Teach Middle East Magazine Sep - Dec 2020 Issue 1 Volume 8 | Page 9

Administrator's Corner
than trying to cover everything that
the school is doing. But what about
everything else we have to do? This is
the standard objection and reinforces
the scattergun approach that too
many schools appear quick to accept.
The only way to overcome this is to
develop a strategy for self-evaluation
that helps you to get out of the detail
and focus on the things that really
matter. It should integrate the 3Ps
of purpose, process and people to
create an overview of how the school
will evidence, analyse and evaluate
the impact of each current leadership
decision on students’ outcomes.
In our experience, too many schools
believe they are carrying out self-
evaluation but are actually getting
bogged down in the operational
detail of the multiple actions being
taken across different areas of the
school. This is where subject leaders
experience overload and often start to
lose sight of their contribution to the
bigger picture. These schools collect
so much data and evidence that it is
difficult for them to sift and filter what
is really important, and the purpose of
their self-evaluation gets lost. Even in
those schools where staff understand
how their actions will support the
school’s longer term vision, they
sometimes struggle to identify how
their current self-evaluation activities
are feeding into this and how they will
make a difference. It is therefore vitally
important to shift from operational
thinking through strategic thinking to
being able to develop a strategy for
self-evaluation that keeps the whole
process integrated, meaningful and
relevant. To help this shift, we suggest
considering the following transport-
based metaphors to widen your
perspective around self-evaluation.
one direction at a time. This is a one-
size fits all approach, without regard
to the school’s context, and is highly
operational. It is characterised by an
over-reliance on structure and a tightly
defined framework of processes,
while neglecting the individual and
collective strengths/weaknesses of
the people responsible for carrying
out the self-evaluation process in the
school. Get into the helicopter
Get out of the balloon of relevant internal and external
evidence into account. It is only by
getting this full aerial perspective
that you can truly understand all the
factors and influences for your school
and ensure that your self-evaluation
is authentic. One key advantage of
a helicopter is its ability to move in
multiple dimensions. It can hover
and focus when needed, can pitch
forward for a more precise view, can
accelerate forward or backward, can
yaw left and right, and can also move
up and down to broaden and narrow
the horizon in all directions. Therefore,
by maintaining a high-level view from
the cockpit, a principal will have the
capacity to make sure that the school’s
self-evaluation activity is responsive,
relevant and fit for purpose at all times.
At this next level, the school’s leaders
are aware of the need to rise above the
detail and get a wider view of the school
and its performance. Self-evaluation is
broadened to include external analysis
of performance but lacks evidence
of impact. This broader perspective
typically supports a school to develop
and achieve a judgement of ‘good’
but it also creates a ceiling through
which the school is likely to struggle to
improve its effectiveness further. There
is an increasing degree of freedom of
movement requiring greater flexibility
in how people behave. However, this
freedom is also influenced by external
factors, which can disrupt alignment
between purpose and process.
The ultimate approach for school
leaders is to soar above the minutia
and achieve a helicopter view of
the school and its performance.
This is supported by developing an
evidence-based school-led strategy
for self-evaluation that achieves a
three-dimensional analysis of the
school, taking the maximum range
Get off the train
At this level, the school’s leaders
typically become bogged down in
detail and implementation. Self-
evaluation systems and processes may
be clearly defined and embedded
into the life of the school but, just
like a train, movement is tightly
controlled and can only happen in
So what does a strategy for self-
evaluation look like?
In our final article of the series which
will be published in the May-June
issue of Teach Middle East Magazine,
we will show you what a strategy for
self-evaluation could look like, but in
the meantime … grab your wings and
keep soaring.
Class Time
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Mar - Arp 2019
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