Explore the evidence-informed origins of the Schools Partnership Programme and the research that led to its creation - as well as examples of the continuing impact that SPP creates.
The Schools Partnership Programme was originally developed with school and system leaders in response to the shift towards a school-led system. The programme offers a framework that provides structure and rigour - holding each school accountable for their own improvement as well as others'.
SPP is based around four key areas of research and is continually informed by what we hear from the school and system leaders we work with.
In his most recent work, Nuance, Michael Fullan develops the idea of ‘culture-based accountability,’ which he describes as "the cultivation of strong mutual commitment and responsibility through trust and interaction.”
There are six factors that contribute to the development of this form of accountability, all of which have been incorporated into the design of SPP:
"I am tremendously excited for our team to join forces with the group at Education Development Trust's Schools Partnership Programme. SPP is exactly the approach that represents the next phase in deep school and network learning in education. Leveraging peer knowledge and expertise is the hidden gem in the transformation of education."
"One of the most powerful ways that school leaders make a positive difference to the achievement and wellbeing of their students is through their leadership of the improvement of teaching and learning. At the heart of this type of leadership is trusting relationships... One critical requirement for the development of trust is the ability to engage in open-to-learning conversations."
- Open-to-learning Conversations: Background Paper by Viviane M J Robinson
An Open-to-Learning culture is characterised by the following behaviours - all of which are cultivated through the SPP model of peer review:
1) Increase the validity of information, whether the information be thoughts, opinions, reasoning, inferences and feelings, by:
2) Increase respect for self and others by:
3) Increase commitment to decisions by:
Pasi Sahlberg’s work on data looks at the interface of big data (national and international data sets) with small data (insights about the complex nature of schools, and of teaching and learning). His view is that data in schools are often based on simple statistics and analytics, rather than understanding of human relationships and children’s emotions that drive learning in schools.
Martin Lindstrom calls these insights ‘small data’: tiny clues that reveal big trends. In education, these small clues are often hidden in the invisible fabric of teaching and learning. Pasi believes that discovering this hidden fabric should therefore be a priority for teachers and principals committed to improving schools.
The SPP model of peer review aims to do just that. It draws on both big and small data in the school self-review, the peer review, and the follow-up improvement workshop and action on change.
When reviewers engage in the pre-review conversation, they are listening out for clues as to ‘what’s going on.’ When they agree what evidence they might collect to respond to the enquiry focus set by the school, they are usually collecting small data by talking to children and teachers, and by observing what they see and hear as they move around the school.
John Hattie and his team have presented Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) as the “new number one” influence related to student achievement. Collective Teacher Efficacy is the collective belief of the staff of the school in their ability to positively affect students. A school staff that believes it can collectively accomplish great things and believe that they can make a positive difference very likely will.
This is cultivated through the SPP model of peer review by staff engagement in agreeing a long list of potential areas of focus in the school self-review, by being engaged in the peer review (sometimes by shadowing it) and most importantly being centre stage in the improvement workshop.
According to Hattie’s Visible Learning research, based on a synthesis of more than 1,500 meta-analyses, collective teacher efficacy is greater than three times more powerful and predictive of student achievement than socioeconomic status. It is more than double the effect of prior achievement and more than triple the effect of home environment and parental involvement. It is also greater than three times more predictive of student achievement than student motivation and concentration, persistence, and engagement.
SPP peer review is a vehicle for improving collective teacher efficacy and agency, and is one of the reasons why the mature model allows for middle leader to middle leader peer review and teacher-to-teacher peer review.
Get in touch to discuss how this research evidence base could translate across your school setting.
Between 2018 and 2021, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) conducted an evaluation of Schools Partnership Programme involving a total of 422 primary schools. This project is one of the largest research evaluations on the effectiveness of peer review and collaboration on school partnerships, leaders, staff and pupils.
Read EEF's evaluation of SPPThe Theory of Change underpins the cyclical improvement model of Schools Partnership Programme. It demonstrates how the programme is built on enabling positive change at four levels:
We expect to see impetus for change in the capability and capacity of leading school improvement, creating an embedded culture of mutual trust and shared responsibility for outcomes, and developing open and transparent ways of working across the partnership and within schools.
We expect to see a growing confidence in capability and capacity to lead collaborative improvement, with strengthened relationships and trust within and between leadership teams in schools and the SPP process including peer review being embedded in school improvement cycles.
Similarly, change is expected at this third level as the maturity of the partnership leads to increased deeper understanding and effective practice in peer review for all staff. This leads to genuine and deep collaboration between practitioners within and between schools towards shared goals.
Ultimately, we expect to see an impact at a pupil level too. This could be varied in nature and will be related specifically to the line of enquiry taken during the peer review cycles - therefore how this is measured can vary greatly. Schools are shown how to use data to evidence their decision making but also to evidence the impact. Qualitative feedback is often the most immediate source of impact evidence on pupil outcomes.
Explore our impact stories from just some of the 2,000+ schools we've worked with so far across England and Wales.
Schools Partnership Programme is EDT's flagship school improvement offering - and as an evidence-informed education charity, research underpins all we do. You can explore a number of publications that are part of a suite of research undertaken by EDT and available free of charge.
Explore EDT's research