Glover and Levacic - Investigating Res Mgt

7/30/2019 Glover and Levacic - Investigating Res Mgt

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Chapter 4

Investigating effective resourcemanagement in secondary schools:

the evidence of inspection reports

Derek Glover and Rosalind Levacic

The substantive focus of this chapter is the shift to local management of schoolsin England. Initiatives for local school management were also the substantivetopic of the chapter by Mulford et al., although the context was different. The


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Chapter 4 Investigating effective resource management 9

cautious in reaching their conclusions. The problem of identifying appropriat

methods to explore causal relationships between variables is discussed further ithe chapter by Leithwood and Jantzi in this part of the book.

The rationale for the research

This chapter reports on research into resource management in secondary schoolin England, using judgements made in school inspection reports as the datsource. We are concerned here with the way in which documentary evidenccan be accessed, analysed, recorded and then used as the basis for hypothesigeneration and further investigation. The policy background for our work stem

from interest in the extent to which governors and staff in schools practise effective and efficient resource management. This became an important issue witthe introduction of national policies to devolve more managerial decisionmaking to school level, known as the 'local management of schools' initiativeAt the same time, a quasi-market allowing parents to express a preference for school was established and a national curriculum and assessment framewor


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92 Learning to read critically

resources so as best to deliver organisational objectives and technicist i

requiring a complex and analytical decision-making process. Our aims iundertaking the research were broadly to see how far headteachers and governors of schools were aware of and had adopted this 'rational-technicist' modeand hence whether there was a relationship between educational effectivenesand the espousal of such a model of resource management.

The research questions we sought to address were:

1 To what extent was the rational-technicist model being adopted in schools2 Was there an association between the educational effectiveness of a schoo

and the adoption of the rational-technicist model?3 How did staff in schools that were judged to be educationally effectiv

manage their resources?

In this chapter we examine briefly the theoretical framework of the researchwhich is derived from the literature; explain the research design focusing othe use of documentary evidence from inspection reports; discuss the use othis evidence; comment on the analytical framework developed for the con


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realistic endeavour are now widely accepted. The view that effective schooleadership involves flexible planning when schools are dependent on their relationship with a complex and demanding external environment is now weldeveloped (see Fidler, 1996; Scheerens, 1997; Wallace, 1991). In this approach aschool staff has a clear sense of direction and aims that are reflected in the creation of plans. These act as guides to action which are modified in the light ofchanged threats and opportunities. The rationality lies in having articulated

school aims and a clear sense of direction, which guide decision-making.The implementation of local management of schools, by which responsibil

ity for financial management was delegated to the headteacher and governorsof schools, was accompanied by increasing advocacy of an official model ofgood management practice in these institutions. This is highly rational in conception (Audit Commission, 1993; Audit Commission and OFSTED, 1993

DES, 1988; DFE, 1994; National Audit Office, 1994; National Audit Office1997; OFSTED, 1993).

The guidance places considerable emphasis on good practice requiring tighcoupling between the financial plan as expressed in the school's annual budgetand educational objectives, which should be prioritised and implementedth h ' h l d l t l ' Thi i q ti l Obj ti


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OFSTED reports and the use of documents as

research evidence

Although 'official' in the sense that the OFSTED reports are published by agovernment agency, they are an example of social research and as such opento the problems inherent in this (Hammersley, 1993). The data extracted from

the documents depend upon the perceptions of the people who wrote thereports and the understanding and interpretation skills of the readerDocumentary evidence offers context and understanding and provides a relatively easy way of obtaining other people's views of a situation or proces(Hopkins, 1985). Problems of access, sample size, time and recording are overcome by using documents as the next best thing to personal involvement

Blaxter et al. (1996) have shown how such evidence can be used to providbackground and to offer secondary data to support or question evidence collected in other ways. However, in the research reported here the documentwere used as our main source of data.

Our concern was to gather as much relevant information as possible from the


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strictly comparable. Personnel, policies and procedures change within schools- indeed the whole purpose of the inspection system is to enhance effective-ness through necessary change. The structure of guidance given to theinspectorate has also changed in response to criticism of the processes byteachers and governors from the schools involved. Change has also grownfrom reflection on the approach within the inspectorate, resulting in anattempt to reduce the tension caused by the process of inspection. In part this

has been through more open relationships between inspectors and the schoolstaff but there has also been a shift from an attempt to assess every element ofschool life to one that concentrates on the strengths and weaknesses and thecontribution to school improvement evident in schools during the secondfour-yearly round of inspection visits.

For our purposes the requirement that assertions made in official inspection

reports should be backed by some evidence, however brief that might be,enabled us to feel confident that we could use them as a source of informationand for comparative purposes. In so doing we used the criteria put forward byScott (1990) who suggests that in using documents of this sort there should beprior evaluation of their authenticity, credibility and representativeness. Thesedocuments were authentic because of the structure of their compilation credible


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schools and inspectors. It is tightly structured with a detailed procedure fo

every aspect of the inspection to ensure comparability between schools, and tallow for the aggregation of types of data from the reports so that judgementmay be made about national standards and changes over time. The guidancto inspectors is based on a classification of observed evidence collected over three- to five-day period within the school. This evidence is then judgeaccording to set criteria and classified according to the grouping into which

falls. For example, the teaching observed within a lesson is recorded in thRecord of Evidence for the inspection, then classified according to a seven-poinscale varying from 'excellent' to 'very poor'. This judgement forms the basis othe overall classification of the quality of teaching within the school. In shorthe subjective, by virtue of the process of systematisation, is converted to whais claimed to be objective data.

We recognised that our investigation would be affected by some degree osubjectivity because of the compilation of reports by different people over period of time. It was clear, however, that the conceptual framework withiwhich we were analysing evidence of how school staffs were working was nosubject to change over the three-year period during which the reports we use


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(see Taylor Fitz-Gibbon, 2001 for other examples). To do this it was necessary

to develop classificatory systems as the basis of analysis of reports and then toaggregate totals within the classification for further analysis.To assess the extent to which governors and staff of schools were using a

rational-technicist approach and to establish any linkage between rationalityin resource management and educational effectiveness we needed to analysereports for:

I evidence of the processes of resource management;I evaluation of the effectiveness of this management by inspectors against the

criteria of the rational-technicist model;I statistical data of the broad socio-economic context of the school as used in

the inspectors' assessment of the value for money provided by the school;

I statistical data of educational outcomes, including the quality of teachingand learning, and examination results.

Although we focused on only one of the four aspects of the inspection assess-ment - the efficiency of the school, which included the quality of the

ll h f h d b i l


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Despite these reservations there were certain advantages in the use of the

reports because of the standard framework and the evidential basis of judge-ments made. The fact that the data are also used by the research division ofOFSTED for the development of summary reports such as that on gender-related attainment, and as the basis of annual national reports, goes some wayto ensure that consistency is maintained. That said, our work was undertakenduring the initial period of inspection development and we were aware of

three deficiencies of detail in reports:

| some elements of financial and resource management outlined in theframework were not commented on, either by omission or design;

| some inspectors were evaluating practice as 'good' in one school but similarevidence was commented upon as 'satisfactory' in another;

| not all the reports contained suggestions for improved practice which wereoften the key to the detail of the deficiencies noted.

The task was then to use the reports in an objective way but with an awarenessof the inherent problems in the interpretation and analysis of the data. The


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Developing an analytical framework

From the reading and analysis of the pilot group of reports it was possible tosee that the inspectors had been using three main criteria for evaluation basedon evidence of:

| the use of rational development planning and the use of plans to determinexpenditure;

) effective employment of resources to maximise educational opportunitwithin the school;

) the way in which the staff of the school secured value for money.

These criteria provided a framework for our analysis because they identified alist of management process variables that inspectors should be looking fowhen assessing resource management within the schools. Our list was as givenin Figure 4.1. This is a modification of the original used for the analysis of thearlier 66 secondary school reports (Levacic and Glover, 1997). Each of the elements was coded by the use of acronyms to aid both spreadsheet recording


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There were three possible explanations of 'failure' to mention an element ithe reports:

| Inspectors assume that because they speak favourably in overall terms ofmajor heading, such as staff development, they do not consider it necessarto provide evidence subsumed by the comment.

) Despite the efforts made by those responsible for inspector training and th

official inspection guidance there is evidence of some inconsistency iobservation by reporting teams.| There is variation in the extent to which an element is seen to be importan

to the reporting inspector. Some reports mention the existence of a development plan, while others provide evidence of the plan in use.

The reports offered a full range of comment from the brief and often unsubstantiated, to lengthy discussion of issues to be faced in securing schooimprovement. Comments have therefore to be analysed within their contexunderlining the importance of a preliminary reading of all general sections othe document and one or two of the departmental reports.


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Chapter 4 Investigating effective resource management 1 0 1

That said, the classification of comments was not always easy. For example,

the existence of a development plan may be noted - level 2 on our classifica-tion - but a subsequent comment refers to the inherent weaknesses of the plansuggesting that our classification should be at level 1. Often the resolution ofsuch dilemmas could only be achieved by going back to other parts of thereport to gauge the importance attached by inspectors to the relative strengthor weakness of the element under consideration.

As an example of a critical comment with powerful recommendations forconsideration in subsequent action planning we cite the following:

There are no strategies to evaluate cost-effectiveness. None of the co-ordinators hasa delegated budget and budget setting is not informed by whole school planning.There is no cohesive system to identify spending priorities or to facilitate the

formulation of medium and long term planning of objectives and help to achievebetter value for money. Curriculum co-ordinators need to be involved more closelyin financial and curriculum developments in order to provide governors with moreinformation to assist them in their decision-making. The school development planis too broad in outline and does not yet effectively aid forward planning.


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skim reading of a range of reports on different curriculum subjects within

the main report to see whether they yielded substantiating evidence forvague comment in the latter;triangulation of comment from different sections of the report to seewhether what was implied, for instance by the comment 'weak leadership',was sustained by comment on resource management;comparison of the classification resulting from two similar reports to checkfor consistency.

Presenting the findings

The findings (Levafrc and Glover, 1998) can be divided into two types: descrip-tive and relational.

Description of practice

Research question 1 - on the extent to which schools had adopted the officialrational model - can be answered descriptively. At its simplest level the reportsprovided a commentary on what was happening within the schools They pro


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assessed from the reports) and the resource management variables. We deve

oped a number of indicators of educational quality or effectiveness from thevidence in the reports. The quality rating, Q, was ranked as 1, 2 or 3 according to the inspectors' overall comments on educational quality.

Figure 4.2 Example of the framework for descriptions of management practice.

Progress to Rational Planning

a. Involvement of governors and senior staff

Now that a decision has been taken to keep the school open the management team and the

governors recognise the need to take rapid steps to secure its future by producing a realistic and

forward-looking development plan.

b. Statement of aims related to the SDPSuch decisions are made in the context of the school's vision statement but are not sufficiently

based on priorities identified in the school development plan

c. Development planning through the work of working parties, task groups etc. to ensure

involvement

There are regularmeetings of curriculumand tutor teams the full staff and themanagement


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Table 4.1 School quality ranking compared with resource management rankings

Average ranking for

resource management

processes:

Financial administration

Rational planningDepartmental planning

Staff deployment

Staff training

Resource deployment

Accommodation

All schools

2.49

2.081.80

2.2

2.08

2.03

2.14

Quality=1:/o

schools

2.30

1.801.30

1.90

1.90

1.80

2.20

Quality = 2: %

schools

2.46

1.991.84

2.15

2.06

1.96

2.10

Quality = 3: %

schools

2.53

2.301.85

2.35

2.15

2.23

2.17

We cannot tell this from a simple arithmetic comparison of the means ofthe three quality groups We need to conduct a statistical test of the hypothesis

Ch 4 I i i ff i 105


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Table 4.2 Resource management decision-making variables and quality of education

Resourcemanagement

decision-making

variable

Rational planning (RP)

Departmental planning (DP)

Staff deployment (SD)

Staff training (ST)

Resource deployment (RS)

Accommodation (AC)

T t l 1 ( ll th b

Is there a significant differencebetween the means for schools

differentiated by overall quality

of education?

This is indicated by the size of

the F ratio

5.12

4.44

3.25

0.50

3.90

0.25

6 00

The quality groups withsignificant mean differences

(Tukey-HSD test with

confidence level of 0.95)

Group 3 mean higher than

groups 1 and 2

Groups 2 and 3 means higher

than group 1

None

None

Group 3 mean higher than

group 2

None

G 3 hi h th


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Additional analyses of the relationship between the resource managementvariables and the percentage of lessons in which teaching and learning weregraded as good or satisfactory were reported in the full study. We found thatrational decision-making was related to the educational outcomes of teachingand learning. Departmental planning can be identified as a factor in securingeducational effectiveness. It suggests that rational planning may be the mostimportant of the resource decision-making variables. Where rational planningwas embedded in the practice of the school then all associated practices wereof a higher quality, although departmental planning and staff deploymentwere of greatest significance in association with quality rankings.

A more disturbing finding was that poorer assessments of the quality ofteaching and in particular of learning and overall educational quality wereassociated with a more disadvantaged socio-economic background as meas-ured by the percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals. This is furtherevidence to that already accumulated from other studies that school staff insocially disadvantaged areas find it more difficult to provide good quality edu-cation. There is, however, no significant difference in the percentage of pupilsentitled to free school meals between the three groups of schools ranked interms of rational planning. The link between the resource management

d h b h h h f

Ch t 4 I ti ti ff ti t 107


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The officially desired pattern is shown in this illustrative commendatory com-

ment applicable to slightly less than half of schools:

There are clear procedures for preparing the school budget to reflect and support

targets in the development plan. The approach shows in departmental planning as

well as in planning for the whole school and this is achieved with a high level of

consistency. Through taking a fresh look at the way funding was previously allocated

senior staff have been able to make money available for development work.

In securing the transition from level 1 to level 3 in resource management prac-tices, reports from the second round of inspections showed that headteachershave had to convince governors and staff of the need to move to a morerational-technicist system. They have also had to consider issues of efficiency

and effectiveness in resource use, and to ask questions about the relationshipbetween context, resource use and outcomes so that value for money becomesan issue in educational management. Our initial work led us to the view thatthe headteachers were more likely to achieve the latter for their schools if theywere rational in their approach.

I d t ki thi t d tt ti t t t th iti th t

108 L i t d iti ll


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It is much more likely that those management processes enabling resources t

be effectively and efficiently utilised are also those which contribute to promoting effective teaching and learning. The connection does exist betweenmanaging resources well and good practice in teaching and learning. Schoostaff are more likely to achieve success where they subscribe to strategic aimsprioritize their objectives accordingly, and use appropriate staffing andresource allocation systems to support subject departments. Our case studies of

four very effective schools, which were identified from the content analysi(Glover et al., 1996a, 1996b) found that these four schools varied in the degreto which their resource management practice accorded with the officiarational model. Staff in only one practised a fully rational model, with tighlinkages between educational objectives and resourcing. At the other end othe range the fourth school had a much more informal and intuitive

approach, although it was still broadly rational. This finding suggests that theway resources are managed in schools is an intrinsic part of the broader management philosophy and style which pervades all areas of school life. Thprocesses which make a school educationally effective (or not) also embracresource management. Reflection at a later stage following further documen

l i f i h l d i i i f i

Chapter 4 In estigating effecti e reso rce management 109


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thinking about the documents (e.g. Wilcox and Gray, 1996; Cullingford,1999). We were also fortunate in being able to secure reports before the impactof the inspecting process had resulted in a higher degree of conformity of prac-tice between schools: the requirements of the 1988 Education Reform Act werestill being translated into action in different ways in different schools.

In investigating resource management over a period of time, we have hadto recognise:

I the subjectivity of the inspection process and report writing and that thiscannot be isolated from the concurrent political and socio-economic context;

I the changing emphasis of leadership training and the enhanced under-standing of financial management within schools;

I the changing role of LEAs which now have increased influence on resource

allocation through bidding processes.

All these factors have prompted more positive reports in the second round ofOFSTED inspections. It may be that because so much of the changed practiceis an assumed feature in all schools it is only mentioned where resource man-agement procedures cause problems Longitudinal study of schools as reflected


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literature are used in interaction with the content of documents to create ananalytical framework. It is then applied in rendering these documents usablefor subsequent analysis as the basis for classification. The study also illustratesways of combining qualitative and quantitative analysis. Often, as in thisinstance, the distinction is not between qualitative and quantitative data sincethe latter are derived from the former, but between qualitative and quantita-tive methods of data analysis. Too frequently a misleading distinction is drawnbetween quantitative and qualitative research, treating them as quite different

research approaches or paradigms.

References

Audit Commission (1993) Adding up the Sums: Schools' Management of their Finances.

London: HMSO.

Audit Commission and OFSTED (1993) Keeping Your Balance: Standards for FinancialAdministration in Schools. London: HMSO.

Blaxter, Lv Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (1996) How to Research. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Cullingford, C. (ed.) (1999) An Inspector Calls: OFSTED and its Effect on School Standards.

London: Kogan Page.

Department for Education (1994) Local Management of Schools, Circular 2/94. London: HMSO.

Department of Education and Science (1988) Education Reform Act: Local Management of

Chapter 4 Investigating effective resource management 1 1


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Chapter 4 Investigating effective resource management 1 1

National Audit Office (1997) 'Linking strategic planning with the budgetary process', in MPreedy, R. Glatter and R. Levacic (eds), Educational Management: Strategy, Quality an

Resources. Buckingham: Open University Press.

OFSTED (1993) Handbook for the Inspection of Schools. London: HMSO.

OFSTED (1995a) Guidance on the Inspection of Nursery and Primary Schools. London: HMSO.

OFSTED (1995b) Guidance on the Inspection of Secondary Schools. London: HMSO.

Scheerens, j. (1997) 'Conceptual models and theory-embedded principles on effectiveschooling', School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 8 (3): 269-310 .

Scott, J. (1990) A Matter of Record: Documentary Sources in Social Research. Cambridge: PolityScott, W. R. (1987) Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Prentice Hall.

Simon, H. (1957) Administrative Behaviour. New York: Macmillan.

Tarter, C. J. and Hoy, W. K. (1998) 'Toward a contingency theory of decision-making', Journa

of Educational Administration, 36 (3): 21228.

Taylor Fitz-Cibbon, C. (2001) Monitoring Education: Indicators, Quality and Effectiveness

London: Cassell.

Wallace, M. (1991) 'Flexible planning: a key to the management of multiple innovations

Educational Management and Administration, 19 (3): 180-92.

Wilcox, B. and Cray, J. (1996) Inspecting Schools: Holding Schools to Account and Helping

Schools to Improve. Buckingham: Open University Press.

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