School Improvement in an Era of Change (School Development Series)

This text presents a new approach to school improvement, written in the context of increased government control over education policy. Based on the experience of the Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) project, which involves 26 schools, it discusses the kind of school infrastructure which can best cope with, and implement, effective change.

Education & Teaching

Ainscow, Mel

Hopkins,David

West, Mel

Schools & Teaching

UNKNO

Developing Equitable Education Systems

Despite consistent improvements in the school systems of over recent years, there are still too many children who miss out. It is not only children from disadvantaged backgrounds attending hard-pressed urban schools that the system is failing - even in the most successful schools there are often groups of learners whose experience of schooling is less than equitable. As a result of their close involvement with a group of schools serving a predominantly working-class community over five years, the authors of this book offer an analysis of how marginalisation within schools can arise, and provide suggestions for responding to this crucial policy agenda. They propose a teacher-led inquiry strategy that has proved to be effective in moving forward thinking and practice within individual schools. However, their research has shown that using the same strategy for system change is problematic within a policy context that emphasises competition and choice. Learning from this experience, the authors analyse the factors that inhibit the collaborative approach needed to reduce inequities that exist between the schools, in order to formulate proposals that can move the system as a whole towards more equitable provision. In Developing Equitable Education Systems, the authors focus on the way teachers’ sense of ‘fairness’ can become a powerful starting point, helping individual schools to inquire into and develop their own practice and provision. They provide practical suggestions for practitioners about ways of working that can create a greater sense of equity within particular school contexts, and highlight the barriers to a wider strategy for reducing system inequities that reside in local and national policies and traditions. At a time when government policies in many countries move to extend the diversity of educational provision - for example, through the introduction of charter schools in the USA, free schools in Sweden and academies in England - the authors also include a set of recommendations that offer a timely warning against the fragmentation of school systems in the misguided belief that competition benefits all children. They suggest that a more sensible approach would be to avoid situations whereby the improvement of one school leads to a decline in the resources available to, and subsequently the performance of, others.

Dyson, Alan

Goldrick, Sue

Routledge

School Improvement in an Era of Change provides a new approach to school improvement based on the experiences of 30 British schools which are being monitored by the Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) project. The authors critically examine the various models of effective schooling and school improvement, and discuss the central components of the change process. The book then goes on to describe the specific features of an infrastructure that will promote quality in schooling. This infrastructure comprises activities such as effective teaching, teacher appraisal, curriculum development, professional development and school self-evaluation. Specific school-level conditions which facilitate development are discussed in detail with the aid of illustrative case studies and a series of 'vignettes' which describe how they have worked in actual school settings. The book concludes with a discussion of what the authors have learned from this experience about the process of school improvement in an era of change and how best to achieve it.

School Improvement in an Era of Change

Teachers College Pr

Teacher Appraisal: A Practical Guide for Schools

Beekman Books Inc

SPORTS SCAN, The Baseball Fan's Superhighway Survival Guide

Greene, Glen

Emerald City Publications

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Creating the Conditions for School Improvement: A Handbook of Staff Development Activities

Beresford, John

Harris, Alma.

Southworth, Geoff

<p>First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &amp; Francis, an informa company.</p>

Creating the Conditions for Classroom Improvement: A Handbook of Staff Development Activities

Fielding, Michael

David Fulton Publishers

Collaboration and Networking in Education

Collaboration and networking have recently come to the fore as major school improvement strategies in a number of countries. A variety of initiatives, from government and other agencies, have encouraged collaboration and led to a lot of practical activity in this area. However, at present there are no texts in education that explore collaboration and networking from both a theoretical and practical perspective. In this book, we aim to provide a theoretical background to educational collaboration, drawing on research and theory in policy studies, psychology and sociology, leading ultimately to a typology of networks. This theoretical base will be tested in the discussion of a number of case studies referring to specific initiatives such as the Federations programme, multi-agency collaboration and Networked Learning Communities. Lessons for practice will be drawn and presented in terms of factors internal and external to the school. The key issue of network leadership will be addressed here as well.

Muijs, Daniel

Chapman, Chris

Springer

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by West, Mel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by West, Mel