Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

Amongst a number of  other duties the Standards in Scottish Schools Act 2000 sets out two key responsibilities for Scottish Local Authorities in respect to school education, namely Raising Standards and Reviewing School Performance.
Yet I was wondering if it’s time to reconsider these duties in light of the impact - or otherwise - that Local Authorities [...]

Net Local Authority Revenue Expenditure by Service (%)
The Educational Institute of Scotland is running a campaign against any budget cuts in Scottish Education.
A march was held in Glasgow today at which thousands of teachers, parents and lecturers joined to protest against any education budget reductions under the banner “why must our children pay?”
As a teacher and passionate [...]

John McCann, Director of Next Practice at Scotland’s Colleges, has kindly provided me with a piece on the development of Scotland’s Colleges from their Incorporation in 1993 when they gained their own autonomy. 
 
I will be returning to this on numerous occasions over the next few months.
 
Introduction
 
Any reasonable commentator on the lifelong learning landscape [...]

 
One of the key findings of the OECD report on Quality and Equity of Scottish Education was that our system does not promote innovation and that there is very little diversity of schooling in Scotland. They identified the cause of this rigidity as a lack of autonomy - and what I would describe as an acceptance by all [...]

THE NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION REFORMS link  (my highlights in bold)
More than a decade ago, New Zealand faced problems similar to those in Canadian public schools, rapidly expanding costs and declining performance. The Kiwis made bold, across-the-board reforms, with positive results.
New Zealand’s government had created a massive, unresponsive educational system where parents had little or no [...]

I came across a very interesting project from Boston, USA, which sets out to give schools more autonomy and accountability.  Known as the Boston Schools Project its has been running since 1994.  The results are impressive and include:
·         Pilot Schools are attractive to Boston families, as evidenced by high waiting lists;
·         Pilot Schools have high holding [...]

This post is one of a series linked to The Logic Model - getting a social return on investement?
I apologise from the outset to any experts in the field of Logic Modelling.  What follows is a very personal interpretation of the process. I recognise that it’s possible to have a multitude of feedback loops and [...]

 
This post is one of a series linked to The Logic Model - getting a social return on investement?
I’m sure there will be many people who will recoil at the very notion of trying to measure the social return on the investment in education.
The reason for such a strong reaction is difficult to capture here [...]

“You don’t fatten the pig by weighing it” An evocative phrase used by those who would rightly challenge the concept of over-assessment or too frequent external assessment or inspection. A Head Teacher’s Union leader even described the English Ofsted as the “Office of Pig weighing”. The use of the phrase has taken on a global currency as [...]

 
My good friend John Connell’s blog is always worth a read and so it was this week when  I came across his post about the Civil Grand Jury system in San Mateo, California.
The San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury is an independent investigative body created by the California State Constitution. Composed of nineteen citizens, the San Mateo [...]