A guide to effective governance: Evaluation and assessment

So far in this series, we’ve explored the features of effective governance and governing body structures. In the final part, we will explore two aspects to governors’ evaluative role:

• Evaluating their own effectiveness.
• Evaluating the performance of their school.

Evaluating governance: Self-review

The new governance guide (DfE, 2024) says that an effective governing body should review its own performance regularly. The governing body can evaluate the effectiveness of their governance through a combination of self-assessment tools, independent perspectives, and skills audits. Whatever form it takes, effective evaluation considers:

• The governing body’s effectiveness and the quality of its decision-making.
• The governing body’s impact on efficiency and reducing unnecessary workload for governors and staff.
• Whether the governing body has the skills needed for effective governance.
• The governing body’s readiness for growth, if appropriate.
• The individual performance of governors, for example their contribution to governing body meeting discussions.

The National Governance Association (NGA) says that governing boards who conduct self-evaluation and regularly review their impact are more likely to:

• Deliver core functions in an effective, ethical and accountable way.
• Assure compliance.
• Continuously improve.
• Achieve improved outcomes for students.

Many governing bodies carry out informal self-evaluation such as setting aside a few minutes at the end of each meeting to reflect on decisions taken and the impact on students in the school or trust.

The NGA recommends that governing bodies review their performance on an annual basis. This is likely to consist of the board asking themselves reflective questions that cover:

• Board culture and practice.
• Board structure.
• Core functions.
• Compliance.
• Evaluation and impact.

SecEd Series: A guide to effective governance

• • Duties, processes and structures: Published November 19, 2024.
  • Making a success of link governors: Published November 25, 2024.
  • Evaluation and assessment: This article

Evaluating governance: External reviews

The government says that governing bodies may also wish to consider commissioning an external review of governance to get an independent assessment of its governance effectiveness and a rundown of its areas for development.

External reviews of governance (ERG), the guidance says, can provide a useful independent assessment of a governing body’s effectiveness and areas for development. An ERG is not an audit or inspection, but they can:

• Be a more powerful diagnostic tool than self-evaluation.
• Bring an independent perspective.
• Identify areas for capacity and capability-building for governors and governance support.
• Identify areas for further learning and development.
• Provide support to a governing body at key growth or transition points.
• Be arranged by the governing body at any time.
• Be recommended by the DfE or another authority.

The government recommends that ERGs are conducted routinely as part of a wider programme of self-assessment and improvement. It is particularly important that they are conducted before a governing body undertakes any significant change, such as converting to an academy.

Self-evaluation or external review?

In deciding whether to conduct a self-evaluation of governance or arrange an external review, a governing body should be mindful of what the governance guide has to say on the subject, namely that: “An objective independent external review of the effectiveness of the board can be a more powerful diagnostic tool than a self-evaluation. This is particularly important before the board undertakes any significant change – such as conversion to academy status or before a multi-academy trust grows significantly.”

Further, the charity governance code recommends that large charities such as academy trusts undertake external evaluations every three years. Board evaluations have become increasingly common in other sectors (particularly in the corporate world) and have been recognised as fundamental to good governance arrangements.

While there is no prescribed timescale for these external reviews, it is good practice for governing bodies to undertake reviews at regular intervals. But bear in mind that even when an external review is conducted regularly, an annual self-review is still good practice. Governing bodies should conduct annual self-evaluations and three-yearly external reviews.

Evaluating school performance: resource management

The DfE offers a checklist for evaluating school resource management. There are 10 checks to make as governors:

1. Staff pay as percentage of total expenditure.
2. Average teacher cost.
3. Student-to-teacher ratio.
4. Class sizes.
5. Teacher contact ratio.
6. Proportion of budget spent on the leadership team.
7. Three to five-year budget projections.
8. Spend per-student for non-pay expenditure lines compared to similar schools.
9. School improvement plan priorities and the relative cost of options.
10. List of contracts with costs and renewal dates.

Evaluating school performance: School data

The DfE provides a useful guide (DfE, 2022) for governors on understanding their school’s data so that they can hold school leaders to account. The DfE says that it is important that everyone on the board has the skills to understand the performance data for their school or academy trust so they can hold school leaders to account.

The DfE recommends using seven key themes to help governors analyse their school’s performance data and form an evidence base. They are:

1. Student numbers/attendance and exclusions.
2. Attainment and progress.
3. Curriculum planning – staff and class sizes.
4. Financial management and governance.
5. Quality assurance.
6. Safeguarding and wellbeing.
7. The school community – staff, students, parents, and the governing board.

Governors should consider what the data is telling them. The following questions are handy:

• What is going well?
• What learning can you apply from one area to another?
• What are the concerns?
• Are any areas at risk of becoming a concern?
• What changes need to be made?
• What can be done about it?
• How will this affect productivity for your school or academy trust?
• What is the impact on educational and financial outcomes?

Benchmarking against comparators and analysing trends will bring together financial health, student educational outcomes, and the quality of leadership, and thus support effective school resource management.

The data required for an evidence base should be the most recent data available and in the format in which it is routinely available and easily accessible and understood. Governors should use their evidence to:

• Identify underlying reasons where you might expect performance to be better.
• Challenge any mitigating actions, analysing the risks and benefits.
• Clearly document the changes and progress made since your last board discussion.

Governors should also:

• Avoid over-interpreting analysis of small subgroups of students.
• Understand the precision and limitations of data, and what can be inferred from it – the collection of data and its analysis must be proportionate.
• Consider what is the minimum information the board requires to hold leaders to account (as time spent collecting and analysing data can be burdensome, placing additional workloads on individuals).

Exception reports are useful ways of managing the flow of information to governors. An exception report should:

• Be used to identify and prioritise instances that require immediate attention when reviewing the performance of a school.
• Form the basis for structured discussions and help governors question and challenge school leaders.
• Support with future risk and planning.

Evaluating school performance: Using the evidence

The guidance for governors from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF, 2019) provides additional advice for helping governors evaluate school performance.

The EEF says that evidence is crucial in unlocking the potential of all schools to do better. For example:

1. Money is tight: Evidence can help you spend smarter and capture the maximum benefit of your current investment.
2. Capacity is stretched: Evidence can help you learn from the experiences of other schools which have already tested different approaches.
3. Workload is a concern: Evidence can help you focus your school’s efforts on things which are likely to have the greatest impact.

The EEF guide starts with advice for evaluating student outcomes and suggests governors ask three questions:

1. Do you know the attainment gaps in your school?
2. Does your school have an action plan to improve overall attainment while also closing its gaps?
3. How do you as governors and trustees monitor the school’s progress in closing your attainment gaps?

Next, the EEF turns to how governors can assess whether their school is achieving value for money. By way of exemplification, they offer four pieces of advice focused on the use of the Pupil Premium:

1. Work with school leaders to put together an evidence-informed Pupil Premium strategy, allowing school leaders to write the strategy but taking the lead in signing off the strategy.
2. Support – and challenge – your senior leadership team throughout the academic year to ensure your school’s Pupil Premium funding is being spent in evidence-informed ways.
3. Identify how your school’s governors and trustees are taking strategic responsibility for monitoring the impact of Pupil Premium spending on student progress, including agreeing measures of success at the outset.
4. Ensure closing the attainment gap is a key part of your overall School Improvement Plan.

Next, the EEF tackles how a school supports effective teaching and learning. Here, they offer four suggestions:

1. Read the EEF’s Big Picture themes to get an overview of the issue, the evidence, and the resources available.
2. See the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit. Select a handful of topics to read – ones which interest you, or where you find the impact rating surprising – to get a flavour of it.
3. Ask your school’s senior leaders if/how they are using the EEF toolkit to inform the Pupil Premium Strategy and the School Improvement Plan.
4. Check your fellow governors and trustees know about the EEF toolkit – this is especially important if they have teaching and learning responsibilities.

High-quality teaching, says the EEF, is a powerful driver of educational equity. Governing bodies play a key role. First, in ensuring recruitment and retention of the best possible staff and, second, in valuing the importance of professional development.

This isn’t just about making sure there is sufficient provision in your school’s CPD budget line. More importantly, it is about ensuring the governing board and senior leadership team are clear about their priorities for school improvement; that these are explicitly linked to teachers’ personal development plans with the purpose of significantly enhancing student learning; and that they are then given the leadership support they need to implement and embed change in the school.

The type and quality of CPD that schools use really matters when it comes to improving teacher quality and student attainment. Usually, says the EEF, effective CPD is:

• Supported by the school’s leadership.
• Sustained over at least two terms.
• Includes expert input, peer collaboration, and opportunities for teachers to consider and experiment with their learning and get feedback on their work.

• Matt Bromley is an education journalist, author, and advisor with 25 years’ experience in teaching and leadership including as a secondary school headteacher. He remains a practising teacher. Matt is the author of numerous books on education and co-host of the award-winning SecEd Podcast. Find him on X @mj_bromley. Read his previous articles for SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/matt-bromley 

Further information & resources

• DfE: Guidance: Understanding your data: a guide for school governors and academy trustees, 2022: www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-your-data-a-guide-for-school-governors-and-academy-trustees/understanding-your-data-a-guide-for-school-governors-and-academy-trustees 
• DfE: Maintained schools governance guide, 2024: www.gov.uk/guidance/governance-in-maintained-schools 
• DfE: Academy trust governance guide, 2024: www.gov.uk/guidance/-governance-in-academy-trusts 
• EEF: Guide for governing boards, 2019: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/support-for-schools/bitesize-support/guide-for-governing-boards