Back in 1991, Pierre Beauchamp published an article investigating what qualities the better independent schools in Canada possessed. The report was recently published online and Beauchamp’s findings almost two decades ago still seem relevant today.
Through research, Beauchamp determined that there were eight key characteristics associated with school effectiveness: leadership, expectations, mission, time on task, monitoring, basic skills, climate and parent/community participation.
Although some of those terms may be different today, or even shuffled around in priority, the study also reported student-oriented factors that probably haven’t changed much in the last 18 years.
The student-oriented concerns included the following:
1. Care about students as people
2. Providing an enriched and all around quality program for students
3. Pride in the school’s and students’ successes
4. Listening to students
5. Providing an enjoyable environment
6. Care of students in a professional manner.
What begins to emerge from this research is a pretty clear picture that what intuitively seems like the qualities of a good school are also what teachers think is particularly important. When visiting schools and evaluating different approaches to education, looking for schools that excel in these areas would make sense, and indeed, most of Canada’s independent schools aim to excel in the areas implicated by this study.
Of course, it’s never easy to empower students while still letting kids be kids, and each school has its own approach, making comparisons all that much more important.
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