jeromedelisle.org

Course Description

This course is built upon four core areas that are intimately connected:

1. School effectiveness history and theory

2. School improvement practice as a discipline

3. Documented school improvement practice at school and system level

4. Education reform in developing countries

• The four themes are explored by considering examples of best practice and exploration of case studies in developed and developing countries.

• Some attention is also paid to the methodological issues involved in the study of educational effectiveness research and evaluation. 

• An attempt is made to connect school improvement practice with the large scale system reform practiced in developing countries. Lessons learnt are extracted and applied to the Caribbean context where much reform is directed by external agencies.

• Educational benchmarking is promoted as a tool for comparison and determination of best practice.

Course Rationale

• School improvement practice has evolved from school effects and school effectiveness research and has now become a discipline in its own right.

• This body of work on school effectiveness and school improvement is now the basis of systemic reform practiced in several developed countries (changing many schools at the same time).

• Systemic and comprehensive school reform based on school improvement theory provides clear directions on the nature and direction of changing schools and systems.

• This course provides a theoretical foundation for leaders working at school and system level and explores the ideas put forward by different system thinkers such as Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves, and David Hopkins.

• The emerging literature on high performing school systems and effective levers of change are central to the themes explored.

• Several high performing systems are considered in detail including Finland, Brazil, and Hong Kong. The content is also informed by an in-depth consideration of education reform in the local context by analysing the context and nature of reform in the Caribbean.

• The course material builds further on the ideas gleaned on organizational development and education reform in the early part of the programme. This provided a basic understanding of management and leadership in school and system change. This is the foundation for additional insights gathered from case analysis and examination of best practice in education systems throughout the world.