Assembling School Profiles
The data from the survey, interviews, and observations are developed into a school profile for each of the schools in the sample. All profiles are provided to district leadership, and individual principals receive copies of the profile for their school. Profiles contain summary-level data on each of the dimensions of the organizational coherence framework, as well as selected item-level data from the survey. In the pilot phase, these school-site summaries have also included comparisons to mean scores by dimension within the sample, and summary comparisons where selected items were anchored on nationally-normed surveys such as the School and Staffing survey.
Sample Profiles
In the profile graphs, a school’s score on each factor is contextualized by a Reference School High and Reference School Low, or those schools in the population of Internal Coherence schools scoring highest and lowest on each of the individual factors. Factor scores are presented in standard deviations from the overall group mean. We also include a graph for each factor depicting the total score of every teacher in the building, to show the distribution of perceptions that gave rise to the group mean.
New Developmental Rubric
Dr. Elmore is in the process of creating a rubric that helps describe the developmental nature of school improvement. In his rubric, Dr. Elmore offers specific explanations of how beginning, emergent, functional and exemplary levels of internal coherence manifest. He organizes this within the domains of Instructional Leadership, Organizational Structure and Process, Leadership for Learning, Collective Understanding of Effective Practice, Efficacy, and Accountability.
Download a draft copy
of Elmore's Development Rubric for School Improvement. (Use with permission only.)
The Internal Coherence Assessment and Protocol was developed by a team consisting of Richard Elmore, Michelle Forman, Elizabeth Leisy Stosich, and Candice Bocala.
If you are interested in learning more about how the Internal Coherence Project works with schools, school systems, and other education partners, please email Michelle Forman at mforman@serpinstitute.org.