Successful Staff Development for Effective Schools

Abstract

Research indicates that schools that encourage students to aim high and work hard are more effective than schools that ask little of all students or much of a select few. Studies show that school policies have a significant effect on what students learn and how they behave. Further, evidence indicates that schools make a difference in student achievement, regardless of socioeconomic background. Commonplace is the knowledge that there is variability in what schools do and their degree of success.1 The Effective Schools Movement which began having impact in the late 1970s and early 1980s identifies five correlates as hallmarks of schools that effect positive learning outcomes. These correlates are: a clearly defined purpose which emphasizes a uniform curriculum that must be mastered for student success, high expectations of all students, an orderly climate that fosters effective discipline and promotes effective use of instructional time, the principal as instructional leader, and evaluation of student progress and educator practice. These correlates, while fundamentally essential, rest on implementation. Staff performance becomes a coordinate; ergo,