What makes a great school

What Makes a Great School?

School ratings provide baseline data. Click here to go to the School Accountability site.

The following is a listing of the 35 factors that are the "KEYS to Excellence for Schools"

from the National Education Association

A shared understanding about achievable education outcomes
1. Commitment to long-range, continuous improvement--parents and school
employees
2. Commitment to long-range, continuous improvement--central and building
administration
3. Clear, explicit goals

Involvement of all school-community groups in improving education
4. Everyone must be involved in improving education. This includes
teachers, educational support personnel, parents, administrators, students,
the school board, district administrators, and civic groups

Belief that all students can achieve under the right conditions
5. Teachers, ESP, students, and parents believe that all students can learn
6. School district administration and school boards believe that all
students can learn
7. Adequate space
8. Adequate supplies
9. Adequate support services
10. Psychological and social work services are available
11. The school is an overall learning environment for employees and students

Barriers are identified and removed
12. Specific barriers are sought
13. General willingness to remove barriers
14. Efforts to remove barriers by educational personnel
15. Efforts to remove barriers by students and parents
16. Efforts to remove barriers by administration

Barriers removed through a cooperative problem solving process
17. Using cooperative, collaborative (not top-down or bottom-up) processes

Daily assessment of students for improvement
18. By teachers
19. By administrators

Using:
20. Teacher-made tests
21. Oral classroom assessment
22. Exhibitions for assessment
23. Student background for assessment

Consistent assessment of programs, not individuals
24. Use of program assessment
25. Use of teacher ratings of program quality

Use of assessment results for decisionmaking
26. Assessment results are actually used, and school and classroom decisions
of teachers and administrators are based on how well programs and behaviors
accomplish goals

Selection of materials/resources based on quality and appropriateness
27. Selecting materials based on quality
28. Selecting materials based on appropriateness to students
29. Not selecting materials based on cost

Ongoing, consistent staff development
30. On decisionmaking skills (data collection, analysis, assessment),
problem solving skills, leadership skills, and communication skills
31. Is an ongoing, high-quality, state-of-the-art, practical experience for
all school employees

Two-way, non-threatening communication
32. Communication with school administrators
33. Communication with district administration
34. Communication with teachers
35. A climate for innovation

NEA's KEYS initiative provides:

1. a diagnostic instrument that uses objective, tested data

2. a framework for schools' improvement strategies

3. a training network to help provide continuous assessment of teaching and learning.

Other groups are also doing solid research and work on the characteristics of Great Schools and the more difficult proposition - how to improve existing schools.

Effective Schools describes a school improvement process that is data-based and data-driven, with effectiveness measure in terms of both quality and equity.

Baldridge in Education - which has a pilot program here in Delaware of which DSEA, the Dept. of Education, the Delaware/Business Public Education Council and others are partners - is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Criteria for Performance Excellence. In reinforces state, district and community leaders to continuously improve performance and learning opportunities for all students. Nationally, it is a partnership of 26 national education and business organizations, managed by the National Alliance of Business and the American Productivity and Quality Center.

Effective Teaching is the work of Harry and Rosemary Wong. Their extensive web site and workshops center on the concept that unsuccessful schools stress programs whereas successful schools stress practices.

The Center for Performance Assessment is the work of Douglas Reeves. This site emphasizes that when there is 90% ore more poverty and 90% or more minority enrollment; a school can have 90% or more of its students meeting or exceeding high academic standards.

The Southern Regional Education Board works to improve every aspect of education - from early childhood to doctoral degrees and behond. Delaware belongs to the SREB.

The Association of School Curiculum Development boasts the work of Mike Schmoker which focusses on Continuous School Improvement through: clear measurable goals; teamwork focused on specific standards or areas of weakness; performance data collected and analyzed regularly; and all teachers included.

The Low-Performing Schools Initiative seeks to increase student achievement by mobilizing the resources of the U.S. Dept. of Education to support states, local school districts and individual schools; improve the quality of school leadership and the teaching force; implement coordinated, research-based reforms; and urge more effective use of local, state and federal resources in these schools.