Assessment Of Performance At Warra State School: Student Centered Planning, Curriculum Alignment And Evidence-Based Decision-Making

Student-Centered Planning

Discuss about the Qualitative Indicators for Universities Performance.

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This report is based on the performance of Warra State School. An assessment was based on the performance of the students and the information was gathered from the progress reports of the students, goal setting booklet and the basic standards and targets of the Warra State School. The focus of the report will be on the student centered planning, expectations from the students, aligning the course curriculum with the assessment process to provide a safe learning environment and evidence based decision- making (Annesley 2016).

The assessment will be helpful in providing the relevant outcome of performance parameters and the implied meaning within the functions of the school. The challenges faced by the students will be considered while measuring performance at the school. The remarkable features of this assessment will be evaluation, bench marking, quality, performance by putting stress on the meaning and interpretation of the measures. The different kinds of performance measures will be based on the various aspects. This report is aimed at the evaluation of our school effectiveness in measuring the school performance relative to the competitors. With the effective implementation of the specific indicator, the school the performance can be evaluated (Azma 2010).

This multi- age co- educational school was established in the year 1881. It is situated in the in the Warra township which is at a distance of 45 km from Dalby on the Warrego highway. This school has a principal and teachers with specific expertise who provide quality learning to the students from preparatory to class 7. The school curriculum specifically focuses on science, literature and mathematics and the rest is based on the combined study units (Ballard 2013). The Warra School takes special care in spreading knowledge and understanding among the students so that they can take up challenges and get the support in an extensive classroom. The school has a vision to struggle for fostering confidence, literacy and numeracy among age- old learners to gain a positive learning outcome.

At Warra, we realize the importance of establishing effective learning programs to enhance talent and upcoming opportunities for the students. We try to attain these measures by mapping, reporting and recording individual performance of the students in comparison to the expected knowledge of the student and their capability. The parents are also encouraged to get involved in the learning process of the students by using the policy of ‘open- door’. The school acts as a significant factor in the community by portraying obedient and caring relationships among all the community members of school (Ishak and Yusof 2014).

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  • correlate the link the effectiveness of the school with the competitors
  • analyze the satisfaction level of the student in achieving quality education from the a reputed institution
  • incorporating intervention program to provide learning strategies to the student
  • use strategies for measuring the efficiency of cost ratio in comparison to the effectiveness of the adopted operational procedure
  • build up high expectations of learning among the students (Meek and Lee 2014)

Curriculum Alignment with Assessment Process

In order to achieve the above objectives we took up an online assessment to modify the ability among students, which will start from the present position of the student. For the assessment process, we have utilized online spaces and digital technologies to promote student independence. There were different entry points for various students and the implementation of summative, diagnostic and formative assessment on a daily basis informed a teaching pedagogy.  Enrolment interviews were considered in the student- based planning assessment of the school (Meyer 2010).

It was expected from the students that all of them could attain regional standards as per the DDSW. It was posed to be a comprehensive and challenging learning objective for every student based on the admitted set of data. It was expected to provide quality bookwork and an improved level of presentation in each classroom of Warra School. There were professional conversations among the teachers and parents and a number of sources were open for gathering feedback such as walkthroughs, classroom profiling, coaching and mentoring. The main documents, which were considered in this aspect, were DDSW Regional Charter of Expectations, Assessment Targets, School Induction, Goal Setting booklets, Individual learning plans, Lesson observations and Bookwork policy (Suryadi 2017).

The course curriculum of the students was aligned with the assessment procedure. It was effective for our school because of the integration with direct instruction, proper teaching and a creative work of learning and teaching. The implementation of teaching in the course curriculum was helpful for every classroom due to the direct teaching procedure in the form of handwriting, spelling, guided reading, spelling and grammar conventions and explicit teaching. The assessment was consisted in the process of plain teaching programs. The alignment was conducted by gathering student responses for the particular assessment. The instruction was given to the students based on their literacy and numeracy skills. The digital technology of coding was embedded in the learning process to provide support to the students in their skill development. In this way, consistency was followed in the practice of teaching and learning. The required documents for the process consisted of assessment and monitoring framework with set standards, entire school curriculum plan, time- table, curriculum- mapping documents and explicit teaching lesson plan (Wang 2013).

A safe learning environment can exist with the presence of effective student- teacher relationships. The learning intentions were shared among the parents and students to make the objectives clear. It helped in the organization of the physical structure of the classroom. A superior quality classroom gave way to quality feedback by providing instant positive and accurate feedback to the staff, students and parents. The principal of our school and teachers participated in sharing feedback with the staff and students. An organized and purposeful staff meeting was followed by an efficient open communication from all the ends. Digital technologies were an added advantage in supporting and including a connected learning environment. The documents used in this assessment procedure were cyber safety unit, newsletter, website, social media platforms, performance framework, and protocols for classroom observation, homework policy and a responsible behavior plan for the students (Orozco et al. 2018). 

Safe Learning Environment

It was required to supervise the learning procedure and make use of the feedback on the student to inform about teaching and learning. The students were encouraged to involve in practice and excavate their understanding of new knowledge. In order to do so, content and strategy were provided with a prescribed state of materials. A compact set of reading were provided at the beginning of each lesson to emphasize on structure, expectations and classroom routines. In this respect, the differentiation in teaching was referred to as the adjustable entry point for instruction. The primary documents required for this process were Disability Standards for Education 2005, reference to Archer and Hughes 16 elements and EAP educational adjustment program, if required (Parmenter 2015).

The assessment at our school took care of the decision based on the knowledge gained by students, their previous learning and the performance data. It was important to know the present situation of the student. The data was collected on a regular basis about student performance to guide them accordingly. The students were placed in the specific groups according to their ability. Our school used the student data to enhance their performance at school with updated feedback practices among all the stakeholders. The process of quality planning was conducted using 1 School 1 Plan to collect the evidence from the student about their achievement as per the standard benchmark. The decision was then tested by the teachers and staff to focus on the research procedure. It was done because the students lack in progress without the implementation of their fundamental skills. This assessment procedure was a reflection of our caring for the individuals to provide superior quality teaching and learning and establish a healthy relationship so that they can enjoy their work and learning (Robers 2015).

Behind measuring the performance measure, our school has intended to provide talented teachers and administrators. The school staff section during 2017 displayed that there is only one efficient full- time staff so it is required to recruit more teachers that are skilled. The strategies that were implemented for this process included the benefits of a focused and intensive coaching among the students. We intended to provide a provide teacher aide time to the students so that additional time is allocated for literacy and numeracy. The goal also included purchasing and sourcing of proper resources to support those students who experience a tough time in learning. Our school has allocated 14S funding to support students who want to participate in impact projects such as writing, thinking, numeracy and reading (Carson et al. 2016).

Effective Feedback and Assessment Process

Three dominant performance indicators were used in the form of efficiency indicators, service indicators and effectiveness indicators. As per the approach based on research, efficiency indicators include elementary education and cost per student full- time equivalent, Service indicators refer to the student attendance from preparatory to class 7. Effectiveness indicators referred to the assessment of several years from 3 to 9 and their skills in reading writing conventions of language such as spelling grammar and punctuation and numeracy. The goal- based approach of our school considered effectiveness measures as per the desired outcome. The following table has clearly depicted the performance indicators used at the Warra State School. The performance indicators are categorized as per the activities with relevant description (Chaput et al. 2016).

Effectiveness indicators

  • Educational learning program- Participated in Index of community socio- educational advantage program
  • Retention program- Sufficient teachers helping our school to retain the students (Nuttall 2017)
  • Primary and secondary graduation rate- 47%
  • Literacy achievement rate- 18%
  • Numeracy achievement rate- 25%

Service indicators

  • Primary education rate- 47%
  • Secondary education rate- 25%
  • Student satisfaction level- Least satisfied resulting in only 11 students
  • Student support services- no pick and drop facility
  • Student participation- hardly any co- curricular activities
  • Library services- provided
  • Sports activities- nothing
  • Health and recreational activities- medical facilities and health check up is provided (Parmenter 2015).

Efficiency indicators

  • Cost per student full time equivalent primary education- $110
  • Cost per student full time equivalent secondary education- $80

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the information gathered on Warra State School that the performance indicators helped in decision- making process to enhance our school performance. The views were based on the information gathered from different official documents. The significant points were elaborated and the findings of performance indicators were listed in detail.

References

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Azma, F. (2010).Qualitative indicators for the evaluation of universities performance. ebook 1.ed. .

Ballard, P. (2013).Measuring performance excellence: Key performance indicator for institution accepted into the academic quality improvement program. ebook 1.ed. .

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Chaput, J.P., Gray, C.E., Poitras, V.J., Carson, V., Gruber, R., Olds, T., Weiss, S.K., Connor Gorber, S., Kho, M.E., Sampson, M. and Belanger, K., 2016. Systematic review of the relationships between sleep duration and health indicators in school-aged children and youth. Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism, 41(6), pp.S266-S282.

Ishak, M., and Yusof, Y. (2014).Performance measurement indicators for academic staff in Malaysia. ebook 1.ed. .

Meek, V., and Lee, J. (2014).Performance indicators for assessing and benchmarking research capacities in universities. .

Meyer, R. (2010).Value added indicators for school performance: A primer. ebook 1.ed. .

Nuttall, D.L., 2017. Choosing indicators. In Measuring Quality: Education Indicators (pp. 17-40). Routledge.

Orozco, R., Benjet, C., Borges, G., Arce, M.F.M., Ito, D.F., Fleiz, C. and Villatoro, J.A., 2018. Association between attempted suicide and academic performance indicators among middle and high school students in Mexico: results from a national survey. Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 12(1), p.9.

Parmenter, D., 2015. Key performance indicators: developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs. John Wiley & Sons.

Robers, S., 2015. Indicators of school crime and safety: 2010. DIANE Publishing.

Suryadi, K. (2017).Framework of measuring key performance indicator for decision support in higher education institution. ebook 1.ed. .

Wang, X. (2013).Performance measurement in universities. ebook 1.ed.