The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) has produced a series of practice guides to help school leaders develop and apply effective strategic plans. These guides relate to the Australian Professional Standard for Principals Professional Practices:
- Leading improvement, innovation and change
- Leading the management of the school.
This practice guide is the fourth and final guide in the series and focuses on evaluating the processes and outcomes in the strategic plan.
Evaluation is central to strategic planning as it allows you to review what is and isn’t working on the school improvement journey. There are 2 types of evaluation you should consider:
- Process evaluation examines whether practices have been applied in the way they were planned.
- Outcome evaluation examines whether practices are having the desired effect on student learning.
Process and outcome evaluation both play key roles at different stages of a strategic plan’s life cycle.
This guide recommends practical steps for evaluating processes for improving practices, as well as the effect of these practices on student learning.
We recommend reading this guide after you have read the third guide in this series, Selecting Practices to Deliver Improvement.
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Keywords: practice implementation