There are several issues currently facing those involved in the desire for improved school effectiveness.
While research has shown that there are common characteristics of effective schools, it is important not to overgeneralise these observations. The presence of one or two of the characteristics is no guarantee of effective schooling. It is possible also that in one school one characteristic may be there to a greater or lesser degree than in others. The interaction between the factors is important because there is dependency between them – for example, it has been found that teachers will be more likely to feel empowered and confident to carry out their role if the principal has set up procedures to allow participatory decision-making. Policy makers need to know the extent and effect of these interactions.
Much of the school effectiveness research has been based on the measurement of a single outcome such as academic achievement at a single point in time. There is a vast spectrum of outcomes arising from a child’s time at school, including attitudes to society, attitudes to further learning, skills in coping with complex human relationships and how to be a productive member of a team, which have not been the focus of research. The incorporation of longitudinal aspects of this area would lead to a more profound understanding of the issues.
In the area of the study of learning environments there have been new instruments developed which can give educators an accurate and reliable measure to describe the psychosocial (as opposed to the physical) environment in schools. The nature of principal/teacher interaction and teacher/student interaction can be investigated to give a clearer understanding of what sort of interaction happens in effective schools.
There are emerging issues impacting upon school practice that policy makers will need to know about if they are to make informed decisions in the future. Among these is the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) across the curriculum. All Australian governments have made significant investments in both the purchase of computers and the infrastructure necessary to equip their schools for the digital age, and are keen to see a return on their investment. There is some encouraging research underway as to how learning technologies can improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning, but more work needs to be done in this area.
It is likely that there will be increasing recognition of the complexity of the area and the need to consider many variables in an attempt to explain school effects. The expansion of multilevel analysis could include a greater number of measurements made at student level, class level, school level, district level, state level to give a clearer picture of the situation – the relationship between inputs and outcomes may not be the same for all schools. Multilevel analysis allows also for full and accurate account to be taken of student background variables, such as socioeconomic status and language background. This can give an indication of a school’s ability to add ‘value’ to a set of student intake characteristics.
There have, been many developments in school effectiveness research since the 1960s when it was said that schools contributed little to the difference between students’ outcomes. A number of processes associated with effective schools have been identified and these factors have been incorporated into school improvement programmes. Continued detailed longitudinal research should allow for further evaluation of these factors which will lead to better learning outcomes for students.