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School Administrators’ and Stakeholders’ Perspectives on, and Attitude Toward, School Improvement Planning

School Administrators’ and Stakeholders’ Perspectives on, and Attitude Toward, School Improvement Planning

Dr. Canute Thompson
Faculty of Humanities and Education
School of Education
Theme: 
Education

The Problem

  • Huber and Conway (2015) indicate that school improvement efforts have been documented since the 1970s, but there is still no clear agreement on exactly how to carry out the improvement efforts.
  • The inspection of Jamaica’s 953 public secondary and primary schools by the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) found that 55% of schools were performing unsatisfactorily.
  • The NEI reports that one of the recurring features in its inspections is the absence of, or poorly written, School Improvement Plans.

Research Questions

  • How extensively are members of the school administration and staff, as well as other stakeholders involved in the planning process?
  • What are the factors associated with effective school improvement planning?

Results

  • 26.4% of the respondents disagree, strongly disagree or were undecided about whether staff members participate in the school improvement planning process, whereas 73.6% either agree or strongly agree.
  • Four key factors are associated with effective school improvement planning: involvement, accountability, plan implementation,and efficacy.
  • These factors account for 68.8% of the variation in the data with involvement accounting for a total of 47.8%.

Relevance and Impact for Society

The prospect increased usefulness of school improvement planning efforts rests with greater involvement of all stakeholders –parents, community members, students, all categories of staff, and members of school boards.

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