Relationship between priorities of secondary schools authorities’ managerial decisions and change dynamics in educational outcomes

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the research is driven by the need to explore the experience of schools that are able to achieve high results on their own in complicated social conditions. The purpose of the publication is to establish the relationship between the managerial decisions of school authorities aimed to overcome poor educational outcome risk factors and the change dynamics of educational results at school. Materials and methods. Thirty-eight experts were involved in the research (development of detailed model for low educational outcome risk factors, questionnaires for school authorities), along with 210 schools from 12 Russian Federation entities which stepped out of the category of schools with low educational outcomes over the last 5 years. The method of group expert evaluation, morphological box method, questioning, interviews and comparative analysis were used. Results. A detailed model for poor educational outcome risk factors was designed (15 risk factors, 104 detailed items); a questionnaire for school authorities (5 sections, 504 items) was developed, as based on the said detailed model. It is possible to conclude on the basis of the research results: the school authorities deem the factors related to resourcing of educational activity to be the top-priority risk factors accounting for poor educational results (property, material and technical resources, human resources). Most of managerial decisions (77%) are aimed to overcome them. Of least priority (27%) is the factor relating to motivation of educational organisation authorities to improve educational results. The median number of managerial decisions aimed at overcoming all risk factors was 52%. improvement in dynamics of schools’ educational results depends on priority given by their authorities to the risk factors aimed at ensuring favourable school environment and assessing educational outcomes. The number of managerial decisions intended to overcome these risk factors at schools demonstrating “positive and significant dynamics” of educational results is 23% higher on the average than in other surveyed schools. Conclusion. The research results prove the effectiveness of describing the experience of schools through the system of managerial decisions aimed at overcoming the risk factors connected with poor educational outcomes. The established interrelation allows school authorities to adjust managerial decisions with a view to improve educational results dynamics. The detailed model of risk factors is applicable for studying teachers’ mobility, providing methodological support for “weak” schools, creating simulation exercisers for school authorities.