Pilots a Peer Review

GSF’s role, in part, is to foster learning experiences between and among members which will ultimately help and strengthen their efforts. To that end, GSF piloted a Peer Review process, with the ultimate goal of replicating the process across the GSF membership.

Not to be confused with a school inspection, a Peer Review is a process whereby an organisation invites colleagues from other organisations to look deeply at a specific area of operation for the purpose of improvement. This particular pilot grew out of an existing collaboration among the CAOs from SPARK, Nova Pioneer and PEAS. SPARK Schools served as the host and asked the team to focus on this question: To what extent are we supporting and developing our Principals?

Prior to the live meeting, the Peer Review team drafted a strategy and collected specific data to attack the focus question. Driven by shared values and norms, this team met in-person at SPARK. Then, over the course of two days, the team executed the review process by collecting evidence through surveys, school visits, interviews and focus group discussions.

At the conclusion of the peer review, the team shared high-level trends and initiated action-planning with Bailey Thomson Blake, SPARK’s Chief of Schools. SPARK wasn’t the only beneficiary of the experience; both PEAS and Nova Pioneer took away new insights that they planned to bring back to their respective organizations. Within the next month, participants will be sharing more about their experiences with the pilot on the GSF website. In addition, GSF will be codifying its lessons learned and learning how to replicate the process with other members.