Making sense of our learning and taking action
Driving question
How do we ensure reporting processes and the formal school report:
- reflect the shared aspirations of our school community?
- accurately reveal learner achievement and progress?
Overview
What meaningful reporting means
1. Meaningful reporting processes and reports:
- attend to the learning that matters to families and the education system
- are understood and valued by families and students
- provides teachers with accurate information about the achievement and learning progress of individual students.
The purpose of this learning focus area
1. This Learning Focus Area (LFA) integrates previous learning from this Online Student Reporting Professional Learning Program (program) into planning and strategic action. School leadership teams partner with teachers, students and families. Together they explore the findings from the three previous Learning Focus Areas.
2. The aim of LFA 4 is to:
- engage the school community with the aspirations and findings that emerged
- develop specific actions that strengthen and reimagine student reporting.
How this learning focus area can help participants achieve their purpose
1. This LFA supports participants to draw on previous learning to reimagine student reporting:
- so that student reporting conveys learner achievement and progress in an accurate and meaningful manner
- to document actions for leading change.
Meaningful reporting workshop: what we learned from all our investigations
1. School leaders organise to lead the Meaningful Reporting Workshop (Parts A, B, and C outlined below) with:
- the investigation team
- the learning community focus group.
2. Participants will identify the implications of the insights gained from the first three Learning Focus Areas.
Prepare and lead the meaningful reporting workshop
1. Preparation: School leadership team.
2. Part A Sharing, Discussing and Analysing: School leadership team and
learning community focus group.
- Ensure each community focus group member has
copies of the investigation findings from LFA 1-3.
- Synthesise and analyse all the learning from LFAs 1-3.
- Then they determine recommendations and implications. Use the
LFA 4.1 booklet: SUN Analysis Scaffold for this on
page 5.
3. Part B Planning for Actions: School leadership team and
learning community focus group.
- Have the focus group identify actions to implement the recommendations from Part A.
- Record these on the
LFA 4.1 booklet: SUN Actions Scaffold on
page 7.
4. Part C What has emerged in light of our SUN actions?
- Have the focus group identify what implications have emerged as a result of the actions identified in Part B.
- Record findings and implications on
LFA 4.1 booklet, page 8.
Re-imagining Workshop: How can our learning inform our re-imagined reports and reporting?
1. School leaders organise to lead the Re-imagining Workshop (Parts A, B and C) with:
- the investigation team
- the learning community focus group.
2. The Re-Imagining Workshop aims to provide:
- an opportunity to draft a reimagined reporting process
- examples of more meaningful reports from the investigation findings and ideas documented in the SUN Analysis and Actions Scaffolds.
How to prepare for and lead the Re-imagining Workshops
1. Preparation: School Leadership Team.
2. Part A Considering Reporting Principles & Forms of Reporting: School leadership team
3. Ensure each member has a Meaningful Reporting Re-Imagined booklet (LFA 4.1 booklet).
4. Become familiar with these reading, listed on page 9:
5. Use the Reporting Principles to identify strengths and areas for improvement in the reporting process.
6. Part B Planning for Action: School leadership team
7. Ensure each member has
LFA 4.1: Meaningful Reporting Re-Imagined booklet.
8. Revisit the
DE Guidance to ensure they are aware of all the expected reporting requirements (listed on Page 12)
9. For further exploration in what the evidence says, there is an option additional reading offered:
Part C
Drafting a Re-Imagined Reporting Process and Report:
School leadership team and
learning community focus group.
1. Ensure each member has access to:
2. Share the learnings from the Meaningful Reporting Workshop, Parts A, B and C, and the Re-imagining Workshop, Parts A and B.
3. Draft a reimagined reporting process with the community focus group. This is shared with the wider school community for further discussion and refinement (page 14-15).
How can we prepare for meaningful change with our school community?
1. The meaningful reporting design should be tested against the research evidence explored in this program. Schools may need to prioritise against needs, and consider:
- which actions are more important
- what is our order of implementation
- how can we plan out our action miletones and timeline
- how will we test our ideas and impact of our changes.
2. After initial consultation, teacher leaders should iterate their meaningful reporting design with their school community.
3. This means offering families the opportunity provide feedback on the new ways of reporting. When doing this, school leaders should give careful consideration to the staging and pacing of the change process, starting with trialling changes that have strong community support.
Learning Focus Area 4 Evaluation Guide
Evaluation of LFA4
LFA 4.2 Evaluation Survey is provided for school leaders to distribute to participating members of the investigation team and Learning Community Focus Group. It is designed to determine the understandings and impacts of participating in LFA 4 Meaningful Reporting.
Evaluation of the program
1. School leaders will also need to schedule two future checkpoints (approximately 6 and 12 months) to invite school community input to determine the overall impact of the
Student Reporting Online Professional Learning Program. There are two documents to support this: