Teaching Learning and Leadership
Evaluation of educational policy and reform programs
This area covers a broad field of research into what is sometimes labelled systemic reform. The Teaching and Leadership Program embraces research and evaluation of educational programs designed to improve teaching and learning in educational settings.
There is a long history behind this research tradition that goes back to the large-scale curriculum reform programs of the 1960s and the research on school improvement and educational change in the 1980s, which transformed into the school effectiveness and accountability movements of the 1990s and now what is known as systemic reform. One of the recurring findings of research on the adoption and implementation of educational innovations or best practice is that there are no short cuts to significant change in classroom practice. It is difficult for policy to penetrate to the level of practice, as loose coupling theorists, for example, attempt to explain. Significant change comes from within and is a matter of learning to do something new; of building capacity. It is a message that sometimes gets lost because of the rapid turnover of educational policy makers. The ACER Teaching and Leadership team has conducted evaluations of many reform programs for a wide range of clients.
Current projects relating to evaluation of educational policy and reform programs include:
- Evaluation of the Literacy Improvement Teams Initiative, 2007-8
- Evaluation of the Northern Territory Teacher of Exemplary Practice program
- School connections: Microsoft Partners in Learning
Recently completed projects in this area include:
- Evaluation of Phase 1 of the Schools for Innovation and Excellence Initiative
- Evaluation of the Getting it Right Literacy and Numeracy Strategy
- Review of the Minerals Council of Australia's National Education Program
- Evaluation of Access to Excellence
- Evaluation of the Middle Years Reform Program
- Evaluation of the MIndMatters Plus Demonstration School Initiative
Reports, articles, and conference presentations relating to evaluation of educational policy and reform programs:
Elsworth, G., Kleinhenz, E. & Beavis, A. (2004). Evaluation of the Middle Years Reform Program. Melbourne, RMIT.
Meiers, M. Beavis, A. & Ingvarson, L. (2005). Evaluation of the Access to Excellence Initiative in Victorian Government Secondary Schools. Report prepared for the Department of Education and Training, Victoria.
Marion Meiers, M., Ingvarson, L., Beavis, A., Hogan, J. & Kleinhenz, E. (2006). An Evaluation of the Getting it Right: Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in Western Australian Schools Volume 1 and Volume 2. Report prepared for the Western Australian Department of Education and Training.
Ingvarson, L. (2005). Getting professional development right. ACER Annual Conference Proceedings 2005 Using data to support student learning. Melbourne: ACER Press.
Meiers, M. (2005). Evaluation
of the Getting it Right Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in
Western Australian Schools ACER Annual Conference Proceedings
2005 Using data to support student learning. Melbourne: ACER
Press.