NZCER was contracted by the Ministry of Education to develop an online tool for schools to support them to explore the extent to which school practices are inclusive of all students. The Inclusive Practices Tools (IPT) will support primary and secondary school leaders to collect data from their school community for the purposes of self-review.
Format and content of Inclusive Practices Tools (IPT)
The Inclusive Practices Tools were developed in the form of four online surveys/tools that explore similar concepts, but are aimed at different members of the school community:
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Inclusive Practices Staff Survey
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Inclusive Practices Community Survey for parents, whānau and caregivers
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Inclusive Practices Student Survey
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Inclusive Practices School Review Profile (SRP)
These tools explore views on school practices that relate to the concepts of Presence, Participation, and Learning.
The IPT builds on the set of indicator questions recently developed by the Education Review Office (ERO, 2010). These questions are used by ERO to review how well schools include students with high special education needs.
The self-review process
The IPT and related support materials are located on the Wellbeing@School website.[2] This enables the IPT to make use of the survey platform and self-review process on this site.
This step-by-step self-review process encourages schools to engage in ongoing self-improvement and enlist the support of the wider school community to plan, action, and review changes.
Support and data storage
Now that the development project is complete, schools can register to use the Inclusive Practices Tools on the Wellbeing@School website (www.wellbeingatschool.org.nz). The Inclusive Practices Tools will provide a basic range of resources and services to all schools at no cost (these include access to: the self-review process, the tools, online data warehousing and basic reports of school data, and guidelines and support materials.)
NZCER will act as steward for school data which will be stored in an online database. Confidential reports of their data will be available to schools. Under the terms of a data protocol, reporting options will be designed so that agencies such as the Ministry of Education can be provided with reports of grouped data that do not identify schools or individuals.
Timeline
This project started with the formation of a reference group who supported the development of the overall framework and draft tools. Following this, a prototype (trial) resource was be located online for the sector to use and offer feedback. A finalised version of the tools and support materials has been available online since the end of 2013.
The development timeline was:
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Phase 1: Development of the tool framework and draft tools (Jul-Oct 2012)
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Phase 2: Piloting of tools and online platform (Dec 2012-Feb 2013)
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Phase 3: Draft prototype tools located online for sector use and feedback (prior to Term 2: May - early July 2013)
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Phase 4: Review of prototype and final adjustments to tools and support (Jul 2013)
Tools and support materials available for school use (Term 3: 5 Aug 2013) -
Phase 5: Minor adjustments completed as required (Sep-Dec 2013)