Leading Change

To what problem is this the solution?

Using data to inform our leadership decisions

What Change?

•Assumption that the change we are talking about is that of

changing teacher practice and school systems to improve
outcomes for students.

•How do you bring about change unless you know what the
current situation is?

Change Analogies

•Director of a play
•Surfboard rider
•Person going up the “down” escalator
•Mechanic working on a moving car

How can we manage change in productive

ways and ensure that the change (in
teacher practice) is sustainable
Order of change: Guskey
Guskey – what makes PD effective
•Clear focus on Learning and Learner – what improvement do we want to see in student
achievement? Clear goals and assessment procedures to document progress.
•Engage in rigorous self analysis – trial, look at evidence, where to next – an iterative working
process
•Feedback for teachers essential esp from the principal. (two weeks) Principal’s role vital. "If you
leave during the session I will be right behind you”.
•A focus on Distributive leadership – strengthen the role of curriculum leaders, syndicate leaders
and teachers – a collective responsibility – a professional learning community
•Making sure organizational structures are in place – strategic plan, annual plan, targets, budget,
common professional learning objectives linked to appraisal

•Use of ‘Force Field Analysis’

 Evidence / Data
•Understand the purposes of the assessment and how the
information would be used and what this means for their practice
•Efficient and manageable
•Reliable and valid – comparable over time, benchmarked,
moderated.
•Become data literate – raising all teachers skill level by engaging in
professional dialogue on what counts as data
•Be trained in the use of specific tools

Shifting the Focus

From talking about programmes without achievement data to anaylsing data
together at team meetings to inform practice

•Developing a common understanding of what progression means - clear progress indicators – eg assessment map.
Exemplar / descriptor / learning intentions / success criteria
•What achievement do you need to track over time – assessment schedules / Aggregated data / targets
•Guskey – engage in rigorous self analysis
•Reflection on findings – collective identification of implications and discussion of alternatives for development and action.
Stoll, Fink and Earl
•What are we doing well, where do we need to target more effort for specific individual or groups of students
•Time dedicated to looking at data – every syndicate / staff meeting – being specific looking for the best way to ‘move the
children on’. Use of classroom release time
•Share problems (puzzles of practice), teaching strategies
•Staffing/budget

Avoiding the quick Fix

Fullan: adaptive change - addressing problems for
which you don’t yet know the solutions.

How do you bring about change if you

don’t know what the current situation is?

Eileen Piggot-Irvine - Action Research

Issue/Focus; Group members; Reconnaissance ( data to

establish the ‘status quo’); Implementation; Evaluation.
 Shifting the Focus – my next step
As Principal – my core business – impact of teaching on student learning

Knowing rather than assuming what is happening - use evidence /

data to inform my leadership decisions. (Hattie)

•Interview teachers with their data to ascertain their understanding / awareness of children,
progress and issues they have got.
•Talking to students about their learning, what their next steps are and then feeding this back to
the teacher
•Improving ways of aggregating the data

Interconnected cultural norms influencing school

improvement (Stoll and Fink, 1996)
•Shared goals we know where we’re going

•Responsibility for success we can succeed

•Collegiality we’re working on this together

•Continuous improvement we can get better

•Lifelong learning learning is for everyone

•Risk taking we learn by trying something new

•Support There’s always someone there to help

•Mutual respect Everyone has something to offer

•Openness We can discuss our difference

•Celebration and humour We feel good about ourselves

Key Challenges
•Sustaining change – implications for induction of new staff
Finding the time to develop teachers indepth knowledge,
understanding and practice on how to use assessment
tools and analyse and use the data

•So what are key challenges for you?