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School improvement

• Wales has introduced numerous reforms to improve initial teacher education (ITE) in recent years. These aim to raise the quality of teaching, attract more candidates to the profession and bring the system further in line with international best practice. In 2014, the government raised the requirements for entering ITE: aspiring teachers must now have at least a General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) grade B in both English and mathematics. In addition, aspiring primary teachers need at least a GCSE grade C in science (OECD, 2018[592]). In 2015, a major report was published identifying the challenges facing ITE in Wales and made some key recommendations. The report called for changes at the national level, institutional level and programme level. Specific recommendations included revising the Standards for Newly Qualified Teachers and the accreditation process for ITE providers, introducing accountability measures to encourage greater collaboration between schools and ITE providers, better monitoring of the impact of financial incentives on recruitment and establishing a network of five centres of pedagogical excellence across Wales (Furlong, 2015[593]).

• Wales has made a concerted effort in recent years to promote collaborative working and learning across the school system. The establishment of the Pioneer Schools Network (2015) has placed school-to-school collaboration at the core of the design, development and implementation of a new curriculum for Wales. The regional consortia look to nominate schools that exhibit, among other things, excellent leadership, a passion for innovation and creativity and a commitment to professional development as Pioneer Schools. All Pioneer Schools are expected to work with each other, other schools, the consortia, the Welsh government and wider stakeholders as part of an all-Wales partnership (Government of Wales, 2015[596]). Pioneer Schools meet regularly at the national and regional level, both face to face and on line, to share experiences of innovation and learn from one another. The first wave of Pioneer Schools focused on the development of the Digital Competence Framework. Curriculum Pioneers, who looked at content and assessment of learning and New Deal Pioneers, who focused on reforms related to practitioners’ professional development, joined these Digital Pioneers from 2016 onwards. The Welsh government brings together quality assurance partners, including HEIs and other experts to review and provide regular feedback to the Pioneer Network (Government of Wales, 2015[596]).

Evaluation and assessment

• In England, Ofsted, the education inspectorate, makes regular updates to the schools’ inspection framework. In 2012, Ofsted launched a new framework to ensure greater focus on those aspects of schools’ work that have the greatest impact on raising achievement. This included reducing the scope of inspection, and the number of key judgements reported as well as enhancing the role of teaching observation and the collection of evidence on learning, progress and behaviour. These modifications also enabled schools to request inspections and authorised Ofsted to charge for the inspections (Ofsted, 2012[599]). In 2015, following a consultation process called Better Inspection For All, Ofsted launched far-reaching changes through introducing a new common inspection framework (CIF) for inspections in maintained schools, academies, non-association independent schools, further education and skills providers, and registered early years settings (Government of the UK, 2018[600]). The CIF focuses on four key areas: achievement, leadership, quality of teaching, and behaviour and safety. Short inspections for schools previously judged “good” were also introduced to reduce the burden on school staff (Ofsted, 2015[601]).

• England has reformed accountability measures in primary and secondary education. The new national curriculum test at primary level (2016) aims to reflect the revised curriculum launched in 2014. These curricular reforms included changes to mathematics, English reading and grammar, punctuation and spelling (Government of the UK, 2017[604]). How primary school performance is measured at the end of students’ primary cycle has also been reformed. To calculate progress at the school level, students’ results in standardised assessments at age 10-11 are compared with the achievements of students across the country with similar starting points (prior attainment). Teacher assessment judgements in reading, writing and mathematics at age 7-8 inform the prior attainment indicator. In 2013, the government launched a consultation on reforming the accountability system for secondary schools (DfE, 2013[605]). Based on its outcomes, the government now publishes a greater range of information regarding the national standardised assessments administered at the end of lower secondary education (age 15-16). Alongside the headline EBacc measure, which reports the number of students entered for core subjects (English language and literature, mathematics science, geography or history, a foreign language) and their performance in these subjects, two new measures were introduced. Reported from 2016 onwards, these measures consider eight subjects (five core EBacc subjects plus any three other subjects, EBacc or otherwise). Progress 8 reports progress in these subjects based on students’ prior attainment, which is derived from standardised assessments at the end of primary level (DfE, 2014[606]). Attainment 8 reports students’ performance in these subjects at the end of lower secondary education. This is complemented by reporting of the percentage of students achieving a grade 5 or above in both English and mathematics. Finally, student destination data is also published, giving the percentage of students staying in education or going into employment following completion of lower secondary (DfE, 2018[607]).

• England has recently made changes to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), A (Advanced) level and AS (Advanced Supplementary) level qualifications. GCSE qualifications are awarded following national examinations taken at the end of lower secondary education. A level (two year) and AS level (typically one year) qualifications are awarded following national examinations taken at upper secondary level. The Department for Education (DfE) began introducing significant reforms to the qualifications for first teaching in 2015, with subjects being phased in over four years. The reforms include the following: a new grading scale of 9 to 1 replacing the old A* to G scale; the withdrawal of certain subjects (e.g. health and social care, expressive arts); the introduction of new and more challenging subject content; and the restriction of non-exam assessment to subjects where skills and knowledge cannot be assessed validly by examination only (e.g. art and design, drama).

  The transition to new grading began with English and mathematics, which were first awarded in 2017, and will be complete by 2020. AS and A level reforms also introduce new subject content informed by input from universities. AS results will no longer count towards an A level, so students are not required to take an AS level to achieve an A level. Both qualifications will be linear, replacing the previous modular format; the grading scale remains the same.

• Northern Ireland introduced new assessment arrangements in 2012/13, to align with the knowledge- and skills-based curriculum (2006) and to promote greater coherence between assessment practices in primary and post-primary schools. The new approach works on the basis that teachers are best placed to assess and report on students’ progress (National information reported to the OECD). To complement annual teacher assessment of learning, end of key stage (KS) assessment is now statutory at three key points in compulsory schooling: the end of KS 1 (age 8); the end of KS 2 (age 11); and the end of KS 3 (age 14). These statutory assessments are based upon teacher professional judgement and informed by Levels of Progression (LoPs). LoPs are written as “can do” statements for the cross-curricular skills of Communication, Using Mathematics and Using ICT, and covering seven levels (DENI, 2014[612]). Students are expected to make one level of progress per year. A system of internal and external moderation was also introduced under the authority of the Council for the Curriculum Examination and Assessment (CCEA) to ensure that the standards that schools applied in assessing students’ work were appropriate. The new arrangements were designed to be both formative and summative and to be used for a range of different assessment and accountability purposes at pupil, school and system level. At the introduction of the new arrangements, DENI instructed CCEA to provide support to schools including training, publishing guidance tools and providing substitution cover for teachers involved in assessment, as well as monitoring the initial months of implementation (DENI, 2013[613]).

• Northern Ireland’s Every School a Good School (ESaGS, 2009) policy has been at the centre of work on school improvement for a decade. The policy aims to promote a vision of schools as dynamic, well-governed and better-led communities of practice. School self-evaluation and supported self-improvement are at the core of the policy, along with a commitment to identifying and disseminating best practice (DENI, 2009[616]). Among other initiatives, ESaGS introduced the Formal Intervention Process (FIP) as a mechanism for school improvement. Schools deemed less than satisfactory following an inspection by the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) embark on the FIP, which requires them to complete a detailed action plan responding to the areas for improvement laid out in the inspection report. To support the implementation of the action plan, schools receive guidance from the Education Authority (EA) and monitoring visits from the ETI. The first follow-up inspection (FUI) occurs between 12 and 18 months after the first inspection, at which point a decision is reached on whether there has been sufficient improvement to allow schools to exit the process or remain in the FIP for another 12 months. On exiting the FIP, schools are supported to disseminate best practice and encourage peer learning (DENI, 2009[616]).

School improvement

• England has committed to reducing teacher and school leader workload through several initiatives. In 2016, the DfE launched a large-scale, biennial survey of teacher workload in England’s schools. Results from the first round reported that the average total self-reported working hours in the seven-day reference week for teachers and middle leaders was 54.4 hours. Over three-quarters of the 3 186 respondents were dissatisfied with the number of hours they usually worked (Higton et al., 2017[621]). The same year, the DfE published reports from three independent teacher workload review groups focused on marking policy, data management, and planning and teaching resources, respectively. These reports offered targeted recommendations to different actors across all levels of the education system. The DfE has also published a Workload Reduction toolkit (2018, updated 2019) that provides schools with support in reviewing and streamlining workload. This toolkit is the result of solution-focused collaborative discussions with school leaders, teachers, education technology advisors, teacher training providers and the DfE (DfE, 2018[622]). As of 2019, materials from the toolkit have collectively been downloaded over 135 000 times (National information reported to the OECD).

• In Northern Ireland, DENI published a Strategy for Teacher Professional Learning – “Learning Leaders” in 2016. The strategy sets out the Department’s vision for teacher professional learning through to 2025, which positions teachers as leaders of learning who are adept at working collaboratively and able to meet the challenging needs of 21^st-century children. Key focus areas include the development of a teacher professional learning framework, the development and dissemination of good practice, building professional learning communities, building leadership capacity and stakeholder engagement. These are supported by 15 policy commitments focused on collaborative work by all stakeholders. Various working groups have been established to develop these key areas (DENI, 2016[623]).

Evaluation and assessment

• In 2017, Northern Ireland’s Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) published the Inspection and Self-Evaluation Framework (ISEF), a resource common to all education phases. It is designed to support schools with self-evaluation and to increase transparency in the inspection process (National information reported to the OECD). Alongside the ISEF, ETI has published phase-specific guides to effective practice and self-evaluation questions for school leaders and managers. Based on a holistic view of learning, the ISEF has three key areas of focus: quality of provision, outcomes for learners, and leadership and management. It also takes governance, safeguarding and care and welfare into account (ETI, 2017[624]).

• Scotland’s National Improvement Framework (2016) sets out a holistic view of the education system, bringing together evidence and information from all levels and on all aspects that impact performance. Among the six drivers of improvement, the Assessment of Children’s Progress driver considers children’s progress in its widest sense, recognising the primacy of health and well-being. A new national data collection system provides additional information at school, local and national level about children’s progress in literacy and numeracy, based on teachers’ assessment of progress (Government of Scotland, 2016[625]). To support teachers in making judgements, the government has introduced benchmarks for greater clarity on national standards - in each subject, and at each level - as well as expanding opportunities for professional dialogue around standards through the Regional Improvement Collaboratives.

  In 2019, local authorities reported that teachers feel increasingly confident when assessing progress (Government of Scotland, 2019[626]). From 2018, Scottish National Standardised Assessments provide an additional source of objective, nationally consistent evidence. These assessments occur in primary school (ages 5, 8 and 11) and lower secondary (age 14). Since 2016, attainment in the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels has been published annually to provide key data regarding children’s literacy and numeracy progress.

Governance

• England has been working to drive up standards through greater school choice and increased competition within the school system by diversifying provision and providers. The Academies Act (2010) enabled all maintained schools to convert to academy status and introduced free schools. Both school types are state-funded, non-fee paying institutions, independent of local authorities and therefore have more control over curriculum, budget and staffing. Academies are state-funded schools, which generally convert voluntarily, while a smaller proportion is legally mandated to become academies due to low performance; free schools are entirely new schools. The DfE appoints eight Regional Schools Commissioners to oversee academy and free-school performance and approve strategic and management decisions (Roberts and Danechi, 2019[627]).

• England’s Higher Education and Research Bill - Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF, 2016) aims to reward high-quality teaching as previously, it was found that teaching has been less valued than research by universities. As of 2016, the higher education institutions can request assessment and if found to provide high-quality teaching can subsequently increase tuition fees in accordance with inflation. The criteria for quality assessment were based on a previous report. In the second year (2017/18) assessment, performance was assessed against a number of quality measures including the Teaching Quality (TQ), Learning Environment (LE), and Student Outcomes/Learning Gain (SO). It was the trial year to test the framework and providers could participate on a voluntary basis. Three TEF levels were introduced including “Gold, Silver, Bronze”. Awards were given for a three-year period. Financial incentives would not be differentiated according to the level of award and all providers who achieve at least “Meets Expectations” would receive the full inflationary uplift. As of year three (2018/19) and onwards, TEF will develop to allow differential fees and subject-level fees, and ultimately postgraduate courses may be included. Providers can then do another assessment in year three or later to get a new award. In addition, subject-level pilots are planned to be done with full implementation as of year four (2019/20), including possibly also a postgraduate provision (Hubble, 2017[632]).

• Northern Ireland’s Education Act (2014) provided for the establishment of the Education Authority (EA) to replace Northern Ireland’s five Education and Library Boards (Northern Ireland Assembly, 2014[633]). This was the first major reorganisation of education administration since 1973. The EA took over all of the former boards’ duties and powers and is also responsible for securing adequate provision for education services across all institution types. Furthermore, it took on new duties related to shared education, the community use of school premises and the suitability of provision for students with special educational needs. The EA also provides training, advice and support for schools, and supports the development of governors, school leaders, teachers and other staff. Ultimately, it is responsible for ensuring that schools achieve good outcomes for their students in return for the money invested (National information reported to the OECD).

Funding

• England has undertaken several reforms of school funding in recent years. The School Funding Reform (2013-14) (DfE, 2013[636]) aimed to simplify the funding system in primary and secondary schools and make it more student driven to ensure that resources reach the schools and students who need it most (DfE, 2012[637]). The reform established three blocks of funding to be allocated from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG): Early Years Block, Schools Block and High Needs Block (DfE, 2013[636]). Local education authorities, in consultation with their schools’ forum, decide on the funding distribution between the blocks and set formulas for allocation to each school and early years provider (EC, 2017[638]). As such, by 2016, there existed 152 different formulae to determine funding allocation throughout the country. This, and the fact that funding allocated to local authorities was often based on historic characteristics, resulted in significant inter- and intra-regional variation in school funding. The system also lacked transparency. As a result, a major reform was proposed, establishing one single national funding formula (NFF) based on measures of student and school characteristics with a small provision for local variation (DfE, 2016[639]). Public consultations on the proposal took place during 2016-17.

Governance

• In 2017, Scotland introduced a new layer of educational governance by establishing six Regional Improvement Collaboratives (RICs) across the country to bring local authorities together alongside the central administration, and collaborate more effectively for greater equity and quality in education. RICs are responsible for developing regional improvement plans approved by the Chief Inspector of Education (COSLA, 2017[642]). An interim review, published six months after the RICs were established, found that, despite tight timescales and a lack of additional resources for Phase 1 of implementation, all local authorities had signed up to the RIC, and stakeholders felt positive about the initiatives and felt RICs were well aligned with national priorities. Some concerns were raised regarding a lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities and an overly top-down approach, which could inhibit the collaborative aims of the RICs. Further resources have been committed to Phase 2 (Government of Scotland, 2018[643]).

• In Scotland, in 2018, a Joint Agreement on Education Reform was reached between the Scottish government and local government. The agreement focuses on empowering actors across the system, in particular by enabling decisions that affect learning and teaching to be taken as close to the learner as possible, to ensure that needs are met and that impact on learners is high. Included within the agreement was a proposal for the Headteachers’ Charter, committing local authorities to support headteachers as the drivers of school improvement and devolving greater responsibility in decision making and resource use to the school leaders. An agreement on parental and community engagement also committed both partners to ensure parents are actively involved in matters of school policy and improvement through the principle of co-production. Finally, an agreement on pupil participation expressed a commitment to enabling children and young people to participate meaningfully in their own learning and the work of the school (Government of Scotland, 2018[644]). Although the project for a new Education Bill, which was intended to provide the legal foundation for these reforms, has been put on hold, concrete actions in each of these areas have already occurred.

Funding

• England announced a major Review of Post-18 Education and Funding in February 2018, due to conclude in 2019. The review covers four focus areas: 1) choice and competition across a joined-up post-18 education and training sector; 2) a system that is accessible to all; 3) delivering the skills the country needs; and 4) value for money for graduates and taxpayers. The review aims to establish a more overarching system that allows students to transition easily between further education (FE) and higher education (HE) and facilitates lifelong learning. Submissions to the review process have come from, among others, universities’, students’ and employers’ representatives and academic research institutes (Hubble, Bolton and Foster, 2019[645]). Post-18 education funding has already seen substantial policy change since 2012, including a rise in tuition fees to around EUR 10 700 per year, the abolition of maintenance grants and an increase in maintenance loans and interest rate rises on loan repayments. Concurrently, there have been significant cuts to public expenditure on HE and FE. As a result, the cost to the individual has risen significantly, and this has stimulated increased debate about the value of higher education (Hubble, Bolton and Foster, 2019[645]). In 2018, the Education Committee of the UK Parliament published a report on value for money in HE to further inform the review of funding.

More information is available at http://www.oecd.org/education/policyoutlook.htm.