Evaluation and improvement principles

When designing this resource, the practitioners involved committed to the principle that this resource should be of practical help in enabling schools to make improvements. They developed a set of principles to support the design and implementation of the resource.

The resource includes and promotes the following features and values:

• a focus on achieving the best for all learners.
• Alignment with the work of all other institutions/initiatives
• flexibility and responsiveness to school context
• clear links to professional learning
• an ongoing process and not a ‘snapshot’
• sustainability and manageability
• transparency and honesty
• useful and worthwhile
• a bilingual approach throughout
• the process is created by those who use it

In summary, the resource should support

• all learners
• all schools
• a sustainable and self-improving education system

Schools should use the resource as a menu. The resource contains practical guidance and exemplification materials about 'how' to use a range of approaches for evaluation and improvement work. This is enhanced by an extensive menu of reflection prompts and additional resources that support schools to identify 'what' to evaluate and improve.

In addition, a variety of interactive resources support training, development and positive cultural change in relation to evaluation and improvement work. Importantly, as well as promoting desired behaviours and practices this resource also aims to discourage less effective practices or ‘bad habits’.

Approaches to self-evaluation