Effective School Management

Step 4: evaluation and testing of alternative courses of action
Evaluation consists of comparing the alternatives generated at Step 3 with
the criteria from Step 2.
Any alternatives which do not satisfy the ‘essential’ criteria can be weeded
out immediately. Thus, in our lunch-hour losses example, we could
immediately rule out doing nothing or simply ‘having a word in Assembly’.
Some other alternatives before us might be as follows:
(1) Carry out an investigation to discover the thief.
(2) Set a trap.
(3) Establish a lunch-hour security duty for staff supported by prefects.
(4) Lock the form rooms at lunchtime and unlock them five minutes before
the start of afternoon school.
(5) Tell the children that they must keep valuable and attractive items such
as pens and calculators on their persons at all times during the day.
(6) Provide a secure area in which children can leave their belongings before
lunch and recover them after lunch.
(7) Provide lockable personal lockers.
Each of these alternatives will to a greater or lesser extent satisfy or not satisfy
our ‘desirable’ criteria. Solutions 3, 4 and 6 may well put an extra burden on
staff. Solution 5 would partially break the criterion of children not having to
carry possessions around with them. Solutions 1 and 2 applied alone might
not satisfy the ‘essential’ criteria but could be used in combination with other
actions. They would, of course, take up staff time.
Finally, we need to ‘test’ the proposals for ‘side-effects’, i.e. for the fact that
they might bring new problems and disadvantages. Thus Solution 5 could

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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
bring the risk of loss or damage at lunch-hour play. Solution 7 could cost
money. Solution 6 could bring organizational and space problems.