Step Six gives you ideas about how to see whether your governing body is working well as a team, and whether you are making a difference to the school. There are two kinds of evaluations that your governing body needs to do. The first is to evaluate the relationships and ways of working of the team. The second is to evaluate whether your governing body is achieving its main aim — to promote high-quality education in the school.
Evaluating the Team
We have talked about the importance of team work in Step Two. Now we discuss how you can see if your governing body is succeeding as a team. Most groups go through stages as they develop. So will your governing body. It is a good idea to stop every now and then and think about how your team is doing. Here is one way you can do it: Think about these four stages that most groups go through:
Stage 1: Forming. Group members are polite and impersonal. They watch each other and are careful about what they say and do.
Stage 2: Storming. Conflicts develop. Group members try to avoid these conflicts. Or they confront people. Some feel like dropping out, others have difficulties or feel stuck.
Stage 3: Norming. Group members begin learning to work together. They develop skills such as conflict resolution. They listen to each other and give feedback. They deal with problems.
Stage 4: Performing. Group members become resourceful and flexible. They are open with each other. They work well together and get things done. They support and encourage each other.
Where is your governing body now? Discuss it with your colleagues.
Are we a good team?
Then ask yourselves these questions about your team.
– Do you know about the skills and experience of your fellow members?
– Do you know about yours?
– Can you deal with conflict and keep your shared aims?
– Do you talk often about what you value in the school?
– Do you spend enough time establishing principles and good practices, rather than meeting every issue head-on?
– Do you feel that every member contributes?
– Are you satisfied that there are no members with private agendas?
– Do all members leave the meeting feeling they have had a say?
– Do you have a system of work-sharing involving everybody?
– Are all interested groups fairly represented on committees?
– Do you have a system for every member to commit some regular time to involvement in the school? Or do you feel there are some who don’t?
– Do you spend enough time organising your work properly?
– Are you always clear about what you have decided?
– Do you spend enough time looking forward or do you just deal with the day- to-day problems?
– Do you realise that looking ahead is the only way to make sure you are involved at the proper time, and not too late?
– Are you all loyal to majority decisions?
When you have finished answering these questions, you can ask members to write down what they think the three biggest problems on the governing body are. Try to find the common ones, and then work out ways of solving these problems.
Are we making a difference?
There are many lessons we have learned about what, in general, makes a school governing body really effective. These lessons tell us that an effective school governing body:
– actively finds out what its school community is thinking
– responds to these views
– represents the views of its school community
– makes sure it finds ways of keeping its school community informed about what it is doing and why
– involves the school community as much as possible
– encourages parents to get involved in many different ways
– is well informed about what is happening in education at a national and provincial level
– always focuses on the best interests of all learners
– supports and encourages school improvement and development initiatives
– works hard at team-building and consensus-building, and maintains the highest ethical standards.
Monitoring and Evaluating Progress
Monitoring is the process of checking and asking questions about what is happening while it is happening. It is a process of collecting information. You will need to know:
– what you are monitoring
– what you are trying to find out
– how you will collect the information
When all the information has been collected, it should be put in a form that the school community can use. The information can include observations, interpretations and recommendations provided by stakeholders. Evaluation means looking at the information you have collected and asking these kinds of questions:
– How well did we do what we said we would do?
– Did we meet our targets?
– What resources (people, things) did we use and did we use them well?
– Was it worth it?
– Did we make progress on school values?
– Did we contribute to the quality of learning?
– Do we need to do something more or something different?
– Do we need to set new objectives?
– Do we need to change our goals?
– Do we need to get more support or raise more money?
With your fellow members of the governing body, put aside time to answer the following questions:
– How far have we moved from where we started?
– Did we reach the goals we set out for ourselves?
– Have we been true to the vision and mission of our school?
– Where do we need to go now?
The Teacher/M&G Media, November 2001.