In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. Eric Hoffer
Based on what is discussed in the Education Revolution section of this website, the following questions as put to us by many principals, teachers, parents and students may be useful:
- How dispersed is leadership in your school? Is there a strategy to identify, support and develop ‘system leaders’ among teachers, parents and students?
- Is your school developing a strong governing body that really empowers staff and the community?
- Have key stakeholders (teachers, parents and students) really been involved in a strategic planning process? Does your school have shared school-family-community goals in its strategic plan?
- Is your school developing a shared, school community understanding and policy framework for 21st century education?
- To optimise the use of technology in the classroom and to support the home-school partnership, does your school have a technology plan that reflects the ideas and roles of the whole school community?
- Is your school developing a P-12 cluster of primary and secondary schools (and planning, for example, the Maths and Science curriculum from a coherent P-12 perspective)?
- Is your school organised around a small number of key leadership positions and high-level teams (focused on the main ways to improve learning outcomes for all students)? Do these teams involve teachers, parents and students?
- What has your school already achieved and what are its goals in relation to helping to develop a coherent birth-to-adulthood learning and development system? Does it have strong links with pre-schools and a university/college?
- How is performance monitored and communicated to the school community? Is there a good understanding of the mix of ‘system’ and ‘person’ influences on improving performance?
- Is your school developing state-of-the-art facilities? Have teachers, parents and students been involved in the design process? Do the buildings allow for the flexible use of space for learning?
These ten areas are always a 'work in progress' - as all schools, of course, face the challenges of continuous quality improvement and developing 21st century learning! There can also be setbacks with some things along with great strides forward in others.
As well, these ten things may not be done consistently or are longer-term goals due to a lack of time and resources that make it difficult for schools to do everything that they would like to do.
But these ten areas - based on the knowledge and experiences of principals, teachers, parents and students and models such as e5 - are used by school communities to inform their conversations about practical strategies to improve learning outcomes.
