Measuring CPD Impact - Let’s clear away the confusion

Let’s clear away the confusion

It would be rare to find a school today that didn’t have systems of some kind in place that helped them accurately track and measure the attainment of pupils.

Management information and pupil assessment systems are now commonplace in schools and academies because they make it easy for leaders to analyse a student’s progress so that teachers can target support where it is most needed.

Ensuring that no pupil falls through the net and that every student meets or exceeds their potential is a number one priority for every school leader.

But in order for them to fully realise these ambitions they need to look at ‘backroom’ school improvement processes such as CPD, performance management and development planning as much as what happens in the classroom.

If school leaders have a clear view of what’s happening in these areas they can make sure everybody plays a part in reaching school development targets. It also means that leaders can identify which staff members need more professional support and everyone gets recognition for the contribution their work makes. The result is a better run school in which pupils prosper.

We know these processes have a big impact on pupil performance. The Teacher Development Trust for example highlights a New Zealand study showing that classes whose teachers had taken part in high-quality professional development improved twice as fast as those in other classes. It also showed that the 20 per cent of pupils deemed ‘least able’ made improvements up to six times faster than their peers in other classes.

Strange, then, that the vast majority of schools in England and Wales today – around 85 per cent – simply don’t have the means to track and manage these improvement processes in ways that make it easy for them to use the information and act on it. The fact is many leaders think they have that ‘clear view’ but when compared with schools that use modern day tools, the gap is quite staggering.

Most schools still follow the standard information gathering approach, usually involving hyperlinked Word documents, over-complicated computer spreadsheets or lever arch files destined to sit on an office shelf.

Money, time and complexity are the main reasons why this approach still persists. It’s too tricky to get that intelligent view with a PC spreadsheet because it takes too much time to mine the data, interpret it in various ways and link it to evidence. I’ve seen for myself some wonderfully creative, DIY documents which at first appear to be a massive step forward for schools. But after a few months, it becomes quite apparent that maintaining these tools is a full time job which can’t be sustained because there aren’t the resources. Another downside of this approach is that these ‘homebrew’ tools often become unstable and this frustrates school leaders when they need to access accurate information.  

As well as clouding a school’s view of what it needs to do to keep on improving, this traditional approach could also create problems with Ofsted. The body now wants schools and academies to give full account of the improvement processes that ultimately have a huge impact upon pupil attainment. It wants evidence that the SLT knows the school’s strengths and weaknesses, that leaders are immersed in self-evaluation and that development plans are focused on improving teaching and raising achievement.

These are compelling reasons for schools to change, yet most still have a bit of a blind spot in this area.  I worry that this reluctance might be a sign of a deeper, age old, issue– a fear of change.

All school leaders and their staff are open to change if it means tangible improvements. But human nature is what it is and some schools think it better to avoid the discomfort and continue as they have always done.

I believe the intelligent management of these processes will help leaders and their staff overcome these fears. School improvement planning and the monitoring of impact shouldn’t be about cold data crunching. We need to use technology to support people in their development and let them make a real contribution to school objectives. This applies equally to individuals following their own career path and large organisations trying to make sense of the bigger picture. Essentially, it’s time to adopt modern day business practice for the business side of things so that the number one priority, education, is informed, evidence lead and free from the burden of bureaucracy .

For example, if a school’s performance management systems show that staff need some professional development in a particular area it would help if they were given the means to evaluate that CPD themselves and back this up with evidence that it is making a difference – or not. Many leaders will claim they already do this, but are the methods they use sustainable, accessible and above all, do they solve the old problem of how to produce evidence of the impact of CPD on pupil achievement?

This is easier said than done with traditional tracking and management methods but it is achievable using the online school improvement planning systems that are now available. These systems can unify staff rather than alienate them, giving them a voice in the change management process that otherwise might not be heard. This is about staff having ownership and control and it helps dissipate their fears about change.

The issues around school improvement planning that I pointed out earlier are likely to become even more pronounced for leaders of groups of schools, such as academy chains, federations and trusts.

Recently I’ve been spending more time working with groups of schools, helping them to address these issues. They are all faced with some common challenges. The chief one is how to reduce the time spent on school improvement planning across their schools while ensuring that there is consistency in tracking, management, reporting and ultimately quality assurance so that it makes it easier to manage and deliver support where it is needed.

In these situations the quality assurance of member schools becomes a pressure point because of geographical distance. A teaching school will, for example, need to monitor the progress of teacher training students and the quality of its ITT provision.

With online systems the miles don’t matter as much. This gives school leaders the means of reviewing the schools from where they work and target support where it is needed.

As the UK education system becomes more diverse, with academies at the forefront of this transformation, there is now an even greater need for schools to manage themselves as effectively as possible. Paper and spreadsheets might give schools data about their school improvement processes, but it won’t be easy to interpret or act upon because it will be so difficult to manipulate.

It really is time for schools to get a clear, intelligent view of improvement processes like CPD, performance management and development planning so that they can meet the demands of accountability – and help staff help pupils achieve.