This presentation was given by Rien Rouw of the OECD at the GCES Conference on Governing Education in a Complex world during the Workshop C on meeting national targets in decentralised systems (Flemish Case Study).

1. United in Diversity
Attainment targets in
Flemish Education
Governance
GCES Closing Conference
Brussels
17 October 2016
Rien Rouw

2. • The Flemish Education System in general
• The role of attainment targets
• Complexity perspective
• Findings
• Policy implications
Contents

3. • Freedom of education:
• Freedom for citizens to establish schools
• Freedom for parents to choose schools
• High degree of autonomy for schools
• Hiring staff
• Deciding on curriculum
• Deciding on graduation / pass or fail
• Strong representative organisations of schoolboards
• Strong support organisations: pedagogical advisory services
• A long tradition of administrative representation
The Flemish Education system

4. The Education Policy Arena
Unions
Inspectorate
Political
parties
Parents /
Parent
organisations
Teachers
Schoolleaders
Umbrella
organisations
Pupils
Social partnersEducation
policy
Social
entrepreneurs
Ministry of
Education
Flemish
Education
council
Publishers
National
Assessment
Programme
Special
committees
School boards
Researchers
Pedagogical
Advisory
Services

5. • Attainment targets are educational goals to be met by
pupils in terms of knowledge, insight, attitudes and skills,
both transversal to the curriculum and subject-related.
• Applicable in primary and secondary education since the
late 1990’s.
• Schools need to comply with the attainment targets in
order to be funded.
• Inspectorate checks if schools implement attainment
targets.
System of attainment targets

6. Implementation ladder of attainment
targets

7. • Whole-of-system approach
• One system, more than the sum of its parts
• Components and Interactions yield unpredictable results
• Fragmented nor hierarchical-linear governance works
• Collaborative governance
• All stakeholders need to be involved
• Cooperation rather than competition
• System responsibility is shared among stakeholders
• Policy learning
• Continuous learning and improving to handle unpredictability
• Continuous monitoring and evaluation to provide timely feedback
• Requires data literary and evaluation literacy
Complexity Perspective

8. Findings: ownership
On track
• Tradition of participatory
governance
• Strong intermediary
organisations for vertical
mediation
• Some innovative
participatory trajectories
engaging a broad range
of stakeholders
Challenge
• Administrative representation
model
• Teachers and school leaders
indirectly involved in design
attainment targets
• ‘Lost in translation’:
intermediating layers of
interpretation and adaptation
• Position of key stakeholders in
broad participatory
trajectories not clear

9. Findings: implementation strategy
On track
• Pedagogical Advisory
Services (PBDs) linking
pin across the
implementation ladder
• Nascent signs of
collaboration between
umbrella organisations
Challenge
• Lack of coherence in
renewing attainment
targets
• Lack of ‘coordination force’
in implementation
• Weak links between
constituent elements of the
system

10. Findings: capacity building
On track
• High rate of participation
in professional
development in general
• Training and support
offered by Pedagogical
Advisory Services
Challenge
• Fragmented participation in pd
in general
• Variation in capacity across
schools and teachers
• Many schools lack collective
approach to capacity building
• No collaborative and
sustainable capacity building
initiative at system level
• Horizontal capacity building in
its infancy

11. Findings: evaluation and feedback
On track
• Strong programme of
national assessments
• Ministry provides
schools and the broader
public with data
• PBDs support policy
making capacity at
school level
• Inspectorate stimulates
application of
Challenge
• Picture at system level not
complete
• Variation in data literacy
and evaluation capacity at
school level

12. • Create a more structural platform for debate for a broad
range of stakeholders
• In the policy design phase engage with key stakeholders
beyond representative organisations
• Build a ‘guiding coalition’ and formulate a collaborative
strategic agenda to align the making and implementation
of attainment targets and learning plans
• Align capacity building initiatives to form a strong effort to
strengthen capacity at school level and build a culture of
evaluation and learning
Policy implications

13. Thank you for your attention!
m.a.rouw@oecd.org
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jlrb8ftvqs
1-en