Can schools be improved?

Optimism versus nihilism in the principal's office

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On Wednesday, at The Age Schools Summit, Professor Becky Allen, a UK Academic, gave a depressing talk about the difficulty of improving schools. I summarised Allen’s arguments briefly in this post but, essentially, while she acknowledged the strides we have made in understanding the human mind and learning, she is sceptical about the research on school improvement strategies. And this is a fundamental form of scepticism. It’s not just that we do not have robust evidence on how to improve schools, we are unlikely to ever obtain any. Instead, we are condemned to endless waves of fads that wash over schools with little lasting effect.

Allen certainly has a point. Who could argue that schools repeatedly fall victim to the whims of fashion? Last year we all did differentiation and now this year we are all going to do growth mindset or curriculum or dual-coding or trauma-informed practice.

However, as someone who has worked in two schools during my career where the dial has shifted significantly in the right direction, as measured against external standards that are difficult to game, I think this argument is just a little too hopeless and there are some strategies to employ that can make school improvement more likely. Below are my suggestions.