’ observations, attendance data, portfolios of work, student opinions … Data are one form of evidence

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 4 Data Known facts or measurements, probably expressed in some systematic or symbolic way (eg as numbers) assessment results, gender, attendance, ethnicity … Data are one form of evidence

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 5 What evidence does a school have? Student achievement Perceptions School processes Other practice Demographics

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 6 Demographics Data that provides a profile of our school School - decile, roll size, urban/rural, single sex or co- educational, teaching spaces … Students - ethnicity, gender, age, year level, attendance, lateness, suspension and other disciplinary data, previous school, part-time employment … Staff - gender, age, years of experience, qualifications, teaching areas, involvement in national curriculum and assessment, turnover rate … Parents/caregivers and community - socio-economic factors, breadth of school catchment, occupations …

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 7 Student achievement Evidence about student achievement National assessment results - NCEA, NZ Scholarship - details like credits above and below year levels, breadth of subjects entered… Standardised assessment results administered internally - PAT, asTTle… Other in-school assessments - most non-standardised but some, especially within departments, will be consistent across classes - includes data from previous schools, primary/intermediate Student work - work completion rates, internal assessment completion patterns, exercise books, notes, drafts of material - these can provide useful supplementary evidence

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 8 Perceptions Evidence about what students, staff, parents and the community think about the school Self appraisal - student perceptions of their own abilities, potential, achievements, attitudes … Formal and informal observations made by teachers - peer interactions, behaviour, attitudes, engagement, student-teacher relationships, learning styles, classroom dynamics … Structured interactions - records from student interviews, parent interviews, staff conferences on students … Externally generated reports - from ERO and NZQA (these contain data but also perceptions) … Student voice - student surveys, student council submissions … Other informal sources – views about the school environment, staff and student morale, Board perceptions, conversations among teachers …

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 9 School processes Evidence about how our school is organised and operates School processes - evidence and data about how your school is organised and operates, including: Timetable –structure, period length, placement of breaks, subjects offered, student choices, tertiary and workforce factors, etc Classes - how they are compiled, their characteristics, effect of timetable choices, etc Resources - access to libraries, text books, ICT, special equipment, etc Finance - how the school budget is allocated, how funds are used within departments, expenditure on professional development Staffing - policies and procedures for employing staff, allocating responsibility, special roles, workload, subjects and classes

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 10 Other Practice How we can find out about what has worked in other schools? Documented research – university and other publications, Ministry of Education’s Best Evidence Syntheses, NZCER, NZARE, overseas equivalents … Experiences of other schools – informal contacts, local clusters, advisory services, TKI LeadSpace …

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 11 Evidence-driven strategic planning If we use evidence-driven decision making to improve student achievement and enhance teaching practice … … it follows that strategic planning across the school should also be evidence-driven.

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 12 Evidence-driven strategic planning. INDICATORS FROM DATA asTTle scores show a high proportion of Year 9 achieving below curriculum level NCEA results show high non- achievement in transactional writing Poor results in other language NCEA standards etc. STRATEGIC GOAL To raise the levels of writing across the school Strategic action Develop a writing development plan which addresses writing across subjects and levels, including targets, professional development and other resourcing needs etc. ANNUAL PLAN Develop and implement a plan to raise levels of Writing at year 9 Development plan to be based on an analysis of all available data and to include a range of shared strategies etc. YEAR TARGET Raise writing asTTle results year 9 boys from 3B to 3A etc. Appraisal P D Self review School charter EVALUATION DATA asTTle writing results improve by … Perception data from Yr 9 staff indicates … Evaluation of effectiveness of range of shared strategies, barriers and enablers … etc

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 13 What now? How can we apply this approach in our school?