In Rwanda, professional development programmes for school leaders have shown great attitude and behaviour change. However, the largest issue has remained whether that change eventually cascades to improved learning outcomes. From October 2022 to January 2023, VVOB worked with a talented group of Jacobs Foundation and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s LEAP Fellows, to deepen its evidence base on the impact of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of school leaders on teaching and learning outcomes.
Leveraging Evidence for Action to Promote change (LEAP), is an initiative by the Jacobs Foundation and MIT Solve that brings together researchers and social entrepreneurs to support education organisations in strengthening the evidence base of their learning solutions. LEAP aims to positively impact educational innovation and provide children with the tools they need to thrive.
This blogpost reflects on the recommendations and proposed theory of change highlighted by LEAP fellows in collaboration with VVOB.
Need
Since 2003, VVOB has been collaborating with the Rwandan Ministry of Education to improve the quality of education through professional development of teachers and school leaders. The first decade focused on managerial skills and tools for school leaders in basic education, in view of effective and efficient leadership. Since 2014, in close collaboration with Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) and the University of Rwanda College of Education (UR-CE), a diploma programme in Effective School Leadership was developed and has been delivered in primary and general secondary education in Rwanda. Up to date, the programme has been offered to around 2,000 Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, and district officials from 17 districts.
Monitoring and evaluation of the diploma programme showed that after the training school leaders improved their attitudes and confidence which resulted in improved leadership practices around the five professional standards of effective school leadership. In addition, school leaders share responsibilities and delegate tasks more often, work more efficiently and are generally more satisfied with their jobs, as result of the training. The evaluations showed that ultimately, these changes have created a better work environment where teachers feel that leadership is approachable and that their ideas are respected and contribute to the success of their schools. In terms of changes at the learning level, an initial study shows positive improvement in student’s national examination results. However, the study also highlighted some limitations including the lack of a baseline study and the lack of relevant data on teaching.
VVOB’s five-year programme, Leading through Assessment and Data (LEAD) that started in 2022, provided a strong opportunity to examine evidence of impact and explicitly frames the research topic to address the limitations of the prior study. Additionally, it makes a strong argument for scaling and sustaining school leadership CPD support system in Rwanda.
Innovation
The assignment for LEAP fellows included three main deliverables:
- A testable conceptual framework
- A potential impact study design
- Recommendations on variables to assess and related statistical analysis
In the reflection on how this would look like, it was important to ensure that the data and the theory of change are aligned with the Rwandan context and that the impact can be assessed in a sustainable way by the government; this implied using the tools and concepts already available.
The CPD programme is based on the five professional standards for effective school leaders developed by REB. Therefore, the fellows’ hypothesis is that participation in the CPD programme will increase headteacher and deputy headteacher knowledge related to resource management, instructional leadership, school environment, and people management (See an overview of the theory of change below). This knowledge will alter headteacher and deputy headteacher actions in the following ways:
- More frequent and better-quality instructional support for teachers
- More efforts to create a positive school environment
- Strengthen partnerships with families and the community
Outcome
Teaching outcomes: Ensuring instructional quality
Quality teaching is considered as the first influencer of student outcomes. Change at the teacher level is expected to be a short-term outcome from the change in practices of school leaders. Fellows argue that, indeed a school leader by mastering leading teaching would improve the quality of teaching in the following ways:
- Facilitating collaborative learning environment among teachers
- Providing instructional support for teachers
- Evaluating all teachers and appreciating high performers
This would lead to a stronger professionalism and effectiveness among teachers, which will be reflected in improved job motivation and lower turnover rates. In terms of measurement, fellows suggests that the assessment of teaching outcomes would refer to the school leadership assessment toolkit indicators and the School Improvement Plan (SIP) indicators but would also be supported by an assessment of teacher’s skills and knowledge and a student survey to triangulate teacher’s instructional practices.
Learning outcomes: More than examination results
Reflecting on the impact at the learner level, fellows give a broader interpretation of learning outcomes. Starting with the idea that CPD for school leaders would eventually result in lower dropout rates, better national examination results, higher attendance, and pass rates, fellows emphasise that school leaders would focus on two things:
- creating a learning-enabled school environment
- increasing parent engagement
Naturally, this implies that appropriate support is given to ensure instructional quality.
Through this, school leaders improve the learning environment, which ultimately boosts student engagement and lowers dropout rates. Engaging with parents entails better coordination with teachers to monitor students' attendance and develops teachers' abilities to leverage their knowledge of students' homes situation to teach them more effectively, which will increase pass rates for students. Again, the school leadership assessment toolkit indicators and SIP indicators offer different entry points for data collection, with a suggestion to add an additional indicator on teachers receiving training on parental engagement.
Next steps
VVOB and partners will implement a research study with four cohorts of school leaders who will get training under the LEAD programme to establish a proof of concept of the impact of CPD for school leaders at the level of teaching and learning. In addition, monitoring and evaluation instruments will be revised to include needed data to inform the impact.
Read the full report.
