Practice-Based
Inquiry®:
Bringing Professional Practice into FOCUS™
What are its results?
The
results that matter most
The most important results of a research methodology are the findings it generates. Are they clear, certain and useful?
The signature result of a Practice-Based Inquiry visit is a report that is written in clear, direct, “tell it like it is” language about what actually goes on in the institution. Since Practice-Based Inquiry relies on judgments about the value of action, rather than on the measurement of abstract constructs that serve as substitutes for discrete elements of what an institution does, these reports can directly answer questions about the central function of the organization.
For example, Practice-Based Inquiry school reports can directly answer these questions: “How well are students in this school learning?” “How well are the teachers in this school teaching?” And “How well is the school, as an organization and community, supporting good learning and teaching?” It can answer questions that are just as direct about the practice that is central to other professional service organizations.
Using certain findings about how well an institution does its central job is key to building a scheme for reasonable and effective accountability. The more direct the measures of performance catch what participants in that institution actually do that matter, the more effective the system of measurement and accountability will be in strengthening the performance of the organization's central function. While Practice-Based Inquiry school visits often create anxiety for a school faculty, most faculties are relieved and stimulated by the fact that Practice-Based Inquiry visit reports focus on what they care most about, as professionals, and what they have the most personal control over: their own daily practice.
Practice-Based Inquiry teams inquire about what is actually going on. The technology of allows teams to write conclusions that consider the complexity of actual life in a school. Intense team discussion ensures that teams write only what they are certain about and that they have considered how useful it will be to the school in question.
Some Practice-Based Inquiry reports are copyrighted and can be disseminated only by the school. Other systems allow the reports to become public after the school has had time to digest the team’s findings.
Over the last nine years the Rhode Island SALT accountability initiative has supported the writing of more than 290 school reports that are public.
How schools and visit team members
respond to a Practice-Based Inquiry® visit
A
rigorous survey of how team members perceived the value of the SALT visit was
conducted in May 2004. At that time 1,468 people had served on SALT visit
teams. Of these, 994 were practicing
Rhode
Island
public school teachers. This is an excerpt
from the report's Summary of Conclusions:
The response rate to the survey by [people who had served as SALT visit] team members is 43.1%.
Respondents highly rate the experience of participating on a SALT visit team. 92.2% rate the visit experience as either “excellent” or “very good.” 94.6% say they would “certainly” recommend the visit to their peers.
Respondents gave the report their team wrote high scores on the SALT visit criteria for report validity. The percentage of respondents who rated each criteria “excellent” or “very good” follow: Accuracy—95.4 %, Fairness—92.9%, Usefulness—92.6%, Persuasiveness—87.6%. If they were affiliated with a school that had received a SALT visit report, more respondents rated their school’s report lower than their team’s report on these same criteria (40% lower, 49% the same and 11% higher).
A large majority of Teachers and Local School Administrators thinks the SALT visit is an unusually powerful professional development experience. 80.9% of the Teachers and 74.0% of the Local School Administrators pronounced the SALT visit as the most powerful professional development experience they have ever had.
The aspect of the visit that most respondents see as the most valuable is that the visit is a methodology for inquiring about how and how well a school works. Respondents in all groups rated items school improvement activities that did not include inquiry about schools at lower levels.
To read the full report of the survey, The Value of
Rhode Island's SALT School Visit: A Study of The Perceptions of SALT Visit
Team Members click here.
SALT team members often submit individual feedback regarding
their experience on visit teams. These responses closely reflect the survey
findings. See the Side-bar of this section for an example.
The unusual strength of the perceived positive
professional effects of a Practice-Based Inquiry visit on team members is
also seen in the summary of comments collected from almost every team
member who participated in the Chicago School Alliance 2005 visits. Click here to see the full report, Chicago Schools Alliance ,
PBI School
Visit Team Member
Reflections–2005.
How schools respond to a Practice-Based
Inquiry® visit
While no comprehensive study exists at this time that directly considers the effects of a Practice-Based Inquiry visit on the improvement of a school, there is also no evidence that it is has either a neutral or negative effect. There is extensive documentation that the visit is an unusually positive intervention that pushes a school to better performance. Documentation of its positive impact includes:
The Value of Rhode Island’s SALT Visit study considers the value of the visit report to the host schools. These results are unusually positive.
Between 1997 and 2002, RIDE conducted a dozen different feedback studies on the SALT visit that considered the effects of the visit on Rhode Island schools. The report, Salt 360 Feedback and Evaluation Study: Phase One: Report to RIDE and SALT Leadership sums up these studies and makes recommendations to RIDE about the ongoing development of SALT.
Click here to view or download the full report.
These two reports, as well as more recent observations, support the conclusions from the nine years of SALT visits:
Schools, by and large, have found the visit and the report of the visit very helpful. It has provided them with a new perspective of their work and given them a clearer understanding of what they can do to improve. Even those that receive a “bad” report often respond by working to improve their teaching and learning.
Of the 292 public schools that have received SALT reports, less than 15 have questioned the legitimacy of what a team says in its report. SALT provides several ways for a school to raise concern about its report. Schools that raise questions about their reports usually state that they accept the accuracy of the reports, but they question their “tone.” Schools have challenged only two of the more than 5,200 written conclusions as being inaccurate. As you can see if you look at them, the SALT reports are quite precise, and they do not “accentuate the positive.”
One recent reaction of a Rhode Island school principal was:
"I am amazed that your team… could glean the insight that you did in so short a time to identify and describe our learning emphasis and priorities in such specific terms. You managed to put into words some practices and philosophies that guide us but have never been fully verbalized at our school. This will be especially helpful as [our] staff struggles to define direction and chart a course with new leadership."
-- A Rhode Island Principal, 2006
Finally, this positive impact on school action to improve learning is a strong theme among the schools in the Chicago Alliance. In 2005, two schools were visited. They made their reports the center of their summer planning and spoke often about the value of the report in their planning. In fall, 2006, so many schools wanted visits that the Alliance decided the only fair way to select the ones that would be visited next would be to select them by lottery.
The recent reaction of an Alliance school Dean was:
"I have heard nothing but positive feedback from the faculty about both the process and product of the PBI visit. Your team's report and Friday night's basketball victory [State District Game] made March 3rd one of the most rewarding days I have ever spent in this building. [John has been there 9 years.] The final report will be such a gift to us and will focus and clarify the work of the academic plan and shape the school for years to come."
-- John Horan, Dean of Students, North Lawndale College Prep,
Chicago, Illinois, 2006
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