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Staff Shadowing for Assessment
Start date: Jul 1, 2014, End date: Jun 30, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The State Comprehensive School "Papa Giovanni XXIII" includes 9 school buildings, 3 Pre-Primary School, 3 Primary School and 3 Lower Secondary School, on 2 neighboring municipalities (Pianella and Moscufo) in a rural area of the province of Pescara. The school is involved in an action of development and modernization, including its participation in networks of schools and the commitment of many teachers in experimental projects. With regard to evaluation, the school was the leader, in a network of schools in the province of Pescara, in a project organized by the Regional School Office and the Region of Abruzzo about the Assessment of teachers; the result was a Teacher Portfolio. Moreover several teachers and the headmaster were involved in a multi-year project called "School and University Research" organized by Chieti University and Regional School Office. The opportunity provided by KA1 - Mobility of school staff - Erasmus+ has allowed us to extend the comparison and analysis of good practices, in order to increase levels of education through an effective "leadership for learning", in a context where the management style of the headteacher and the "middle management " have to be settled. Since Italy does not have codified rules for the allocation of responsibilities within the staff, and assessment procedures provided by law are not yet fully operational, the purpose of the activity was to observe school management and evaluation system in countries that have a long tradition of consolidated school autonomy. Our Institute was involved with the Headmaster and 8 teachers, belonging to different school level, engaged in school organization; they were selected through a public procedure defined and carried out by the project team. The job shadowing activities were held in the following schools: "Anchorsholme Academy", Thornton Cleveleys (Blackpool, UK) is a large primary school with 630 pupils, in which there are students from areas of significant social deprivation, students with special educational needs, foreign students. This school was judged to have a good standard by OFSTED, it is part of regional, national and international network, moreover has been involved in a Comenius Project and has ongoing partnerships with schools in the USA and Hong Kong. "Carlow Town Educate Together National School," Carlow (IE) is a multi-confessional primary school with 180 students, organized in six general classes and two classes for children with autism; it is at the borders of Carlow and Laois counties. The school is located in a disadvantaged area and has the status of "DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), Band 2", which means that it benefits from additional staff resources. We had 2 preparatory meetings and 2 mobilitiesy. The activities carried out during the mobility periods were: 1. Direct observation of the host school activities (middle management and headmaster activities, national assessment tests, drafting the improvement plan on the basis of the evaluation results, activities of the governing bodies). 2. Exchange of experience with foreign colleagues (participating in their activities, debate on the strengths and mutual criticality) All the expected results were achieved, with positive effects on the organization of the school and participant satisfaction; we expanded professional knowledge and experience, heightened cultural awareness and language skills, improved management skills and the ability to cooperate with partners from other countries. The impact was most evident in the expansion of the specific competencies in - Managing the self-evaluation of school - Building Improvement plan for tackling the critical issues, reducing drift and improving student learning (with particular emphasis on key skills). The project was appreciated, so as to suggest the establishment of a consortium of 6 schools (including ours), with the Regional School Office as leader, aimed at the realization of another Erasmus + KA1 job-shadowing project, which incorporates and extends the reflection on the subject of evaluation; The project, approved in 2015, is still ongoing. Long-term benefits were considered: - The effects on the culture of evaluation in the network member schools; - The contribution to the debate for the identification of new forms of organization and evaluation of autonomy in schools; - The motivation to participate in European programs of other realities.

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