Building on Current Strengths for Sustainable School Improvement   Mr Andrew Poon Principal Assistant Secretary (Quality Assurance) Since external school review (ESR) was first introduced in the year 2003/04, it created a degree of public response, in particular whenever the Annual Inspection Reports were uploaded onto the EMB website.  Possibly out of high expectations, the media paid more attention to reporting the areas for improvement, while skimming over the efforts and achievements made by schools. Sometimes it might have unfortunately led to negative perceptions of schools, and raised the concern of EMB staff and school practitioners.  Allow me here to put in a word for the schools and highlight the impact of ESR, especially its potentials for enabling school improvement.    From Quality Assurance Inspection to SSE/ESR: a quantum leap EMB has commissioned Professor John MacBeath of Cambridge University to conduct an impact study on ESR.  The recently completed Phase II Impact Study (the Executive Summary of the Report was uploaded onto the EMB¡¦s website in September) has affirmed that the implementation of SSE and ESR has served as a significant catalyst to promote change and improvement in schools.  As more schools which had experienced ESR came to see the positive outcomes of SSE working together with ESR, and the ESR process also underwent improvement, ESR has moved on and become more widely accepted by schools.    Impact on classroom practice and school culture   There is clear evidence that classroom teaching in many schools is now more engaging, student-centred and open to critical appraisal and evaluation.  It is now also more common for teachers and school leaders to tune in to their students¡¦ voice and to see students as critical evaluators responsible for their own learning.  In the best practice classroom activities are not only appropriate for the topics for teaching, but are also adapted to students¡¦ prior knowledge, life skills, abilities and interests.  Many schools have reported a better team spirit because teachers are more willing to share knowledge and practice, with peer observation and collaborative lesson planning given impetus by SSE and ESR. There is a noticeable trend to share leadership through more responsibility for middle managers and school improvement teams.  In many schools management and school planning have been streamlined and made more effective in part through critical reflection within the school, and in part through the feedback and advice form ESR. School leaders are also more open to accountability, and to being evaluated by their staff and, in some cases, their students.   Addressing the workload and anxiety issues  Yet schools are not all the same. The data in both phases of the Impact Study show clearly the wide spectrum of schools in terms of their embrace of self-evaluation, readiness for ESR, and their stage of development and expertise.   It is common for teachers to experience anxiety before an ESR visit, and the ¡¥anxiety syndrome¡¦ leading up to inspection/review is not unique to Hong Kong.  The central problem may lie in the anxiety generated from the anticipation of forthcoming review rather than in the ESR process.  For this reason, in the past year, recommendations have been made to encourage schools to reduce documentation and unnecessary preparation.  Inevitably, school leadership is ultimately the single most important ingredient in making SSE work.  Workload issues, over-preparation and infectious anxiety will continue to be a problem unless school leaders give a strong steer to teachers and model their priorities accordingly.    Embedding SSE and capacity building  Sustainable school development and intelligent accountability will require a capacity building approach in which self-evaluation is progressively embedded at classroom level and permeates all initiatives, so that SSE is not seen as an extra but is built into every aspect of practice.  The challenge ahead, then, is to build an SSE mechanism from within schools and from leading-edge practice, and to raise the level of professional exchange among practitioners.  As a step in this direction, an Online Interactive Resource has been developed with guidance from Professor John MacBeath and contributions made by stakeholders of 8 schools with ESR experience.  Among other purposes, this online system is to support school-based professional development for SSE, offer guidance and tools on embedding self-evaluation in the day-to-day work of the school and classroom, and show how other countries handle school review and self-evaluation.  We hope this resource can help schools to become more confident and creative in their approaches to SSE, and to engage in a discourse on self-evaluation for school development and improvement.   Balancing accountability with support  Education inevitably lies at the heart of a nation¡¦s development, and it has many important and worthwhile aims to fulfill.  The key to success in education reforms is the teachers¡¦ sharing of and persistence in achieving these aims and the enhancement in teachers¡¦ professional capacity.  While there are surely areas to improve in learning and teaching, the efforts of schools and teachers also benefit immensely from the recognition and support of all members of the community, including the media.  After spending over three decades in the field of education, I am only too clear about the weight of our responsibility.  I very much hope that, while we continue to make the stringent demand to hold schools and teachers accountable, we should also applaud the selfless work and heartfelt sacrifices put up by teachers and their schools, and pool our wisdom and efforts to create the best possible conditions for the holistic growth of our students.     October 22, 2006