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Viewpoint: seven vital ingredients for closing the achievement gap

If leaders are to close the educational achievement gap they need to combine a complex range of strategies and leadership behaviours, says John West-Burnham.

For the majority of schools and education systems in the developed world the biggest single policy and leadership issue is the gap between those who perform and those who do not.

The highest performing classrooms, schools and systems have a very narrow, or virtually no, gap. Another way of expressing this issue is the extent of the ‘tail of underachievement’ – the number of learners who fail to achieve what are defined as national and international norms and standards.

There are many explanations for the existence of a gap or tail in educational achievement. There is no doubt that social factors (for example the quality of family life) and economic factors (notably poverty) play a significant role. It is equally clear that school-based factors, notably consistency in the quality of teaching and learning, have a fundamental part to play in securing wellbeing, enhancing life chances and realising personal potential.

“In the most effective schools and the most effective educational systems excellence is available to all and the driving imperative is to secure equity.”

Therefore perhaps the most important and most challenging aspect of leadership in schools is the imperative to secure excellence and equity. For leaders in the classroom, middle leaders and school leaders, ensuring the highest possible level of performance for all has to be the central imperative within a rich and relevant curriculum experience. In the most effective schools, and the most effective educational systems, excellence is available to all and the driving imperative is to secure equity. In the least effective schools and systems there is a ‘tail of underachievement’ and failure is accepted as inevitable for some.

Closing the gap has profound implications for models of effective leadership, as it requires the integration of a complex range of variables, strategies and leadership behaviours.

Closing the gap has to be seen as an ethical imperative rather than a policy initiative. Leadership is therefore focused on an explicit moral proposition that centres on securing effective teaching and learning for all. Leadership is driven by personal values that focus on enhancing achievement and wellbeing, irrespective of personal circumstances.
Making a commitment to creating a learning community based on high trust and interdependence with explicit values and a shared language centred on high performance.
School leadership and governance that sees the quality of teaching and learning as its core purpose. This implies the deployment of time, energy and resources to enhance confidence in the quality of teaching and learning and the focus on achievement, ie minimising in-school variation.
Growing leadership that is widely distributed across the school community and works through collective capacity rather than personal status. The focus is on middle leaders whose primary function is to model, monitor and secure effective learning and teaching.
Ensuring that parents and pupils are active partners in the learning process with a direct role in accountability strategies and the development of programmes that meet individual needs.
Securing active collaboration within schools and between schools to ensure that the best practices and resources are available to all.
Underpinning all of the above with rigorous and systematic planning, resource management and data-rich strategies to support teaching and learning.

Closing the gap is a complex process; the wide range of variables that need to work together in a positive way to ensure equity in education will always serve to make leading and managing in schools a demanding and challenging role – all the more reason to focus on developing leadership across the whole school; to ensure that leadership is primarily concerned with the quality of teaching and learning embedded in an educational experience that develops every aspect of the young person’s wellbeing and life chances.

John West-Burnham is a writer, teacher and consultant in education leadership. He is speaking in June at the National College’s annual conference, Seizing Success.