Effective School Management

Figure 9.8
Interlocking systems
Plant
Technical
system
Social
system
Economic
system
Re
war
d
Work
Wealth
People
Pounds

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ORGANIZATIONS
161
HALLMARKS OF EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS
There have been many studies of the organizational effectiveness of schools
and in a major survey 719 factors were found to be associated with
effectiveness. These have been reduced to eleven salient factors (Mortimore
and MacBeath, 2003):
(1)
professional leadership;
(2)
shared vision and goals;
(3)
a learning environment;
(4)
concentration on learning and teaching;
(5)
high expectations;
(6)
positive reinforcement;
(7)
monitoring progress;
(8)
pupil rights and responsibilities;
(9)
purposeful teaching;
(10)
a learning organization;
(11)
home–school partnership.
PERSONAL APPLICATION
Rate your school organization on a 1–5 scale (5 = excellent) against the eleven
hallmarks above. Where do you think there is most scope for improvement? What
are your next steps?
MacGilchrist et al. (1997) correctly emphasize the importance of synthesis in
putting these discrete but interdependent factors together. In The Intelligent
School they use Gardner’s notion of ‘multiple intelligences’ to combine the
different capacities that, taken together, constitute the ‘corporate intelligence’
that characterizes successful schools. Continuous learning – for everyone – is
central to the notion of the intelligent school.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
(1) ‘There is no such thing as society’ – Margaret Thatcher. What warning,
relevant to managers, underlies this aphorism?
(2) Read the quotation from the Education Reform Act 1988 on p. 178.
How can schools be expected to promote the development of society?
To what extent are they a microcosm of society? What does this imply?
(3) To improve organizational effectiveness, Handy recommends schools
to distinguish between leadership and administration and between
policymaking and execution. What is achieved thereby? Is he right?
(4) The School Teachers’ Review Body reports express concern about ‘the
negligible amount of non-contact time available to most primary
teachers within the timetabled week’. What measures should a head
take to ensure that sufficient time is allotted to managing the school as
an organization?

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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
FURTHER READING
Argyris, C. (1999) On Organizational Learning, Blackwell, Oxford.
Davies, B. and West-Burnham, J. (2003) Handbook of Education Leadership and Management,
Pearson, London.
Dutton, J. and Kleiner, G. (2000) Schools That Learn: a Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for
Educators, Parents and Everyone Who Cares about Education, Doubleday Currency, New
York.
Handy, C.B. (1993) Understanding Organizations, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Senge, P.M. (1993) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation,
Random House Business Books, London.

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TEAMS
163