Seek data, then decide and act

Abstract

One of the main areas that all schools who are embarking on School Development Planning are called to explore is that of student performance. Whilst, in my opinion, this is an area one should not explore in the initial stages of school-based development, there will come a time when this area will need to be explored and indeed taken seriously. My main concern here is that as people and facilitators embark on such improvement efforts, too often, that work is based on ill-defined problems and limited understanding of the factors related to or causing current results. Frequently, school improvement planning is based on the latest trends or hot topics rather than being grounded in data about student performance.