Measuring the Social Objectives of Schools Some early results Björn Ahlström - Department of Sociology, Umeå University, Sweden

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet The SCL-project Structure, culture, leadership: Prerequisites for successful schools? Three Universitys Interdisciplinary (Sociology, Education and Political Science)

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Measuring the Social Objectives of Schools Purpose Social objectives Civic objectives Method Results

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Why assess the Social and Civic objectives? What is a successful school and how can we find them? Starting point – The curriculum Academic objectives (Mean of grades) Social and Civic objectives (How do we assess them?)

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Purpose To present a tool for the analyzes of school change and development (questionnaire) Can measures of academic, social and civic development be aligned and seen as a more complete assessment of school performance?

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet The Questionnaire Questions regarding the Social and Civic objectives What does the curriculum say? What does other steering documents say? What does other tools for assessing these objectives address?

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Social objectives Some key words; individual freedom, integrity, equality, justice. Work against racism, bullying and insulting behaviour. Develop confidence, take an active part in discussions, active participation.

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Civic objectives Building a culture for citizenship. Foster democratic citizens. Working in democratic forms. To give children and young adults knowledge about the content and form of democracy.

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Social/Civic objectives Tolerance and compassion etc. Social objectivesCivic objectives Social and Civic

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet The Academic Objectives ”typical schools” Mean: ”successful schools” Mean: Range: 0-320

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Method A questionnaire – 52 questions (where students are assessing them self) and a fourfold table (where students are assessing their own school). Pilot study – 4 schools and 157 students. SCL-study – 24 schools in 12 municipalities students of 2681 answered the questionnaire. Return rate: 79,37%.

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet SchoolMeanN A121,732 B115,147 C112,232 D112,163 E111,875 F111,497 G110,888 H109,7113 I108,941 J108,251 K108,0119 L107,768 M107,722 N107,677 O106,785 P106,462 Q104,8100 R103,527 S103,466 T103,322 U103,049 V101,264 X100,193 Y98,645 Total107,61538 Social and Civic Objectives Scale for 24 Schools

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Histogram over the Social and Civic Objectives Scale 42 items pupils Range 42 to 168 Mean value 107,6 Std. Dev 16.8

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Academic Grades Scale and Social and Civic Objectives scale (SCOS) for schools A - Y

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Academic grades and Social/Civic Objectives Scale for the 24 Schools. Scales Normalized

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet

4 types of schools 1. Schools that achieves in both objectives (High/high). 2. Schools that fail to achieve in both the social/civic objectives and the academic objectives (Low/low). 3 & 4. Schools that achieves in one of the objectives (Low/high) and (High/low).

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet Conclusions School differences can be assessed with the SCOS Some of the items in the questionnaire still has to be revised Some but no total covariance between Academic and SC objectives

Björn Ahlström & Jonas Höög Umeå Universitet What's next? Factor analysis Different outcomes of factors at different schools? Different focus – different outcomes? Structure, Culture and Leadership

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