The Best Schools in 2015

Transcription

1 Why the best schools in 2015 will look more like professional service firms in the way that they manage the performance and development of their staff ANZSOG Presentation 22 April 2008 Larry Kamener, Senior Partner, The Boston Consulting Group Teacher quality is known to be a critical driver of student outcomes. Three fundamental leverage points exist to improve teacher quality: The quality of the people attracted to the profession; The quality of pre-service training; and The management of teacher performance and development in schools. The first two levers are undoubtedly important, and the recently published McKinsey study appropriately emphasises them. However, I believe one of the reasons that the empirical work focuses on these levers is that virtually no system around the world and only a few individual schools has been successful in managing the third. In my view that is because the teaching profession and school systems have been traditionally based on a doctor model for managing quality. In that model, the quality of entrants and pre-service training are critical, but the active management of performance and development has little place beyond the delisting of doctors who make very serious breaches. Professional services firms offer another model for managing the quality of professionals. It is also critical in firms like these to attract the best talent, but we see most of a consultant s development taking place after he or she joins. Let me run through the key elements of a professional services firm s typical approach to managing staff performance and development. Key elements of professional services firm approach Heavy investment in recruiting the best talent Significant investment in the induction of new staff Active, ongoing mentoring for all staff Multiple sources of feedback for staff Staff development a core role for leadership Significant team-based learning Steeply sloped remuneration Significant investment in outplacement support for underperforming staff Active alumni program that supports staff and keeps them connected when they leave the firm 1 1

2 Is it conceivable that in 2015 the education system and schools will do this, with the full support of teachers? Historically, teaching worldwide has been a profession resistant to feedback from students, parents or peers, and even from superiors. In most school systems, teachers rarely visit each other s classrooms and most performance appraisals at best assess whether or not a teacher has met the required standards. Not surprisingly, nearly all do. Feedback systems have been feared because they are seen to be imperfect forms of teacher assessment. Generic professional development programs are rarely customised to a teacher s specific needs. I have made the case in many forums that by resisting individual feedback teachers are also resisting the most powerful development tool available to them one that is used extensively in the better professional services firms to develop their staff. I believe the professional services firm model is applicable to schools. Indeed, a number of schools have started down that path and found that their teachers embrace the change. This has been the experience in Victoria. In 2003 we were contracted by the Victorian government to develop a school workforce development strategy. Our report was published by the Department and provided a key underpinning for the Blueprint for Schools released that year by then Minister Kosky. As part of our work we surveyed teachers across a number of schools and found a strong correlation between those schools that teachers would recommend to friends as good places to work and those that teachers believed had effective performance management disciplines. Teachers like schools with effective performance management Effective performance management I would recommend this school to my friends as a good place to work 1 = Strongly disagree; 5 = Strongly agree 2 2

3 Of the 55 questions in the survey, the worst performing one was A staff member s poor performance is not tolerated in this school. Teachers frustration with tolerance of poor performance was also highlighted in our focus groups and was seen to be a major factor in driving strong performers away from schools and sometimes the profession. Highest and lowest performing questions in survey Deviation from average score (%) Q55. The principal is visibly committed to our school's objectives' Q44. A staff member s poor individual performance is not tolerated in this school Performance management related questions Other questions 3 Discussions with the AEU encouraged us in our belief that most teachers would welcome an effective approach to performance and development. The union was willing to provide in-principle support for data-based feedback for teachers, as long as each teacher had the opportunity to address the issues raised. We also found evidence that best practice performance and development approaches, similar to those used in professional services firms, already exist in some schools. We noted, for example, that every teacher in Bendigo Senior Secondary College received, as part of their annual performance appraisal, individual student-based feedback as well as data on their value-added impact on student outcomes. 3

4 Based on the principles of effective performance and development systems and our in-field work, we designed a system based on the following objectives: Moving to a performance and development culture 'Professional development' and performance management' are completely separate 'Performance and development' No effective feedback for teachers Rich and constructive feedback for teachers Inability to deal with poor performers Objective, broad-based data against which to assess performance and manage underperformance Leaders focused on management Leaders focused on coaching and staff development 4 We also defined the five key elements we believed were required in a school with a performance and development culture, and developed a simple accreditation process to recognise schools that put these elements in place. Our recommendations were supported by the leadership of the Victorian branch of the AEU. Accreditation model for performance and development culture Element Effective induction program for all new teachers Multiple sources of feedback on teacher effectiveness Tailored professional development plans Professional development that meets individuals needs Staff believe school has performance and development culture Metric Mentoring program for all new teachers Annual review using at least three sources of data, e.g. Adjusted student outcomes Student feedback Parent feedback Observation Plans clearly linked to individuals strengths and development needs All teaching staff participate in relevant, effective, professional development programs Percentage of staff who believe school culture supports their professional growth and development 5 4

5 In 2003, Minister Kosky stated that she believed every teacher deserved to be able to work in a school with a performance and development culture, and that she wanted to see all Victorian government schools accredited as such by the end of ACER designed the accreditation process and the University of Melbourne was contracted as the accrediting body. While accrediting all schools by the end of 2008 was an ambitious goal, approximately 800 of the 1600 had been accredited by the end of February this year. Most of the remainder are expected to have at least begun the accreditation process this year. It is still far too early to determine the impact of the program on student outcomes, but we note that going through the accreditation process has had a very significant impact on the level of teacher engagement and alignment in those schools, as shown in the Department s annual staff survey. This chart shows the relative increase in scores for teachers in the schools accredited in Accredited Victorian schools have shown striking improvement in goal alignment Difference in results between schools accredited in 2007 relative to all schools % difference Year -2-3 School morale Professional growth Supportive leadership Professional interaction Goal congruence Source: Staff survey results gathered by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Furthermore, recent interviews with people in schools, the regions, the Department and the AEU have produced remarkably positive feedback on the impact of the program. 5

6 P&D culture has provided the impetus for crucial practice discussions, and transformed the use of feedback and data Setting up crucial practice discussions Catalyst for important practice discussions in schools P&D has opened up communication it is now far more open and direct. It has set up the right conversations about lifting achievement (Regional Director) Renewed emphasis on understanding, assessing & improving teaching performance, Helped propel system expectations; part of broader professionalisation of the workforce (DEECD official) Professional learning to make teaching stronger (Regional Director) The vehicle for reconciling the ambiguous (at best) or competing (at worst) strands of performance & development (External expert) Formal performance system too blunt, only deals with unsatisfactory performers (bottom 3%) P&D culture a framework for improving performance across the board (Principal) Better use of feedback & data A culture change on feedback Significant paradigm shift on feedback. [Previously] unheard of to have teachers in other teachers' classrooms (DEECD official) Real change of culture [on multiple sources of feedback] (Verifier) Initial student feedback gave staff a lift and built trust (Principal) Immediate feedback is very powerful (Union representative) And on data use Teachers/schools now strongly data-focused one of the lasting impacts (Union representative) Use of data has gone up tremendously (Principal) Creating a platform for other school initiatives Framework promotes controlled risk-taking supports people to see what works (Principal) Without this lever, would have been much harder to make change happen (External expert) Source: BCG interviews 7 P&D culture has strongly enhanced collaboration, in schools and across the school system Staff working together to improve school performance Accreditation requires understanding and buy-in from most staff Accreditation established strong goal congruence among staff (DEECD official) A great way to link my school together (Principal) Process requires staff to come together (DEECD official) P&D culture builds trust in each other trust in turn builds stronger culture (Principal) Practice discussions encourage teamwork P&D is about building social capital the ties of trust that bind people (Regional Director) Lens of your peers is powerful learning from each other, across subjects & grades (Principal) Coaching in the classroom wouldn't have happened 10 years ago (Regional Director) Encouraged team teaching (DEECD official) Source: BCG interviews Schools working together to improve system performance Use of reference schools to disseminate best practice Reference schools show what is possible, what can be done (DEECD official) Example effect is reducing the rate of knock backs [in accreditation] (Verifier) Flow through to further P&D culture related collaboration initiatives Schools coming together in cross-school change teams from across the region (Principal) Mutual engagement and support from peer network across Principals (External expert) Significant increase in collaboration across system overall Openness to sharing school experiences (Union representative) Knowledge now travels through social networks (DEECD official) Schools have moved from being competitive to generosity of spirit (DEECD official) 8 Accreditation as a school with a Performance and Development Culture is only one step on the journey toward transforming schools. And I m the first to acknowledge that the accreditation process does not set an extremely high bar. However, something is definitely happening in Victorian schools. Student feedback for individual teachers, as well as teachers (and principals) visiting each other s classrooms, were very rare events in They are now much more commonplace in Victorian schools. The next steps on this journey include more differentiated rewards, more leverage for senior teachers to support pay increases and more efforts to outplace underperforming or disengaged teachers, such as those recently announced by the Victorian Government. 6

7 I have little doubt that by 2015 we will see these kinds of changes in many schools and some school systems, making them more like professional service firms in the way they manage the performance and development of their staff. We laid out such a journey in our 2003 workforce development strategy. Overview of workforce development strategy Workforce effectiveness Roll out of transformational workforce models Leadership capacity building Embedding performance and development culture Active shaping of supply Differentiated rewards and recognition to sustain performance and development culture Trial/pilots of transformational workforce models Time 9 7