MySchool

The MySchool website is still making news as the media herald it as the single source of educational truth. It is a great hit with parents and the broader community.

For me, the obvious flaw of the MySchool website is that it focuses our attention individual schools and not on the work of teachers as a whole.

We know from research that the greatest variance often lies within schools not between schools.  Naturally, parents will take the data on face value but it is afterall one part of a much broader data set.

Removing a child from an under-performing school does not guarantee a consistent level of teaching across grades in one school.  That is the challenge school and system leaders face – how do we ensure a high standard of teaching in every classroom and every school?

Michael Fullan in Motion Leadership:

In terms of the link between a principal’s action and student learning, there is one finding that stands out in time as more powerful than any other, and it is this: the ‘degree to which the principal participates as a learner in helping teachers figure out how to get classroom and school-wide improvement.” (p36)

At the end of the day – teacher learning transforming student learning is what we are accountable for.