Improving Student Learning Outcome through

School Leadership Development Program

Manmohan Singh

Kaivalya Education Foundation

28th December, 2014

IITD

“Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school“

- How Leadership Influences Student Learning - Leithwood, Seashore Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom (2004)

Who becomes a District Education Officer in India?

A Principal, Senior Secondary School

• Student : 150 - 200

• School : 01

• Teacher : 10 -15

• Budget : INR 2 – 4 lakh

A District Education Officer

• Student : 2,00,000 – 2,50,000

• Schools : 1500 - 2000

• Teacher : 10,000 – 15,000

• Budget : INR 20 cr.

Do you think the situation is completely different at School, Cluster, Block and state level????

Problem

80% Std. V children of Public Schools can not do division and 59% can not read, school heads lack required Leadership Skills

Enrolment, Infrastructure has improved butLearning Outcome is falling at alarming rate.

• 96% school enrollment is recorded.

• Provisions of library, toilet, mid-day-meal haveimproved.

BUT

• Std. V children who can read a Std. II text hasdecreased from 53% in 2009 to 47% in 2012. In publicschools, this performance decreased from 50% (2009)to 44% (2011) to 41% (2013).

• Overall, 75% Std. V cant solve a std. III division. 80%public schools children can’t do this.

• Private Schools are only marginally better than thepublic schools in learning oucomes.

Sources: [ASER, 2013]

Everyone in the public education hierarchy is a‘teacher’, leaders are promoted from a teacher cadre!

• Teachers are nominated as school heads based on

seniority.

• Teachers and school heads are promoted to education

officials.

• However, no inputs are given on leadership skills

to manage large fund and human resource.

• Most school heads motivated by credibility/security of

the job; struggling without skills as a school leader

• No performance assessment , low accountability

Holistic School Reform Requires Skill Development & Intervention at Multiple Levels for a Sustainable Systemic Change

• Personal Leadership

• Organisational Leadership

• Social Leadership

Low Motivation of School Heads

Poor Teacher Capacity

Un-engaging School Environment

Minimal Community Ownership

Inefficient System Support

Education practitioners at all levels lackskills to cater the actual challenges beingfaced on the ground

• Instructional Leadership

All 4 components constitute a leadershipthat is essentially transformational in natureturns around a school as an organization

Organization

Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF) was born from the recognition that the country’s education needs substantial intervention to build leadership

Vision

To support transformation of government schools in India into high performing environments for children through developing school heads of these schools into empathetic, pro-active and skilled practitioners

Transforming Schools requires capacity building of people which KEF does through various School Leadership DevelopmentPrograms:-

Kaivalya Education Foundation At A Glance

School Leadership Development Program(SLDP)SLDP is a 3-year part time program for schoolheads to:

• Build intrinsic motivation to improve the

functioning of schools to positively impact

learning outcome

• Train in an integrated format capacities

across four leadership aspects:

1. Personal 2. Instructional3. Social 4. Organizational

Gandhi Fellowship Program

Fellowship is a 2-year youth leadershipdevelopment program for collegegraduates to:• Become change agents of tomorrow by

honing their nation buildercompetencies while working with theschools heads

• Develop a strategically grounded visionto impact a million lives

Government Partnership

• National University of Education Planning andAdministration (NUEPA)(As a member of National Advisory Group of NationalCouncil of School Leadership)

• Government of Rajasthan• Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai• Surat Municipal Corporation

Technical Partnership

• Mercer: KEF has worked closely with senior consultantsfrom Mercer to develop the competency framework forits Youth Leadership Program

• Bodh: Helped in designing curriculum for the SLDP• Mindtree: KEF has partnered with Mindtree to develop

scalable Tech Platform for transforming schools

KEF garners Partnerships across World-Class Academia, Corporate & Government bodies to bring about change

Academic Partnership

• Harvard Graduate School of EducationTo Establish 21st Century Skills Hub in India by KEF and trainschool heads, teachers, officers and students to causepositive change improving learning outcome• New York UniversityTo Establish that SLDP positively affects students' Inter-personal skills, cognitive skills and learning by improvingclassroom climate Quality

Corporate and Knowledge Partnership

• Piramal Foundation: The Piramal Foundation has been akey supporter of the KEF since 2008: from funding thelaunch to providing access to the organizationaldevelopment and marketing experts that work withPiramal Healthcare and giving invaluable input on strategicquestions

KEF trains 1500 school heads in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat on leadership skills and competencies

Rajasthan

• 1000 schools

• Jhunjhunu, Churu, Udaipur, Dungarpurdistricts

Gujarat

• 300 schools

• Surat Municipality corporation

Maharashtra

• 200 schools

• Municipality Corporation of Greater Mumbai

KEF gets strategic insights and direction from an eminent board with awealth of accumulated experience in institution building and management.

Mr. Narayanan VaghulEx –Chairman of the ICICI Bank

Mr. Debasish MitterCountry Director of MSDF-India

Mr. Ajay G. PiramalChairman of Piramal Healthcare

The prominent Board Members of KEF-India:

Program Guided by Dynamic Team with 100+ Man Yrs Experience in Education and Leadership

Aditya Natraj:

Currently oversees KEF Program Execution of 1500+ school heads as theChief Executive Officer. Previously worked from corporate consultants likeKPMG to World Bank and also headed Pratham’s Gujarat Operations beforeestablishing KEF. Bachelor in Commerce, Master in Economics, CharteredAccountant and an MBA from INSEAD.

Monal Jayaram:

Previously worked as Fine Arts Faculty at two of Gujarat’s top stateuniversities before a 5 year stint in Curriculum Design in Pratham. Monalhas a background in Fine Arts, Art History, Design and Education

Nandita Raval:

Currently handles program operations in Surat. She previously coordinated500 remedial classes across 30 locations in Gujarat for Pratham for fiveyears. M. Ed from Gujarat University and graduated from Ekalavya Teachers’Training Institute before taking over as vice-principal of a primary school.

Vivek Sharma

Previously Program Director with Pratham, set up learning enhancementand school improvement programs in public schools across 3 states in India.Spearheaded Learning to Read, Pratham’s successful community-administration program

Tripti Vyas

A Senior English Lit Faculty at Mumbai University for 12 yrs, currentlymanages the curriculum design team.

Manmohan Singh

Over 13 years of experience in capacity development, systemic change,start-ups, large scale transformation and non-profit management ininternational institutions- WHO, UNICEF, Red Cross

Anubha Khanna

An extensive experience of 16 years HR experience in progressiveorganisations. Also Implemented Reading Campaign in Jhunjhunu with33% increase in Language tests.

Niraj Lele

An alumnus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India’s Premier institutefor Social Work studies. Over a decade of experience with youth andeducation currently manages Rajasthan Operations

Anand Oak

A PHD in Physics and 20 years experience in IT with companies like IBMand Wipro is now the HR process owner

Bindi Dharia

An MBA from Harvard Business School and experience in automationwith Arcelor Mittal, heads the Technical Team for Tablet based projectoperation.

Model and Approach

School Heads experience their role as limited and meaningless, being more involved in mundane tasks for much of their time

Sense of monotony in the job keeps School Heads from experiencing the joy of learning

School Heads struggle to find appropriate media to connect with themselves or their subordinates

School Heads experience distrust, disconnect within team; affects team motivation and productivity

Capacity Building & Leadership Training Involves Fostering Meaning, Learning, Joy and Pride in school heads

SLDP offers a 3 Year Sandwich Model to School Heads that provide both Workshop and On-site support

• 12 days of Workshop

16 days of Onsite support by Gandhi Fellows

• 12 days of Workshop

16 days of Onsite support by Gandhi Fellows

• 12 days of Workshop

16 days of Onsite support by Gandhi Fellows

20 hours of Self Learning Material

20 hours of Self Learning Material

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

15

Curriculum and Assessment

Kaivalya draws from the 30 yrs of school change work of Michael Fullan to create its own operational model

Headmaster works with

Parents & GovernmentInfluence change at larger level

Headmaster works

with TeachersRole modelling to influence

change in other individuals

Headmaster works

with Self & ChildrenIndividual change

School change driven by individual change can create systemic change

Starting point for school change is change in ourselves

Listening, Reflecting, Empathising and Building new relationships with self and those around is key to causing change

• Our belief with which we engage with all the stakeholders and which forms basis of the school leadership development program –• Driving change from within to affect change in the wider environment• Person is first• Team work• Open, honest and continuous communication• Sensitivity to others - sensitive and non-judgemental about others• Meaning-making as basis for engagement• Change in action – reflective practice to identify constraints, think of new solutions and apply them at

work

• Salient features• Activities which allows the headmasters to experience, experiment and reflect on new ways of

teaching/learning and leadership skills.• Ways of integrating these into their day-to-day work activities.• Long term behavioural change through long term interaction due to continuous onsite support and

periodic training• Continuous design, pilot, review and re-design based on evolving learning needs

• Stakeholder creates Peer Learning networks

• Stakeholder reflects on progress,experimenting with ideas learnt in workshopand development of concrete actions

These are workshops for 15-20 stakeholders based on the issues, concerns, problems occurring in their work. These workshops focus on

• School visits and sessions with experts

• Peer learning and problem solving as a group

• Self-reflectionPro

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• Stakeholder practices critical thinking &reflecting about their teaching & leadershipabilities

• Stakeholder experiences mind-shifts tochange their current practice and ideologicalworldview in relation to their role.

• Stakeholder learns about ways to improveand implement learning for children in aholistic way in her school

These are workshops for a group of 25 stakeholders on following areas

• How children learn

• Activity based pedagogy

• Managing self

• Managing change

• Handling conflicts

• Team building & management

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• Initiation of relationship with stakeholders

• Data gathering on their context and needs fortraining

• Best practice documentation across schools

Workshops to understand the training needs of stakeholders and gather inputs for workshop design. Methodology: case studies based discussions and 1/1 conversations. Psychometric tools are also used

Trai

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rOutcomesContentWorkshop

Curriculum is customised to specific needs of School Heads

Growth Stages and Competency Framework

• Detailed rubric of observable behaviors helps numeric tracking ofindividual school head movement on the 15 competencies part ofthe SLDP Curriculum

• Step-wise breaking-down of major growth areas into growth stagesguides intervention in the school

• Learning log (Register) that allows school head to document trackown progress and reflect through each workshop, growth stageand competency

Tools for Assessment of School Head Growth and Improvement in Student Learning Outcome

Measurement tools for school head training program

• School Head Needs Assessment Form – assesses the needs of school head on various leadership development competencies

• Workshop feedback form – measures achievement of workshop objectives on needs identified and design objectives

• Action plan – a monthly, weekly and daily plan of actions school head will take in her school made at the end of workshop against pre-definedleadership parameters

• School Head Weekly Review Form - coach tracks progress of each school head action points made by school heads on a weekly basis

• School Head Monthly Progress Report - coach tracks progress of each school head on competencies required at each phase in the program

• Quarterly survey – an independent survey conducted by the Design team of the school head of progress made on predetermined leadershipcompetencies

SLO Assessment Structure:

2 External assessment mechanisms with 3-tier comprehensive process:

I. Baseline: Categorize Control and Treatment schools with fieldvolunteer support

II. Data Mine: Analyze on-site data for recommendations as programinput

III. End-line: Verify results of year-end assessments on learning outcomein March

Integrated Curriculum of SLDP Offers Holistic, Systematic Training for School Change

Growth Area 1

Growth Area 2

Growth Area 3

Growth Area 4

HM may work on many Growth Areas simultaneously according to specific needs of his school. He can track progress on each GA separately, and can be on different levels of progress on each at any given time.

Growth Stage 5

Growth Stage 2

Growth Stage 4

Growth Stage 6

• Curriculum facilitates school heads growth on the 4Leadership Levels. Each Leadership Level correspondswith specific Growth Areas (GA).

• Growth Areas are set to move progressively across 9Growth Stages (Some may be less than 9)

• Defined Growth Areas and Growth Stages (GS) helpschool heads to set small, step-wise goals towardsschool development; framework makes it easy to trackand measure progress on the goals.

• Each growth stage has specific recommended actionsthat school heads must complete to move into the nextgrowth stage.

• Curriculum design allows school heads the flexibility toset goals according to their current individual and schoolneeds

• Integrated approach ensures continuous work onmultiple areas of improvement simultaneously.

Impact

Leadership Training has improved results27%, 13% and 10% Improvement in Std. III, V and VII Maths and 17%, 17% and 3% Improvement in Std.

III, V, VII Language respectively across Rajasthan

32.7

5.4

27.3

22.2

8.7

13.5

19.5

9.4 10

Treatment Control Difference

Maths

III V VII

20.9

3.7

17.2

21.5

4.2

17.3

13.3

10.1

3.2

Treatment Control Difference

Language

III V VII

Maths

Class Treatment Control Difference Significance Effect

III 32.7 5.4 27.3 * Large

V 22.2 8.7 13.5 * Medium

VII 19.5 9.4 10

Language

Class Treatment Control Difference Significance Effect

III 20.9 3.7 17.2 * Large

V 21.5 4.2 17.3 * Large

VII 13.3 10.1 3.2

RA

JAST

HA

N

Six Language Skills

1. Writes letters & recognises starting sound

2. Reads & writes simple 3 -4 letter words

3. Reads simple sentence & matches pictures

4. Listens & understands short picture stories

5. Reads text of 3-5 sentences independently

6. Comprehends written information presented in Tables, Notices, Posters etc

Six Maths Skills

1. Recognises Numbers

2. Performs four basic operations

3. Understands measurements

4. Recognises basic geometric shapes

5. Interprets & Analyses data

6. Calculates Area & Perimeter, Volume and Surface Area

13

8.8

4.2

7.3

3.14.2

2.31.7

0.6

Treatment Control Difference

Maths

III V VII

Maths

Class Treatment Control Difference Significance Effect

III 13 8.8 4.2 F

V 7.3 3.1 4.2 F

VII 2.3 1.7 0.6 F

12.2

5.3

6.9

12.1

4.1

8

6.27.1

-0.9Treatment Control Difference

Language

III V VII

Language

Class Treatment Control Difference Significance Effect

III 12.2 5.3 6.9 F

V 12.1 4.1 8 F Large

VII 6.2 7.1 -0.9

4%, 4% and 0.6% Improvement in Std. III, V and VII Maths and 7% and 8% Improvement in Std. III and V Language respectively in Surat (Gujarat)

SUR

AT

45,000 square feet space to train 100 HMs

World Class amenities for residential HM workshops

State-of –the-Art design stimulating Creativity & Problem solving

Piramal School of Leadership Established to Engage with School Headmasters & Research with NYU & HGSE

Thank You

India lacks a world class university to produce change agents for public education system

DEO typically manages 1500-2000 schools, 10000-15000 staff, 20 crores budget – With no special Leadership/Management training!!!

Country Universities# of Personnel

Trained# of Faculty

# of divisions within

Education

USA

Teachers College, Columbia University 1,623 150 10

Harvard University 802 100 13

New York University 2,152 200 8

Canada University of Toronto 1800 150 5

UK Faculty of Edu, University of Cambridge 1300 100 11

China Faculty of Edu, University of Hong Kong 850 200 7

India

CIE, University of Delhi 50 36 3

Faculty of Edu, Jamia Millia Islamia 70 11 2

Zakir Husain Centre for Edu Studies, JNU 45 13 1

PSL has started with Principal Leadership Program: World’s best performing school systems invest heavily in Leadership at school level

Chicago

2 tier Selection Process -District and School level

Portfolios, interviews by Ex-HMs, district level written test

Singapore

Higher Salaries for HMs

6 month course by National Institute of Education

2 week foreign placement shadowing private sector exec

New York

Aspiring Principals program for young, preferably black

Train and Place them in low-performance schools

15% HMs - APP alum

Boston

HM Fellowship –apprenticeship and lectures

On job support - Peer meetings, Mentoring by experienced HMs and Supervisors

Annual Status of Education Report - 2013