MEASURING WHAT REALLY MATTERS
BY : MATTHEW SAVAGE AND DR HELEN WRIGHT
# betterboards perform a vital function when exam results are released . In this article , Matthew Savage and Dr Helen Wright explain how international school boards can get this right .
Schools across the Middle East proclaim the premium they place on wellbeing above all else . For example , one group of schools proudly aims to provide “ as much emphasis on the emotional , social , moral and physical development of our students as on the academic ”, and KHDA itself seeks “ to create a high quality education sector focused on happiness and wellbeing ”. It is hard to disagree with this ; after all , if a student does not feel happy , safe and well , how can they learn effectively ?
However , as we begin another academic year , leadership teams across the region will be busily preparing to report to their Boards on the academic performance of their students in the Summer 2021 series of public examinations . This is a challenging time for schools , as they seek to demonstrate their success with metrics capable of withstanding the scrutiny of the most exacting eye . But how many of these reports will reflect the # wellbeingfirst agenda enshrined in the Guiding Statements to which their schools increasingly subscribe ?
As part of the training the two of us provide to international school boards worldwide , we directly address the dissonance at the heart of this process . It is perfectly possible , after all , for a Board to hold their school , and its leadership , firmly accountable , and to maintain maximum stretch and challenge in terms of the school ’ s performance , without compromising on the prioritisation of what really matters . Schools will measure and report whatever metrics are expected of them , so the Board needs to be bold and brave , and root their expectations in holistic , compassionate soil .
Ever since the introduction of school league tables in England and Wales in 1992 , schools have been compared against each other with a ferociousness that has often become existential ; schools have risen and fallen , or disappeared completely , on the strength of the raw attainment of their students , regardless of the multiplicity of complex factors which feed final academic outcomes . However , in the international schools ’ sector , there is typically more freedom for a school to measure and report what it deems to be most important – or , rather , what its Board deems important to measure and report .
10 Term 1 Sep - Dec 2021
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