School Improvement and Cultural Change: An Interim Account of the 'Improving the Quality of Education for All' (IQEA) Project.

This paper presents interim findings of the Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) Project, a school-improvement and development project implemented by approximately 30 schools in East Anglia, North London, and Yorkshire in England. The overall project goal was to strengthen the school's ability to provide quality education for all students by building upon existing good practices. Following an overview of the project's principles, strategies, and school-improvement framework, a methodology for mapping change is presented. A conclusion is that school improvement works best when a clear and practical focus for development is linked to simultaneous work on the internal conditions within the schools. Conditions that underpin the work of successful schools include attention to enquiry and reflection; a commitment to collaborative planning and staff development; involvement of staff, students, and community in school policies; effective coordination strategies; and effective, shared leadership. The school-change techniques cluster around two key elements in the change process--school culture and the role of the individual teacher. The paper uses the metaphor of a "journey" to describe the progress of the project over time. The project is distinctive in that support, intervention, and research occur simultaneously. Three figures are included. (LMI)