School Improvement

Abstract

Maple Leaf School is a large English elementary school in Ontario, Canada. Wanda Miller, the principal, has been at the school for 2 years. Upon arrival, she engaged the teachers in a collaborative exercise to determine their school goal (as required by the province). Character education was selected. The district insisted that the school adopt an academic goal instead. Wanda determined that character education would be the school's primary goal and writing its secondary one. Since then, students' behavior and the school's climate have improved markedly, but test scores have declined. This case focuses on the tension between a locally identified, collaboratively determined school focus and conflicting district and provincial demands. Keywords school improvement, decision making, educational leadership Case NarrativeWanda Miller, principal of Maple Leaf Elementary school is facing a dilemma: she, the vice principal, and the teachers in her school believe improving students' behavior should be the school's number one priority. Until behavior improves, they argue, substantial academic gains are unlikely. The school district and provincial government, however, demand that the school prioritize increasing students' academic achievement (as indicated by test scores). Which stakeholder group should have the final word? To whom is Wanda accountable? How can Wanda persuade her staff and district officials to accept the other group's position?

Love-based Practice in Education

“…Interest in school-related leadership studies has been especially focused on the school rector and his or her principles (Neil, 2012), pedagogical touch (Trevor & Palaiologou, 2012), goal setting (Waldron, McLeskey, &Redd, 2011), the way of leading curriculum work (Jenkins & Pfeifer, 2012) and action for improving student engagement and school culture (van der Velden, 2012). In all, school leadership is connected to the quality of schooling (Olayiwola, 2012) and can also ignite competition between schools (Pollock & Winton, 2012). Parents certainly compare schools and their values when trying to find the best education for their children (Gillanders, McKinney, & Richie, 2012).…”

Are schools’ qualification and civic outcomes related? The role of schools’ student composition and tracking

“…Dronkers and Warnaar, 1999;Eidhof et al, 2017), yet other studies suggest a negative relation that resonates more with a trade-off relation between both tasks (e.g. Hofman et al, 1999;Pollock and Winton, 2012), and others find no relation between both types of outcomes (e.g. Gray, 2004;Van der Wal and Waslander, 2008).…”

School Values: A Comparison of Academic Motivation, Mental Health Promotion, and School Belonging With Student Achievement

“…The most quantifiable method to determine whether this function has been achieved is through grades, assessments, and performance on standardised tests (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2008). As such, quantified measures of academic achievement are generally considered to be the gold standard indication of school success (Pollock & Winton, 2012;Stemler, Bebell, & Sonnabend, 2011). However, many schools also value student wellbeing, school belonging Quinlan, Swain, Cameron, & Vella-Brodrick, 2014), and civic, emotional, and cognitive development (Stemler et al, 2011).…”