School Development Planning in the City of Copenhagen 2006-2008

Jill Mehlbye, June 2009, AKF

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Summary

Evaluation focus

The Ktf ("Kvalitetsløft til folkeskolen") project was initiated in 2006 to boost quality at primary and lower secondary level. The project was based on the PISA studies and can be summarised under the following headings:

Strengthening and developing the teaching of reading skills
Strengthening the AKT function at schools (AKT = behaviour, social skills and well-being)
Fostering an evaluation culture
Promoting school-home links
Quality assurance of teaching by strengthening the management function

The objective of this evaluation has been to map the quality development progress at the schools, focusing on the following key issues: To what extent were the schools ready to implement the school project initiatives in the spring of 2006? What progress had the schools achieved in the spring of 2007? What effects of the initiatives could be observed in the schools in the spring of 2008?

Annual evaluations have been carried out (spring 2006, spring 2007 and spring 2008) by means of questionnaire surveys and focus group interviews with principals, counsellors and teachers (including pre-school class teachers) and pupils.

Strengthening the teaching of reading skills and the AKT function, and fostering an evaluation culture

A central element of the Ktf project has been to establish counsellor functions at the schools with a view to boosting efforts to improve reading skills, strengthening the AKT function and fostering an evaluation culture. This highlights the importance of recruiting counsellors, among other things. A number of teachers have completed the 30-hour "Interdisciplinary reading" course aimed at developing the pupils' reading and writing skills across disciplines.

In 2007 and 2008 under half of the counsellors worked on the basis of a written job description. Written job descriptions are available mainly for AKT counsellors followed by reading counsellors, while they are only rarely available for evaluation counsellors. The latter is a particular problem because the evaluation counsellors – who are to undertake a new function at the schools – find it difficult to define their work areas.

In 2007 and 2008 the AKT and reading counsellors were thus most in demand, while the evaluation counsellors were less in demand. As regards the teachers, one barrier to using counsellors is, according to teachers and counsellors, that the teachers do not have allotted time for being counselled. As regards the evaluation counsellors, both teachers and counsellors state that the main reason is uncertainty as to what the evaluation counsellors can be used for.

At the same time, no less than two thirds of the teachers who had access to evaluation counsellors in 2007 reported that the opportunities of receiving assistance were anything but optimum. This seems to be a paradox since only one fourth of the evaluation counsellors reported that the teachers are interested to a high or medium degree in being counselled, and since the evaluation counsellors in particular find that the teachers think that they have insufficient time for being counselled.

It is also noteworthy that in 2008 two thirds of the teachers reported that they had had no need for evaluation counselling, especially in view of the fact that just before the project started, more than half of the teachers believed that they would need counselling services to a high degree.

This could be interpreted as insufficient prioritisation of evaluation counselling among teachers relative to the far greater interest that the AKT and reading counsellors encounter from the teachers. Another possible explanation is a possible mismatch between the evaluation counsellor system and the schools' use of the counsellors. Finally, a third explanation may be the above-mentioned uncertainty as to how to use the evaluation counsellors.

As regards the content of counselling, the teachers especially need counselling or support for individual pupils or groups of pupils or guidance in selecting materials. In relation to school activities overall, e.g. planning of evaluation interviews, the newly qualified counsellors have only participated in the planning of evaluation interviews and preparation of pupil development plans at somewhat less than half of the schools.

The vast majority of principals find that the counselling functions at the schools are extremely useful. The principals find that counselling has been particularly productive in relation to the schools' ability to deal with restless and difficult pupils and support pupils with reading impairment, and has boosted method planning at the schools. In addition, the teachers find that the benefits are apparent especially in relation to their own ability to tackle restless and difficult pupils and to support pupils with reading impairment at an early stage.

Promoting school-home links

The teachers' attitude towards home visits and their effects is not all that positive. This attitude does not seem to have changed over the two-year evaluation period. The principals, on the other hand, are far more positive. Two thirds of them find that home visits will strengthen relations with parents.

Up to three fourths of the principals report that their teachers feel uncertain about visiting homes they do not know well. Nevertheless, only around one fourth of the teachers in the survey state that they can get help and support from the school management when it comes to home visits.

The experience of making home visits has been positive for the vast majority of the teachers who have tried it. Their perception is that the parents are motivated and that interviews with the parents about the child's educational situation were conducted in a pleasant and constructive atmosphere. However, only one third of the teachers who have made home visits report that they see an effect as regards the parents' commitment to the school and the child's behaviour and academic performance.

The overall conclusion is that the schools see a positive effect of home visits in terms of good relations and dialogue with the parents about their child's educational situation, but that relatively few otherwise report an effect of the home visits. It should also be noted that support from the principals for making home visits seems to have been rather limited as the attitude of teachers and principals towards home visits is not all that positive. About half of the teachers and principals state that it is more effective to conduct school-home interviews at the school.

Strengthening the school management function

Focus on strengthening the management function at the schools has been an element of the effort to boost teaching quality.

An evaluation of the school management function in relation to teaching quality shows that a small minority of the teachers (12%) find that the management at their schools monitors class teaching (by being present or through interviews) and provides individual or collective guidance to the teacher class team (21% of the teachers). However, a majority (63%) of the principals state that they provide individual guidance to the teachers.

Only half of the teachers state that the management at their schools participates in teacher team meetings, whereas most (83%) of the principals state that they participate in teacher team meetings, and a large share (73%) of the principals report that they participate in class conferences about the pupils in the various classes, whereas this is only stated by one fourth of the teachers. In other words, the principals have a far more positive perception of their own management performance than the teachers have.

Recommendations for further development

Counselling activities

The counselling activities at the schools have been at the core of this evaluation. The evaluation pinpoints a number of problems in the development and implementation of the counselling system. As a result, the counsellors are not used to their full potential.

The recommendation is to ensure targeted integration of the new counsellors into the school organisation as a special focus area for the school management. This task is clearly to be undertaken by the school management. In this evaluation, there are many indications that this has not been the case. Instead, it has generally been up to the teachers to approach the management.

One way of integrating the counsellors could be for the school to focus more on involving them in teacher team meetings on the preparation and evaluation of year plans for the individual classes.

In this connection, effective utilisation of the counsellor resources at the individual schools could be ensured by the school management mapping the counsellor resources. How can they be used most effectively in relation to the school's planning of and strategy for reading, evaluation and the AKT function? This is also to avoid that all or too many of the resources go to individual pupils.

In addition, the following suggestions are made as regards the individual counsellor functions:

AKT counsellors

The AKT counsellors seem to be the counsellors that are best integrated into school activities since the AKT function is by no means new to schools. These counsellors are indeed the most frequently used by teachers and principals, but mostly for individual pupils. The question is whether they are used sufficiently as actual counsellors to the teachers. It should therefore be ensured that they do not merely serve as teachers with an AKT function, but as actual counsellors to the teachers at a more general level in order to make full use of their competencies.
The schools should consider whether the AKT counsellors are used more or less as "substitute psychologists". There are several indications of this in the evaluation. The reason is that psychologists have long waiting lists. For this reason, the functions of the AKT counsellors should be clearly defined in relation to the school psychologists to avoid overlapping. If overlapping exists, it should be a decision taken by the school in cooperation with the City of Copenhagen's educational and psychological advisory function (PPR).

Reading counsellors should be used at a more general and broad-based level

The reading counsellors should be used more in the planning of the teaching of reading skills, and for guiding teachers in this respect, including in relation to interdisciplinary teaching of reading skills.
The school management should ensure that the reading counsellors are used all the way through the school years, and that their functions are described at all levels, i.e. the first years, middle years and final years. It would also be useful to divide the activities of the reading counsellors into support for individual pupils and planning of and strategy for the development of reading skills at the school
In this connection, the school management should ensure that the "Interdisciplinary reading" course is anchored in the school's activities.
As regards the subject "Danish", the reading and evaluation counsellors should cooperate closely.

Evaluation counsellors should be more visible in school activities:

Together with the principals in the district, the district management should undertake to define the functions and tasks of the evaluation counsellors, and their functions and evaluation should be a regular item on the agenda of the district manager meetings to make sure that the evaluation counsellors are not forgotten as they service all schools in the district.
Evaluation counsellors should be more integrated into the school's activities e.g. by participating in management meetings and meetings of the school's teacher teams/subject specialist teams e.g. when preparing and evaluating year plans.
The school management should keep in mind that evaluation is an important task for the teachers – and require that evaluation should (still) be an element of the year plans for the classes, possibly after consultation of the evaluation counsellors.
The evaluation counsellors should be represented in the school's development group where they are involved in new developments at the school as well as pupil development plans or evaluation interviews.
Evaluation counsellors should be attached to a centre/unit or be part of the group of counsellors at the school to ensure e.g. internal sparring.
The school management should promote a counsellor or sparring culture at the school to ensure that giving and receiving guidance is a natural part of the cooperation with the teachers, including teachers with counselling functions.

Home visits

The school management is recommended to ensure that the teachers who feel uncertain as regards home visits get sufficient support and guidance in home visits – that are not necessarily made easier by a decision to conduct school-home interviews preferably in the home, as regards socially weak homes. This guidance could come from the school management itself, or from others at the school, e.g. AKT counsellors.

School management

In recent years, in order to strengthen school management, the City of Copenhagen has been developing a four-pronged school management structure. This organisation and the management tasks are paramount to the many general strategic tasks at the school, to the supervision of teaching and to the teachers' needs of support and guidance, especially when implementing new measures. Implementing and organising new local authority measures should be a priority task, in which the school management should be supported by the district management, and new measures at the schools should be discussed and planned at the district management meetings. A key task for the district management in this connection is to support and help its principals in relation to the schools' strategic and planning tasks, especially regarding new measures. This also applies to the measures under this school development planning project.

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