The
dynamics of educational effectiveness: A contribution to policy, practice and
theory in contemporary schools (Sammons, 2009)
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The research aimed at the development of those
variables or elements of the centre that have consistently shown their relationship
effectively (leadership, teacher expectations, the involvement of parents in
the educational tasks.
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Within this research, the framework propose to
present is the most important progress that studies of effectiveness in its
development have experienced, both in the field of research and in the
implementation of educational reform processes. Thus, we will focus on the
new approach to the concept of efficiency as "added value"; the
importance of theoretical models as the basis and basis of research, after a
first phase absent from it; the development in the measurement of the
variables involved and in the methodological approaches, especially in the analysis
techniques and, finally, the implementation of the improvement processes of
the centres, based on the research on efficacy, and their evaluation.
A more appropriate technique for comparing schools,
especially used when it comes to accountability), known as "added
value", involves the use of one or several statistical techniques to
adjust the results based on the most relevant input characteristics of the
students. The added value would be the measure of the increase in the
performance of a student, produced by the effect of the school, once the
influence of the input characteristics of the school has been eliminated.
Therefore, the most effective schools would be the ones that got more
students to exceed as much as possible the predicted score of the students
based on their input characteristics. In this sense, it could be the case of
a school that seems to achieve excellent results and initially has very
bright and motivated students.
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In this research, authors try to look for new
designs, new control procedures, new methodologies, and more reliable and
valid measures and, in short, overcome the methodological difficulties to
advance and find consistency in the results and, consequently, give clearer
and more evident answers of the importance of school factors. The educational
community seems to need obvious reasons for the importance of its action and
the results point effectively in this line (Creemers & Kyriakides, 2010).
The deepening of the studies, the conviction of the limitations and
deficiencies of many of them are allowing to advance in very diverse lines
and fields with the hope of finding new systems and models that allow to
discover the complex framework of that "black box" that is the
school centre, fundamentally in its dynamic consideration In this sense,
important steps have been taken and, although the variables that were
initially studied continue to show their relevance and relationship with
academic performance, they seem to be shown with more evidence. We already
find studies that show the importance and differences between educational
centres ineffectiveness, in relation to the predicted performance based on
personal or social variables. (Perspectives, 2016) find the school discpline data and wokred to
eliminate the disparities. The researcher considered response to the disproportionate
system and restoratve practices. (Gonzalez,
2012) conducted research to estimate the restorative justice practices in the
schools of the United states. The reseach concluded that restorative
practices in the schools are developing relationship and complementary practices.
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Variables involved in the effectiveness of studies
are:
1.Leadership
2.Teacher expectations
3.Involvement of parents in the educational tasks
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The results do not show clearly significant efficacy,
although positive effects are detected. Also, the changes in effectiveness seem
modest. On the other hand, the three-year period seems short to talk about
the stability of the effects. There could be a slow process ineffectiveness
at first moments that could increase over time or vice versa. The measures of
the products may be influencing the results, so it would be necessary to
reconsider this aspect. By last, it would be important to think about what
are the causes of some schools improving or deteriorating in relation to
others. If they really are the indicators of efficacy or other causes. The restorative
justice approaches are developed in schools that improve the learning environment
and behaviour of student on the basis of three main principles that are transformation
in community, involvement of community, and repairing of harm (Gonzalez, Socializing Schools: Addressing Racial Disparities in
Discipline Through Restorative Justice, 2016). Previously, (McCluskey, et al.,
2008) worked to measure if restorative practics in schools can make any
difference. (Morrison, Blood, &
Thorsborne, 2005) measured the practices of restorative justice with the
capacity to develop human capitals and social relations in the classrooms.
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Teddlie and Sammons (2010) criticised that few
improvement programs have been rigorously evaluated. Although some have shown
positive effects, it is necessary to highlight that improvement programs also
imply important and profound changes in the functioning of schools, in addition
to the corresponding derivations of efficacy studies as shown by some of the
experiences in this field. Despite this, a statement by Reynolds et al., (2014),
in recent years, research studies of the reform processes have been initiated
from methodological approaches that allow testing the stability of the
changes through longitudinal and quasi-longitudinal designs that allow the
follow-up of a cohort of students without necessarily having to wait for five
full years of the real-time they spend in the system. Some researchers have
collected data from a second cohort and maintain the position of extending
data collection to a third. Scheerens (2016) opposed that different trends
are observed: from those that focus more on the levels of any change, to
those who focus their work on the line of temporary stability of the changes,
with a recommended minimum of three years. Precisely the problem of the time
required by these studies to carry out the research is one of the reasons that
such a small number has been carried out. Obviously, this is a traditional
problem in educational research, in general, although some objectives, as is
the case, require such designs. The continuum school behaviour management strategies
are designed for inclusive and restorative approaches (Deakin & Kupchik, 2018). The restorative practices are giving
everyone a voice to develop safer saner school communities (Laura, 2011)
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Despite the progress that is taking place in this
study, the use of causal models that, in an integrating way, make reference
to the effectiveness of the school is very limited.
Precisely, the lack of sufficiently developed and
validated theories and models on effective centres is one of the strongest
limitations in the geniality of these investigations.
The research was limited in its beginnings to urban
populations with large numbers of disadvantaged young people, which means a
really important problem for the generalizability of the results.
The limited attention paid to product measures in
quantitative efficacy studies has greater consequences than those that can be
predicted in the beginning in relation to the impact it has on the student,
class and school. The restorative practices
are promisted techniques to reform the teacher and student relationship and
it can be used to improve the equity levels in discipline of school but
failed to provide good results for classroom discpiline (Perspectives, 2016) (Gregory,
Clawson, Davis, & Gerewitz, 2016). Psychological science worked to
idnetify the positive classroom management with different climate building
strategies and review of work is done to measure the effective strategies (Skiba, Ormiston, Martinez, & Cummings,
2016).
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the elements that will need more attention and that
will be objective in the near future are:
1) Increase in the processes of implementation of
reform plans, generalizing to a greater number of centres in the countries
that have already initiated these plans and to other countries in which they
have not entered into this movement.
2) Extension to the level of higher education.
3) Greater interaction between teachers, educators
or education practitioners and researchers.
4) Conduct joint research from the double
perspective of research on institutional effectiveness and effects of reform
plans.
5) Emphasis on teaching processes for students with
certain levels of risk.
6) Leadership training and teacher training plans,
appropriate to new approaches to the teacher's role and teaching-learning
processes, as an essential element to carry out reforms with a certain
guarantee of success.
7) Greater use and development of new designs and
new methodological alternatives, such as multilevel analysis.
8) Increase in the use of longitudinal designs to
study the stability of the changes produced as a result of the implementation
of the corresponding reforms.
9) Introduction of changes within the improvement
plans that will affect other elements of the centre, not necessarily derived
from efficacy research. These changes can affect, among others, organizational
and management aspects and greater collaboration of parents, teachers and
management, as basic elements for the success of the reforms.
10) Determination of the causes that determine the
positive (or negative) effect of the improvement processes of the centres. The
practices and restorative justice principles are developed to consolidate different
schools (Shaw, 2007).
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