What school leaders would do to improve education?

Education is the ultimate political football and there’s nothing politicians like somuch as making schools ‘better’, but when a group of respected school leaders comeup with a list of 10 things they would do to improve education, it’s worth a listen.Exactly a year before U.K. voters will choose their next government, a group of school leaders calling itself the Headteachers’ Roundtable today published itsmanifesto for education. The group originally formed through Twitter and since2012 has been working on education policy from the point of view of expertpractitioners.Starting from the basis that too much change can be overwhelming, the group,comprising a core of 11 principals, limited itself to 10 policies which it says willlead to a great education for all. And although they have been developed withspecific reference to the school system in England, many of the 10 are applicable toschool systems everywhere.Behind these proposals are five key policy areas that the group believes lie at theheart of bringing about transformation in education. They are: teacher quality;curriculum and qualifications; accountability; coherence and tacklingunderachievement.Implementing changes in these areas along the lines of the “modest collection” ofideas contained in the manifesto would, the group believes, lead to a “hugeimprovement to the education system of this country.”To bring about this change, the group advocates  An entitlement to professional development, including a recognised teachingqualification after two years and a Masters-level qualification after five years,aiming to improve quality and make teaching more appealing as a career.A College of Teaching with compulsory membership, to improve pedagogy andraise the status of the professionA national baccalaureate encompassing both technical and academic education,giving all students access to a recognized qualificationProgressive qualifications in maths and English up to the age of 18, providingcontinuous learning regardless of ability.Reforming school inspections to focus on schools needing the most improvementand ensure more school input.Stabilising performance measures, with data accompanied by school commentaryon outcomes and trends.Giving all schools the same level of autonomy regardless of the type of school, soall children have the same opportunities and entitlements.Grants to incentivise improvements in the transition from primary to secondaryschools at age 11Developing a national strategy to support parents of pre-school children, basedon the results of a series of pilot projects.A National Recruitment Fund to attract talented leaders and teachers to schools indeprived areas, with security of tenure and guaranteed employment.Some of these policies are a reaction to the growing fragmentation of the Englisheducation system, with a plethora of both types of school and qualifications thatdoes little but confuse students, parents and employers alike. Bringing coherence tothis fractured landscape is much-needed, but will need to be delicately handled toavoid stepping over into prescription and bureaucracy.Many proposals seem not only sensible but long-overdue. The group rightlyidentifies improving the quality of teaching as the top priority, and attracting thebest graduates into the profession is a key part of that.A commitment to professional development is therefore welcome both as a way ofencouraging people to enter teaching – and stay once they are there – and ofencouraging research-based practice. A College of Teaching can give teachinggreater respectability and lead on developing pedagogy.But raising the status of teaching requires more than CPD and a college. It alsoinvolves making it harder to become a teacher in the first place. As long as teachingis seen as a profession that is open to just about any graduate, it will be hard tomake it attractive to many of the higher-flyers.Of course it will not be easy to raise the bar while at the same time recruitingteachers in sufficient numbers. Encouraging teachers to stay – two fifths quit withinthe first five years – will help reduce demand for new entrants, and betterpreparation as well as the promise of future development will help with this, but itwill only go so far. The commitment to raising the quality of teaching also does not address the issueof teachers with no degree in their specialist subject. More than half of mathsteachers, for example, have no post-18 maths qualification, while the picture littlebetter in languages.But the Headteachers’ Roundtable recognizes the manifesto is not a complete program. Rather, it is designed to provide a “road map to…(a) great educationsystem”, and in that it succeeds. And while the hope that it may represent the basis of a non-partisan approach toeducation policy may be a tad optimistic, many of these policies deserve to findtheir way into election programs of political parties of whatever hue. Source: Education News