Quality improvement method

Education leadership: responsibilities, evidence and follow-up

Quality Improvement Methods

A controlled method for education leadership is set out through cause analysis, assigned responsibility, outcome measures and closure evidence.

Improvement of education leadership should begin with a defined problem, a credible account of its causes and a measure capable of showing whether the response has worked. Administrative form may differ between systems, provided the required outcome and accountability are maintained.

Corrective action concerning the matter should address the identified cause, assign responsibility and set a review period. In the context of education leadership, residual risk should remain open until sustained improvement is demonstrated.

A proper examination of the matter should establish the intended outcome before selecting controls or indicators. For education leadership, the corrective action should be tested on a scale proportionate to the risk before wider implementation, unless immediate system-wide action is necessary to protect learners.

Application to education leadership

When examining education leadership, the required public outcome should be stated in operational terms. Governing bodies should receive sufficient, reliable and timely information to oversee education quality, learner protection and material institutional risk.

Across the defined scope, analysis should make its decision rule explicit. For education leadership, effectiveness is the demonstrated change in the condition the action was intended to address.

The principal risks in relation to corrective action are governing bodies receiving activity data instead of outcome evidence, authority assigned without accountability, material risks omitted from reporting, and conflicts not identified. When examining education leadership, the risks are interdependent; failure of one control may conceal or disable another.

Relevant evidence for the intended improvement will normally include governing-body papers and decisions, public reports reconciled with controlled records, independent review records, risk and assurance plans, and corrective-action verification. For education leadership, currency, provenance and representativeness should be established before evidence is used for assurance.

Controls for education leadership

For the corrective action, the reviewer should set a baseline and success measure before intervention, define the review period, compare the result with the intended outcome and examine adverse or unequal effects. Across the defined scope, continue monitoring long enough to determine whether the improvement is sustained.

Decisions concerning corrective action should remain traceable to the information available for the stated reference period. For education leadership, a revision should state whether the change concerns the underlying condition, the evidence, the method or the interpretation.

Review of education leadership

Corrective action concerning the intended improvement should address the identified cause, assign responsibility and set a review period. For education leadership, public confidence cannot be separated from an institution's ability to identify responsibility and substantiate its conclusions.