Using the Tool for

Self-Assessment of

School Domains

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FRAMEWORK

The Tool for Self Assessment of School Domains and Best Practice

The School Improvement Framework informs the school planning process and assists schools in establishing a vision for the years of the cycle and beyond.
This vision should be grounded in knowledge of and a commitment to best practice.

The self-assessment tool, like the School Excellence Initiative itself, is underpinned by evidence based performance and research into international, national and local best practice.
Research provides useful insight into ways schools might build their capacity to extend the effectiveness of learning for all students.

Best practice in education gives teachers opportunities to identify, adapt, disseminate and transfer exemplary practices and curricula for students. It promotes students’ abilities to explore, solve, and extend multi-step problems in the learning journey.

Best practice in education can be defined as a set of criteria that assists schools to achieve high standards. The criteria provide a measurement of excellence.
If practitioners reflect on and adopt best practice standards, they are aware of current research in educational domains and consistently apply the full benefits of their latest knowledge to their professional practice.

Components of the Tool for Self Assessment of School Domains

The Tool for Self Assessment of School Domains requires schools to examine data which will allow them to assess their performance against current best practice standards and determine planning priorities in the four domains: learning and teaching, student environment, leadership and management and community involvement.
The Tool comprises:

• Four Domains: subdivided into elements. Each element is further broken into characteristics in order to capture the essential activities in schools.

• Indicators of Practice: against each characteristic; schools make evidenced based judgments about their current level of practice.

• Narrative Descriptors: that provide a broad brushstroke of performance at two levels. These narratives in essence provide a moderation function across all schools.

• Questions to guide discussion: professional dialogue, which guides the decisions, is a critical aspect of the tool.

A Continuum of Best Practice

Assessment of current practice will result in schools plotting themselves on a continuum of practice ranging from aspiring through to excelling

After this placement schools make evidence based decisions regarding the inclusion of the characteristic as a priority in the School Plan, which is the outcome of the self assessment process.
Under the continuous self assessment process, the School Plan

is selective: it helps the school answer the questions ‘What will we focus on now?’ and ‘What will we leave till later?’
The School Plan should be considered a working document that schools use to monitor progress over time and to make revisions when necessary to ensure that the Plan continues to reflect continuous improvement.

Suggestions for Use

The Tool for Self Assessment of School Domains is designed for schools to use as part of their annual self assessment process. The following are suggestions for its use in

ACT government schools:

•The tool has been designed as a guide for ensuring there is balance in determining the school priorities each year.

•Schools may use the tool to conduct an ‘environmental sweep’ at the beginning of the school self assessment so that it engages as many stakeholders as possible and provides benchmark data for planning.

• Schools can decide the best time to use this tool. It is suggested that it be used at the beginning of each year when the annual self assessment begins but it may revisited at other times during the year as issues arise.

•Schools may want to concentrate on one or two domains each year or to address all four domains.

•The tool will promote and support professional discussions amongst school staff about school effectiveness.

•The critical aspect of the tool is the professional dialogue, which it stimulates, and the guidance it provides for reliable evaluation of the school’s current performance.

•Schools will be able to access this tool electronically so it can be used to meet the needs of individual schools.

Note

After conducting the initial ‘environmental sweep’ using the school self assessment tool, schools are not expected to address every characteristic by including it in the School Plan.
It is sufficient that schools are able to account to the external validation team for the evidence based decisions taken by the school board in determining its strategic direction.

School Improvement Framework 19

Mapping the Results

Schools may choose to represent their data from this tool graphically. This will assist

schools in identifying their priority areas.
Below is an example:

Domain: Learning and Teaching

A bibliography has been included in the Tool for Self Assessment of School Domains to

assist schools in finding out more information.

Glossary of Terms

Domain: the essential capacities of effective schools.

Elements: the core components of each domain.

Characteristics: the main features of the element. Schools are encouraged to list other characteristics to suit their school context.

Current Level Of Practice: an evidence-based assessment of current practice against each characteristic.

Indicators: evidence of performance in the characteristic. Schools may and are encouraged to add additional evidence relevant to their school context. This is a sample list only. The indicators are examples only, to capture the broad dimensions encompassed in the characteristics if appropriate for the school.

Evidence used to support decision about the level of current school practice:

specific examples of current practice in the school at the time of the annual school self assessment.

Notes: this column has been provided so that conversations around the characteristic are not lost. Schools can record the key points from the professional dialogue that surrounds their decisions about their current level of practice here.

Narrative Descriptors: Schools self determine the quality of their current level of practice broadly equivalent to those provided for each characteristic. Level 1 and Level 4 descriptors have been provided. While narrative descriptors are provided for Level 1 and Level 4 it would be beneficial for schools to have some professional discussion around what Levels 2, 3 and 5 would look like in their school. This should result in some consensus about what each level means.

Questions to Guide the Analysis of Current Practice:
These questions are designed to probe more deeply into issues that arise during discussions around the characteristics.

Rating Scale: a five point scale to assess performance

School Improvement Framework 21

1. ASPIRING

The school has evidence that it has identified some strategies to address this characteristic.

2. DEVELOPING

The school has evidence that it is developing and implementing strategies to address this characteristic.

3. FUNCTIONING

The school has evidence that it has implemented a number of effective strategies to demonstrate this characteristic.

4. ACHIEVING

The school has evidence of sustainable and very effective strategies in place to address and monitor this characteristic.

5. EXCELLING

The school has evidence gathered using a range of evaluative processes that it is achieving this characteristic at an extremely high level.