Evaluation of CPD programmes: challenges and implications for leader and leadership development

Abstract

Continuous Professional Development (CDP) programmes and especially coherent leader and leadership development programmes and policies have been at the centre of educational planning worldwide. The benefits for schools, staff, and pupils arising from professional development activities have been well researched into and elaborated on extensively. However, this is not the case in all educational settings. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of leadership development programmes and at the same time to address the challenges for leader and leadership development in connection to the design and delivery of relevant CPD programmes. The study adopted a coherent methodological framework for evaluating professional development programmes that builds on Guskey's (2000) and Stake's (1967) models for evaluating CPD programmes and a sound methodology for analysing evaluation data (Rasch methodology). We discuss the implications of our findings (a) for the local contextual practices in Cyprus, (b) for designing leader and leadership development programmes, and (c) for evaluation studies of relevant CPD programmes.

Keywords:

• leadership CPD
• leader/leadership development
• evaluation framework

Acknowledgements

This study has been a fascinating endeavour. As a research team, we met with a number of concerns, both conceptual and practical, that needed addressing. We are most grateful to Dr. A. Michaelidou for her support and Dr. E Hadjikakou for providing access to the programmes. Special thanks to the journal reviewers and editors for offering constructive feedback on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. The Education system in Cyprus has not undergone any significant changes since its foundation in 1960. The new state of Cyprus, following independence in 1960, acted to keep control of the National Curriculum, to guide educational policy, and concentrate all powers in the hands of the Ministry of Education and Culture. Therefore, its educational system is a dominant and centralised system in all its forms and functions (Pashiardis, 2004). Cypriot senior management teams are characterised by gerontocracy (Education Service Commission, 2003). Therefore, most senior managers retire early (Ribbins, 1998). According to the Education Service Commission 2007 annual report, primary education teachers are promoted earlier in their career than their secondary education colleagues. In particular, primary education headteachers are promoted with an average age of 51, whereas secondary education headteachers are promoted with an average age of 56. Promotion (currently the ultimate purpose of evaluation) to a management post is based on years of experience in the main and less on other relevant qualifications. The Education Service Commission (2003), in its annual report, also stressed that there have been times when they had to promote staff to senior positions merely because they had been working long enough in the system and not because they had the qualifications for their role. Such an anachronistic policy of the evaluation system has led to a disfunctioning of the whole educational system with a number of problems arising.

2. Promotion to headship or deputy headship is a result and combination of a credits system. Candidates (teachers) for promotion can apply for such senior posts as long as they have been teaching long enough in the system to be allowed to do so. Every teacher earns credits for every year of teaching, and additional credits for the type of school he/she works at, the geographical location of the school, and for additional academic qualifications. At the end of the 12th and 13th years of teaching, teachers are assessed by an external inspector. The accumulated teaching credits plus the numeric assessment credits (with a maximum of 40 credits) perform the basis for someone to apply for a senior post. The application is followed by a personal interview with the Education Service Commission that can give up to 5 points to each interviewee, according to performance. A successful teacher applicant is thus promoted to deputy headteacher. Serving a minimum of 3 years as a deputy head allows you to apply for headship depending of course on the total earned credits. No professional or academic qualification is required of applicants for senior posts in schools.

3.  In the context of the current study, this was done through the examination of the fit of the data to the Rasch model (in this study, the Infit and Outfit MNSQ fit statistics were employed) and by empirical investigation of the requirements that a rating scale structure should have to be effective (i.e., each category must have at least 10 observations, average measures are ordered, thresholds are ordered, and the Outfit mean-square statistic is less than 2.0).

4. The analysis of stacked and racked data suggested that the expectation scale showed a good overall fit to the Rasch model, as the overall and individual fit statistics were close to their expected values (see Table A1, Appendix 1). The evaluation of the functioning of the scale showed that all four criteria/requirements of an effective rating scale structure suggested by Linacre (2002) were met.

5. The analysis of satisfaction data showed a good overall fit to the Rasch model (as the overall and individual fit statistics were close to their expected values, i.e., 1) and met all four criteria suggested by Linacre (2002) of an effective structure (see Appendix 2 for relevant tables and figures).