Review of documented controls for teaching quality sets out the evidence, authority and controls needed to reach and maintain a defensible conclusion.
Evidence relevant to documented controls for teaching quality
For teaching quality, the 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All, places teaching quality and equitable learning at the centre of the post-2015 discussion. It links teacher preparation, deployment, support and working conditions with learner outcomes. Workforce indicators should consequently be interpreted alongside evidence of classroom practice, access to qualified teachers and differences between locations and learner groups.
- Protect time for preparation and feedback.
- Prioritise support where learner need is greatest.
- Evaluate professional learning in practice.
- Monitor workload and turnover.
- Forecast workforce need, with responsibility, scope and timing recorded.
Application to documented controls for teaching quality
For decisions concerning teaching quality, the material may reveal patterns or evidential gaps, but it neither directs a legal outcome nor establishes causation.
Review of the applicable requirement should follow a stated and reproducible method. For teaching quality, records should remain protected against unauthorised alteration while legitimate amendments remain visible.
Controls for documented controls for teaching quality
For the matter, conformity should not be inferred from a policy document alone; operating records and outcomes should show that the stated arrangements are in use.
Failure in relation to the applicable requirement may arise even where the stated policy is reasonable. Material concerns include deployment unrelated to learner need, professional learning disconnected from practice, weak evaluation of teaching support, and workload that limits preparation and feedback. Across the defined scope, an exception should be assessed by effect, duration, recurrence and reach, including possible exposure beyond the initial sample.
- Are access rights proportionate?
- Are partner records subject to equivalent controls?
- Can an amendment be distinguished from the original?
- Can records be retrieved throughout the required period?
- Is the record attributable?
Review of documented controls for teaching quality
For documented controls for teaching quality, the most relevant material is likely to include qualification and competence records, workload and allocation data, induction and professional learning participation, and support and supervision records.
Responsible bodies should specify mandatory fields, source ownership, access rights, retention and correction procedures. When examining teaching quality, test a sample from creation through use, amendment, reporting and disposal, including records created during disruption or by a delivery partner.
Implications for documented controls for teaching quality
The final record on documented controls for teaching quality should identify the applicable expectation, the relevant scope, the evidence examined, the sampling basis, material exceptions and the reason for the conclusion. If an alternative method is accepted, the record should demonstrate that it achieves the same required outcome.
Proportionality in relation to the control does not mean reduced protection for learners exposed to greater risk. In the context of teaching quality, qualifications and participation in training are inputs.
The assurance record for teaching quality should retain the date of the evidence, the source responsible for it, the scope examined and the version of any instrument or definition applied. Across the defined scope, earlier conclusions should remain traceable if they affected a learner, provider or public decision.
For the control, governing bodies should receive a concise account of the intended result, affected scope, principal risks, evidence limitations and unresolved exceptions.