School evaluation. A term that has long created anxiety and stress for school leaders.
I have been on the school principal/senior leader side of this for many years and know too well the work and worry that can come before an evaluation.
Recently, however, I completed my first school visit as an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme evaluation leader.
It gave me a fresh outlook on the process and the mistakes I made in the past as a school leader, and a sense of how leaders can prepare for evaluation visits - hopefully with a bit less stress.
1. Authenticity, not performance
As educators, we are not here to perform or prove that we are an exact replica of what an evaluation framework sets out to review.
An important part of this is understanding that there is no perfect school. Schools are complex ecosystems, with multiple systems and processes running at the same time.
One of the best things you can do as a school leader when introducing an upcoming school evaluation or accreditation visit is to emphasise that it is OK to talk about what is not working.
Ultimately, issues will be noticed, and a culture of transparency is always a good thing. On top of this, it helps the evaluation team work with you to reflect on ways through the weeds.
One scenario you don’t want is hiding a range of pastoral issues and having an improvement plan geared towards mostly academics. If this were to happen, you would either have to shelve the academic issues, or end up trying to over-implement and develop.
2. Involve stakeholders and give them autonomy
Trying to manage this whole process from the top with little support is a recipe for disaster.
Involving stakeholders from across your school is a wonderful way to gain a comprehensive picture of where your school is. This picture is what will support the visiting team in guiding the reflective process.
For this to be successful, everybody involved must have clear direction and an understanding of the process.
Beyond this, you need to trust your team, trust the people involved and give them the autonomy to move forward and provide evidence, questions and reflections they feel are relevant.
3. Make the evaluation work for you
Sometimes it is easy to fall into thinking that the visiting team are there for us to live up to their expectations, tick their boxes and make sure we are what they want.
While some element of the process is about making sure a school is meeting baseline standards, the true purpose of accreditation and evaluation in today’s school environment is continuous improvement.
Viewing the visit from this perspective vastly changes the way in which you, as a school leader, and your school community feel about the process. Even more significantly, it gives you increased opportunities for school development.
4. High-quality evidence beats endless reports
The temptation to provide masses of evidence, with the goal of ensuring every aspect of the school is seen in full clarity, may be intense. However, high-quality and purposeful evidence is always more impactful.
For example, if visitors have an excessive mass of documents to go through while trying to understand the school context, it can be difficult to manage.
On the other hand, purposeful documents that paint a picture of the school effectively and concisely can support the process and provide a more accurate depiction.
5. Align areas of improvement with strategic planning
Taking advantage of the improvement areas identified as a result of a reflective school evaluation or visit is critical.
Typically, these come to light through discussions with stakeholders from across the school community and a review of data and documentation. In other words, they have often already been considered through multiple sources of evidence.
Schools have had to go through this process independently for a long time. Now, we have evaluation systems in place to support that process. Making full use of these will help your school.
One excellent way to do this is to embed these areas within the school’s strategic development plan.
As I like to think of it, why redo the process again and double up on initiatives? Rather, draw from the visiting team’s findings and use these for authentic, organic, from-the-ground-up development.
Even knowing these things, I am not jumping for joy at the thought of upcoming school evaluations.
That said, I absolutely see less reason to feel fear, anxiety or stress. Moreover, I try to see evaluation through the lens of an improvement opportunity, regardless of how well established or developed my school is.
Gregory Macur is an experienced primary principal and deputy head of school
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