EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS CHECKLIST
Ron Edmonds of Harvard put the term “Effective Schools” on the education map with his article — Effective Schools for the Urban Poor, 1979. Edmonds, an African American educator, and other researchers in his team, aimed to counteract the negative effect of the Coleman Report (1966), which basically said schools had a small effect on education compared to the sizeable effects of parental and socioeconomic background. Their findings indeed saw that schools, with the right approach, could make a huge difference in children’s education. He said:
“We can whenever, and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need in order to do this. Whether we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.”
EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS CHECKLIST
___ 1. Instructional Leadership — Principal is an effective communicator (with staff, parents, students, school boards), an effective supervisor, & the instructional leader in the school.
___ 2. Focused School Mission — General consensus by the school community (staff, parents, students) on goals, priorities, assessment, accountability. The mission statement is published and reviewed regularly.
___ 3. Orderly Environment — Purposeful atmosphere conducive to teaching and learning.
___ 4. High Expectations — Demonstrated high expectations not only for all students but also for staff as well. The belief is that students are capable and able to achieve, that teachers are capable and not powerless to make a difference.
___ 5. Mastery of Basic Skills — In particular, basic reading, writing and math skills are emphasized with back-up alternatives available for students with special learning needs.
___ 6. Frequent Monitoring of Results — Means exist to monitor student progress in relationship to instructional objectives (and results can be easily conveyed to parents).
___ Means to monitor teacher effectiveness
___ A system of monitoring school goals
___ 7. Meaningful Parent Involvement — Parents are kept well-informed re: programs, goals, etc. There is ample opportunity for them to keep in touch with their child’s progress. They are consulted for feedback about the school and when changes are foreseen. Parent-initiated contact with the school is encouraged.
___ * 8. Avoidance of Pitfalls — Up-to-date awareness of good educational practice plus retaining currency in the field concerning promising and discredited practices.
* Most “effective schools” literature repeats the first 7 points. But, Edmonds’ original article (1979) stressed — “one of the cardinal characteristics of effective schools is that they are as anxious to avoid things that don’t work as they are committed to implement things that do.” This addition to the 7 points was made by a parent advocacy group in 1983 in Vancouver, BC (Canada). It was felt by these parents that if these 8 points became part of a school’s commitment most concerns, if any, could be easily addressed. Unfortunately, though widely distributed at that time, this checklist did not catch on.