An Environmental Scan of Tools and Strategies that Measure Progress in School Reform
Staffing
P. Griffin and K. Woods
Summary
The Victorian Department of Education and Training commissioned the ARC to evaluate current methodologies and procedures for measuring the progress and impact of school reform initiatives. The resultant report provided an overview of strategies at local and systemic levels, with an emphasis on standards-based and multi-method approaches. Methods of measuring progress in school reform in the United Kingdom , Canada , the United States , Japan , Hong Kong and New Zealand were reviewed and critiqued. The report presented a discussion of current trends for evidence-based reform in education, using this as a platform to argue the need for rigour in the design of evaluation studies, sampling and data collection procedures, analysis and interpretation of evidence. A positive case was presented for a comprehensive program of monitoring and evaluation, with guidelines that could be applied to a range of school reform programs, which also included advice for the evaluation of the implementation, processes and outcomes of the Victorian Department of Education’s Blueprint for Government Schools Flagship Strategy One: Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). The report concluded with case studies where measurement and monitoring of student outcomes had been successfully incorporated into program evaluation.
Funding Source
Victorian Department of Education and Training
Publications
Griffin, P., Woods, K., & Nguyen, C. (August, 2005). An environmental scan of tools and strategies that measure progress in school reform. http://www.det.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/publ/research/publ/Scan_of_Tools_Measuring_Progress_in_School_Reform_2005-rpt.pdf.