Systematic Quality Work
As both a teacher and part of the leadership team, I see systematic quality work as the foundation for meaningful, sustainable school improvement. It ensures that teaching practices are guided by evidence, student needs, and shared professional goals. By working collaboratively across teams, using data purposefully, and maintaining a focus on equity and learning outcomes, we create school environments where students and staff all thrive.
Academic Representatives
Student voice and student influence, together with teacher knowledge and expertise, are a cornerstone of effective teaching.
In my role as Academic Manager, I meet with representatives from each class to discuss their coursework, examinations, their learning environment, feedback, and much more! Following each meeting, teachers get a copy of our meeting minutes, and suggestions for improvement are shared privately with the applicable teachers. This opens up the floor for ongoing discussion and improvements.
Quality Reports & Goal Setting
As Academic Manager, I contribute to systematic quality work by creating clear, purposeful templates for our school’s quality reports, completing reports for headquarters, and using these analyses to support Heads of Department in improving the teaching in their department.
As a teacher and head of my own department, quality reports give me a chance to reflect on my strategies and if they have worked for my students (or not!).
Data alone is useless, but the reflection that comes along with it helps us set focused and meaningful goals, monitor progress, and ensure that every decision supports better outcomes for students.
Data-Driven Instruction
I often use a website called CommonLit which provides a wide range of texts from grade level 3 - 12, along with Common Core standards-based assessment.
In order to assign students with the appropriate text and activities, I analyze and apply data from multiple sources. See the video above for a fuller explanation of how I did this during my time at 21st Century Cyber Charter School.
Grading Moderation & Collaboration
As Subject Facilitator, I organized moderation tasks for English teachers to complete within their departments, both digitally and in person at district-wide conferences.
Departments examined samples of written or oral work and assess them based on the grading criteria in the Swedish curriculum for production in English. After the departments completed the tasks, I compiled the results for comparison. When we have done this in person, we discuss the reasons for any variances in grade setting. The feedback I have gotten from teachers from these tasks is decidedly positive, and it always sparks further conversation.
The tasks help teachers to feel confident that they are grading equally and fairly, and help us to ensure across the company that students are being graded accurately.