1. Case 1: Full service extended schools: evaluation
of education systems that aim to tackle
inequality
Presentation on 5th Feb 2011
Second Round Table: How can we evaluate
Evaluation of Education Effectiveness, Efficiency and
Policies: International Improvement of Education
practice and evidences. Policies? International
perspectives, practices and
evidences
Professor Liz Todd
liz.todd@ncl.ac.uk

3. What I am going to talk about……
What are extended schools?
What do they look like and why? What do they hope to achieve?
How did we evaluate full service extended schools nationally?
What is theory of change and why did we use Is possible to be flexible and robust?
it?
What did we find?
What are the issues in having extended
Do extended schools really work?
schools?

4. Extended schools in England
• Multiple initiatives since 1997
• Typically: childcare; parent support; out of hours
activities; adult learning; inter-agency working
• Shift from extended schools to extended services
• Emergence of area-based initiatives
• Similar patterns in many other countries

5. What can extended schools achieve?
•Student learning: Community school students show significant and widely evident gains in
academic achievement and in essential areas of nonacademic development.
•Family engagement: Families of community school students show increased stability,
communication with teachers and school involvement. Parents demonstrate a greater sense
of responsibility for their children’s learning success.
•School effectiveness: Community schools enjoy stronger parent-teacher relationships,
increased teacher satisfaction, a more positive school environment and greater community
support.
•Community vitality: Community schools promote better use of school buildings, and their
neighborhoods enjoy increased security, heightened community pride, and better rapport
among students and residents.
(Blank, Melaville, & Shah, 2003)

7. An evident need

8. A promising context

9. Every Child Matters 2003
• A response to child
tragedy
• Systemic change:
funding, integration
of services
• ‘joined-up’ services
• Getting help fast
• Record keeping

10. A dominant rationale
...even if we found all the factors that make schools more or less effective, we would still
not be able to affect more than 30 percent of the variance in pupils’ outcomes. It has
therefore become increasingly clear that a narrow focus on the school as an institution
will not be sufficient to enable work on more equitable educational outcomes to
progress… Interventions will need to impact more directly on pupils’ environment and life
chances.
(Muijs, 2010)
Extended schools are a key vehicle for delivering the Government’s objective of
lifting children out of poverty and improving outcomes for them and their families…A
key priority, and challenge, for schools is to reach the most disadvantaged families
within a universal framework of providing mainstream services for all families.
(HM Government, 2007)

11. What about
School improvement
unemployment,
crucial – but can only
social and health
go so far
problems, housing?
Child poverty fallen in UK
Standards aren’t
over 10yrs – but still 1 in
everything
3 children in poverty
How can we raise school Shouldn’t agencies work
standards? more in partnership?
8-15% variation in
Around 50% variation
achievement is as a result
achievement due to SES
of the school

12. Principles
Standards
don’t stand alone
Schools can’t
go it alone
More holistic role
for schools

13. http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/extended-schools.html

15. Achieving clarity
Within this new model, it’s important
to ask:
– What activities will the school
undertake?
– How will these relate to the
work of others?
– Why are these important things
to do?
– What’s the evidence and who
says?
– How will the activities achieve
the desired ends?

16. The FSES evaluation
• Detailed theory of change studies of 17
projects;
• Statistical analysis of NPD;
• Cost benefit analysis of FSES provision in a
sample of 10 projects;
• Brief case studies of comparator schools
• Questionnaire survey of pupils, parents and
staff in FSESs and comparators;
• Final questionnaire survey of all FSESs.

17. Statistical
analysis:
outcome
measures
Cost-
benefit
analysis:
10 schools
Case study and
development of
theory of change:
17 schools.

18. Theory of Change
A systematic and cumulative study of the links
between activities, outcomes and context of
the initiative
Fullbright-Anderson, Kubisch and Connell, 1998: 16

19. The situation
High deprivation, low aspiration
High unemployment
Decline of manufacturing base Main strands of action
Historically low school
reputation
Community re-
engagement in learning
and parental
involvement in
schooling
Services for young
people
Raised school
performance/profile
Outcomes
Raise aspirations of
community
Raise achievement and
attainment in school
Removal of barriers to
learning
Thriving school

20. The situation
• Persistent absenteeism
• Area of high deprivation
• Lack of value placed on education by parents
and children
• Culture of non-participation in activities led by
school
• Low aspirations
• New school building in progress

21. Main strands of action
Community involvement:
• Support services
• Community support for pupils
• Pupil support for community
Pupils:
• Rewards for participation
• Rewards for attainment
• Swift and easy referral
• Transition support
• Early intervention
• One to one support for parents

22. Outcomes
For pupils and community
• Increased attendance
• High achievement/attainment (maintenance
of progress at least)
• Increased citizenship/community cohesion
• Increased social capital
• Raised aspirations
• Seeing school as supportive

25. Theory of change reflections
• Schools as participants in the evaluation ‘do we have to pay?’
• Double-edged sword:
– Helps inform their actions
– Demands their willing contribution
– A developmental process for schools
– FSESs change
• Practitioner thinking
– shaped by immediate demands
– characterised by taken for granted assumptions
• Evaluation best built into planning stage

26. Findings on outcomes…
• Important (transformative?) impacts on individuals &
families
• Some evidence of cultural change in school
• Possibility of change in communities
• Benefits outweigh costs – and are redistributive
• Variable association with school ‘improvement’
• Weak evidence of overall attainment gains
• No evidence of fundamental transformation at
societal level

27. Findings…
• FSESs achieve less highly than majority of schools –
explained by disadvantaged intake
• No evidence that being educated in an FSES enables
the majority of pupils to attain more highly than they
would do if they were educated in schools that did
not have this status
• Attainment gaps between pupils entitled to free
school meals (FSM) and with special educational
needs (SEN) on the one hand, and all other pupils on
the other hand are smaller in FSESs than in other
schools
• FSESs targeted children in difficulties and did so in
ways which had impacts on their attainments

28. £144,000 …
The financial benefits if one pupil achieves 5 A*-C GCSE
grades or equivalent when predicted A*-G (an
estimate)

29. More is happening for young people,
It has improved the
for example football and homework
reputation of the school and
clubs…We’ve broken down barriers
it is improving all the time
and our doors have opened…There
with the full service school,
are
the sports hall [new build]
more adults walking the corridors…It
and the healthy school.
feels less like a young person’s
(student)
ghetto
and more of a community.
(ES co-ordinator)
I don’t eat breakfast at
home and twelve parents attended
so coming here means I the smoking
get breakfast cessation course and one
(student) parent stopped smoking
(school nurse)

30. I was finding, because of the nature of
the community, when I looked at
my role as a headteacher which is
about leading the learning and the
teaching, so much of my time was We’ve got parents in the school
being taking up dealing with the social working as learning support
work issues… I did a review over a four assistants, two are learning
week period of my time and 60% support assistants, our college
of that time was social work related assistants were our dinner
and that’s not where my strengths ladies…We’ve trained them up
are. My strengths are in teaching and through NVQs and they are now
learning. (primary head teacher – now our college assistants. They
has time to commit to teaching and work full time for us. Two of
learning) them work on reception and
repro-graphics having also got
desk top computer skills,
three of them in student support
helping with issues to do with
the school.(head teacher)

31. It’s kind of like we’ve been doing
this and now we can finance it You cannot work in an inner
properly. city and say this [extended
In the past it’s been like on a schooling] belongs outside
wing and a prayer. (Assistant our curriculum. It is
Headteacher, absolutely why we got into
LA20) this work.
(Deputy headteacher, LA18)
We can help other people
Previously, you called school and spoke
with the SENCO and not the teachers. Now, achieve their targets. The
I get to speak with teachers and get Health Authority have targets
additional information and my they need to achieve and we’ve
assessments are ten times longer. I have a got sitting clients to help them
much rounder picture of the children. There achieve some of those really
is lots of information I can pick up [around difficult targets.
school] from speaking with the dinner (ES coordinator)
ladies.
(Social worker)

32. The community is a very Weak management could be a
fractured place and hard problem as the extended school
to define let alone could take
over the school and lose the
consult with.
focus on schooling.
(ES manager)
(secondary head teacher)
In terms of the other agencies and
regeneration issues, no, they haven’t
made contact with the school and that
An inhibiting factor is the capacity is really frustrating because the
issue. My staff work very hard and
school is in the heart of the community
put in long hours and lots of extra
curricular activities go on and we have
and I think we should be
to ensure that we have the capacity and consulted about central changes…but I
energy and right personnel in have to hear about these things. I
place. I regularly do a 70-80 hour week. mean, I wasn’t consulted about Sure
(secondary head teacher) Start and Sure Start affects my
families. (head teacher)

33. Some process issues
• Sustainability
• Disconnection of individual school model
• Aims – unreasonable?
• Management and co-ordination
• Partnership
• Evaluate
• Politics of extended services
– Dominance of deficit perspectives

35. Some ways forward?
 Promise of area-based initiatives?
• Promise of participatory/assets-based
models?

36. Making sense of it all
• ESs are no substitute for school ‘improvement’ – but
may support it
• ESs have important (if limited) supportive &
redistributive effects
• ESs offer a vehicle for area change
• Strategic approaches beyond the single school are
important
• ESs raise fundamental questions about:
– The outcomes we want from schools
– The relationship between schooling and other aspects of
public services & policy
– Who owns schools

37. Further information
FSES final report:
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/p
ublicationDetail/Page1/RR852
Cummings, C., Dyson, A, Todd, L. (2011) Beyond
the school gates (London, Routledge)