The MSIP provides schools in Meghalaya with a framework for enhancing student outcomes and organizational development, aimed at strengthening the school’s capacity for managing change and sustaining improvements in student achievement through recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research. Under the MSIP, every school will prepare a School Improvement Plan (SIP) that will focus on the following key areas that touch various facets of school life:
- Curriculum delivery
- School learning environment
- Parental involvement
Purpose of MSIP
The MSIP is a blue-print for how a school envisages/plans to improve. The purpose of the program can be seen in the following statements:
- School improvement has a moral purpose and, at its crux, is to increase the life chances and achievement of all students.
- Improves the quality of teaching and learning in the school, so that greater numbers of students achieve proficiency in the core academic subjects and co-scholastic areas.
- Prevents overloading teachers, principals and SDMC members with over-ambitious and unrealistic improvement activities and voluminous School Development Plans. It recognises that meaningful change occurs incrementally.
- Encourages teachers, principals and SDMC members to take up change-agent roles and implement central/state policy mandates and directives within the local context.
- Places accountability on schools. Accessible data and information enables stakeholders such as students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the broader community understand the needs of their school, enables them to take ownership and contribute to the development of their school and also hold the school management to account.
- Enables S&HSS track, review and revise the implementation of SIPs.
Who will benefit?
- Learners – With the strengthening of formative assessment, learners will be able to identify their own strengths & weaknesses; reflect and improve learning achievement, track progress, etc. Positive wash-back effect on learning through unit/lesson plans, instruction and assessment.
- Teachers – Reflective practice will enable teachers to identify their strengths & weaknesses, their teaching effectiveness, professional development needs, etc. positive wash-back effect on teaching through unit/lesson plans, instruction and assessment.
- SDMC members – Members will be able to identify their training needs; prepare a road-map for the school, need based plans, etc.
- GOM/DOE – An accountability system will be put in place for all government and government aided S&HSS; Data and information generated will be used for M&E, planning, research, achieving long term educational goals.
- Parents – Improved communication fosters successful parent involvement, which is known to improve not only student behaviour and attendance but also learning and achievement.
- Community – Working together with schools enables the community to take ownership and contribute towards the overall development of their school.
Steps in developing the School Improvement Plan
- Developing a school profile.
- Defining the school’s beliefs, vision and mission.
- Defining the desired results for student learning.
- Undertaking a school self-evaluation exercise to determine how the school’s instructional practices and organizational conditions help/hinder achievement of the mission and the desired results for student learning.
- Developing the school’s action plan(s).
- Implementing the plan(s), tracking progress and documenting the results for further action.
Guiding principles for preparing SIP
- Reduce isolation through collaborations and effective communication.
- Increase staff capacity through continuous professional development.
- Create a supportive school environment.
- Strive for continuous improvement.
- RMSA – SEMAM
- The Directorate of Educational Research & Training, Shillong
- The Directorate of School Education & Literacy
MSIP Task Team Members (State Level)
- Ambrose Ch. Marak (Team Leader), Director School Education & Literacy & SPD-SEMAM, RMSA & SSA
- Dr. Andrew Warjri, Special Officer, DSEL, RMSA & SSA
- Careleen Kharmalki, DERT
- Dany Lyngdoh, Principal Consultant, Education Department
- Dr. David M. Nongrum, DERT
- Della G. Soanes, DERT
- Singje Ch. Marak, DERT
Components of MSIP
The following programs are core components of MSIP
1. National Program on School Standards & Evaluation/Shaala Siddhi
The National Programme on School Standards and Evaluation (NPSSE), known as Shaala Sidhdhi is a comprehensive instrument for school evaluation leading to school improvement. Developed by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), it aims to enable schools to evaluate their performance in a more focused and strategic manner and facilitate them to make professional judgments for improvement. The programme’s objective is to establish and refer to an agreed set of standards and to provide clear pathways for each school for self evaluation, by focussing on key performance domains and their core standards for school evaluation. The structure of the Framework is simple yet flexible and lends itself to both self and external evaluation.
2. Project Implementation & Progress Tracking: In-STEP Reform Project (MHRD, USAID & Arizona State University)
The PIPTS is a progress tracker to monitor and track the implementation of improvement programs in schools and teacher education institutions (TEIs). It borrows heavily from project management and results framework procedures.
The long term goal of the reform project is to strengthen the present delivery system through consultations, collaborations and reflection between teachers, teacher educators, parents, SMC members to ensure need based programs are implemented effectively especially at district and sub-district levels.
Enabling schools and TEIs to monitor the implementation of institutional improvement programs with the help of a result based tracker would help ensure a shift in focus from processes and regulations to outcomes and results.
3. Professional Learning Communities (DERT, DIETs & RMSA)
A PLC is an ongoing process where teachers/educators collaborate in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for their students (DuFour et al., 2006).
The five dimensions of PLCs (Hord, 2004) are as follows:
- Shared values and vision
- Intentional learning and application
- Supportive and shared leadership
- Supportive conditions
- Shared personal practice
There is growing evidence that not only do teachers express more satisfaction and higher morale, but they also make adaptations for learners more quickly that in traditional schools.