School Report Cards Coming Soon

The SEC’s Evaluation Institute has conducted a survey of all government schools in Qatar and will soon be issuing School Report Cards (SRCs) for each school. The SRCs will include data on many important areas of schooling including academic achievement, frequently used teaching methods, parental involvement, facilities and resources. The much-anticipated report cards will be released in February, 2006 and they will be available to parents, general public, teachers, and school administrators to learn about how schools are performing.

We interviewed Mr. Michael Byrne, director of the School Evaluation Office, who is responsible for designing, implementing and overseeing the School Report Cards system for schools in Qatar, and asked him to elaborate on what all of this means.

Q. What is a School Report Card?

A. The School Report Card (SRC) represents a key aspect of Education for a New Era, particularly as it relates to parent choice and school accountability. SRCs are designed to help parents become better informed and encourage and empower them to be more involved in schools and their children's schooling. They are intended to help parents better understand their own and other schools. In this way parents should be able to have more productive, active and constructive interaction with schools.

Q. Which schools are included in this evaluation?

A. A SRC has been prepared for each Ministry of Education, Independent and Private Arabic school in Qatar. SRCs have not been prepared for the International and Community schools in Qatar.

Q. What content areas are measured and what do they represent?

A. The school report cards are structured to provide selective, indicative information about a range of matters including: student academic outcomes; social outcomes of schooling; student attitudes to learning; school as preparation for the future; parental involvement in schooling; pedagogical practices; teacher professional development and preparation; student and parent satisfaction with the school and its provisions; school leadership and management; curriculum quality; and school facilities and resources. These are all either key attributes of, influences on, or preconditions for effective schools.

Q. Do SRCs determine the difference between ‘good’ or ‘bad’ schools?

A. SRCs are not about determining whether a school is 'good' or 'bad.' By informing parents about schools, they are best positioned to combine this information with their deep knowledge of their child's interests, needs, special abilities and capabilities in order to choose, and hopefully influence, their child's schooling in a positive way.

Q. How will the schools use the data to improve?

A. Ideally, I would hope that parents consider the SRC information and discuss it with the principal and staff of the school concerned. More importantly, each school would no doubt have additional and richer information that it would like to share with the parents. Ongoing interactions such as these have the potential to improve schools and result in better outcomes for the individual children concerned.

Q. What response do you anticipate from the public?

A. I believe there will be a wide range of responses with varying strengths and direction. I have no doubt that the SRC will generate a lot of interest, debate and criticism. This is a healthy outcome, and serves the intent of enabling parents and the community to become more informed about, and involved with, schools and education. People in Qatar are thoughtful in considering, and active in expressing, their views. Constructive engagement, whether expressing positive or negative opinions, is ultimately helpful.

Q. Any future plans for the SRCs?

A. It is intended that SRCs will be issued annually and, in time, will not only comprehensively describe schools but also provide indications of the school's progress over time and its contributions to student outcomes. Future plans also include enabling parents and others to have web access to a greater array of information about schools.