We know the answer to this is exceedingly well, but actually when it comes to it we do not always have the data that might corroborate this easily to hand.
Emma has asked me to lead on putting together the data that demonstrates how important schools-led provision is to the ITT sector and to highlight the areas where its provision is particularly successful. Whilst you would be right to conclude that the success of our provision is widely recognised at the moment there have been and are still likely to be times when the proof offered by hard data is vital. We met a little while ago with an Opposition MP who may well have a significant role in future government whose coolness towards schools-led provision was matched by ignorance of the measure of our success. We were able to use some data from the Good Teacher Training Guide but would have felt much more secure with suitable data of our own.
To that end discussions were held at an administrators’ meeting and as a result we will be sending out proformas to collect information early in July.
You will be aware the HEIs are required to complete data for their Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The intention of this was to provide students with a clear indication of how good a university’s provision was and also was anticipated to be used in determining an institutions fee level cap. Whilst there is no requirement for schools-led to complete a SEF we are missing an opportunity if we don’t try to find out how our aggregated data would compare with the aggregated TEF data.
To that end we really need answers to six questions not included in the data collection agreed with the administrators. These are
Value for money
The quality of teaching on my course
The quality of assessment and feedback
The quality of academic support
The quality of mentoring
The quality of school placement support
If you can add these to your end of year surveys that would be great, if not, we really would ask that you contact trainees by e mail and get the answers. The first question would be particularly important. IPSOS/MORI suggested a 10 point scale is best for such questions with 0 being very poor and 10 excellent.
Finally for the moment, it would be very helpful if you were prepared to share, (strictly confidentially of course) the results of you end of year surveys. Although they are bound to ask different things in different ways NASBTT is prepared to put resources behind collating what all your data says and make this available for benchmarking.
Please let us know if you feel able to do this.