I have been simmering on the sidelines with a freshly topped up level of rage since the A-level results were released last week.
My personal context is that I'm a Head of a small SEND school and sixth form. With a small cohort in year 11 and year 13s who are one year through their two year course, we are unlikely to be affected so bluntly or brutally by 'the algorithim.' Nevertheless I cannot help feeling FURIOUS at the poor quality of leadership that we are being subjected to, not only as students, teachers but as human beings.
The callous, reckless disregard for the life opportunities and mental health of A-level students, their families and their teachers is unforgiveable.
Now, I've resolved to be 'less political' in my tweets etc so rather than matching every single one of my points below with a specific and exact example of where the DfE, Gavin Williamson have been utterly inept, I am simply going to list the simple leadersip reminders that this whole farce has brought to the fore of my mind:
Good leaders:
1. Know their stuff - it is not unreasonable to expect a basic level of competence (and domain specific expertise) from those in charge.
2. Establish their values and principles BEFORE making decisions - this prevents you from making decisions (and designing algorithims) which lead to calamitous consequences - unless of course your values are all wrong in the first place...but I said I would avoid getting too political.
3. Think about the end-user. This one is so important to me as part of my 'putting people first' approach to leadership (I've written more about this here). How will this 'land' on a whole range of people? What challenges/misconceptions/unfairness will result and how can you pre-empt or avoid any of them?
4.Give a clear brief to those you delegate to. They may 'do the work' but ultimately it is on you. See no 7. below.
5.Have a clear timeline in place with adequate time for checks and balances - this should include using individual (outlier?) case studies to illuminate the whole. Think of the questions and case studies you are going to use to interrogate the results (the algorithim's data in this instance) to check if they are serving up something that aligns with the values, principles and impact on the end-users you established in steps 2 and 3. You've appropriately delegated an important piece of work, now is the time to check it before you launch or publish,
6.Be purposeful and precise in your language - it matters (eg. centre assessed grades are not teacher assessed grades.)
If you've failed to do the above and have accidentally presided over a fiasco:
7. Accept responsibility - it is such poor form to blame the team/individuals that you delegated to, particularly if they executed the brief issued by you. Even if they haven't, now and in public isn't the time to blame them. They were your team, doing a job for you. You have to take the hit.
8.Say sorry
9. Be the face of bad news.
10. Are honest with themselves. Without this honesty there is no hope for sincere reflection and professional learning which will allow you to be that bit better next time around...