Developing an evidence based school accountability framework
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Date
2000
Authors
Purse, Christopher Kenneth
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 2000
Abstract
The goal of this project was to develop a new method of assessing school accountability.
The project arose from dissatisfaction with a mandated model of externally driven school
reviews. The external process involved a week-long survey of a school. Considerable
emphasis was placed on generating a review report, but there seemed to be little emphasis
on actually working toward improving schools by acting on the report recommendations.
A significant shortcoming of the external review process is the lack of interest on the part
of the staff being reviewed. The challenge became to develop a process that involves the
staff in the entire evaluation process. Based on the notion that one of the most effective
forms of evaluation is accomplished through the collection of tangible evidence, the
project delves into an examination of demonstrating accountability through the collection
of evidence. A number of topics were reviewed in the educational literature in order to
develop a philosophy for this process. The next step was to take tasks from my job
description and collect evidence to demonstrate how I performed in my own
accountability framework. This gave me valuable experience with the process of
documenting accountability. My conclusion is that this is a worthwhile task as, based on
ajob description, anyone can determine what is actually being done and what needs more
attention. In the case of a school system, the starting point is the Education Act.
Typically included in Education Acts are statements of the legal duties of school staff,
which provide the basis for the operation of schools. The statements in the Northwest
Territories Education Act were analyzed and grouped into themes to develop the items
for this school accountability framework. This project stops at the frramework development stage, but provides some direction for future steps to complete the process.
Prior to use in the schools, the framework will need to be harmonized with the Nunavut
Education Act which is currently before the Members of the Legislative Assembly. Once
the items are revised, a committee will be struck to review the framework and provide
feedback. Of particular interest is the perceived ability to use the framework in an
operating school without putting undue stress on staff members. A manual will need to be
developed providing information for the school on how to prepare for data collection,
how to collect data and how to interpret the data. Another developmental task will be the
development of support materials to allow the items collected to be assessed for quality.
The goal of the process is to provide data for making improvements to each school both
in meeting the duties within the Education Act and improving the quality of education the
students receive. The intent is to have the first one or two pilot reviews occur in the
2001-02 school year.
Description
xi, 127 leaves ; 29 cm. --
Keywords
Education -- Nunavut , Schools -- Evaluation -- Nunavut , Educational accountability -- Nunavut