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The Simple Art of Governing Complex Systems
OECD/CERI Seminar June 2013 Ben Levin, OISE/University of Toronto Twitter: @BenLevinOISE Homespace.utoronto.ca/~levinben/
Outline • Why governance in education is complex • Basic principles for managing • Illustrated with examples from Ontario and
elsewhere
My Background • Half in government – senior management
in education • Half in academia – working on education
policy and the impact of research • Also experience in school districts and with
NGOs • Drawing on international experience
Starting Points • Governance is less important to better outcomes
than many other aspects of education policy • But if badly done can get in the way • Many different structures can work; there is no
ideal system form • Number of levels • Power at each level
Surprises
“At any given moment, there is a high probability of low probability events. In other words, surprise dominates.”
Yehezkel Dror, Policy Making Under
Adversity, 1986
Why Education Governance is Complex • Multi-level system – local, regional, national • Diversity – demographics, values • Increasing number of stakeholders who are increasingly
vocal • Internal and external
• Education is a field with strong a priori beliefs • Ideology is important
• Turbulence and surprises • Growing cynicism about government and public
institutions • Expectations rise faster than performance
Why Governance is Complex – 2 • Elections at multiple levels create short-term’ism • Growing knowledge about good policy/practice not
always aligned with public or professional beliefs • Rise of social media makes politics more volatile
Ontario • 13 M people, huge area • 2 M students, 5000 schools, 72 districts, 4 systems • Highly diverse – more than 25% foreign born • Complex governance systems
• Provincial ministry, local school boards, many other interest groups
• Highly conflicted up to 2004
Ontario 2011 • All student outcomes significantly improved • Teacher morale improved • Public satisfaction improved • Little conflict, consistency in outlook across the sector
Stance on Governance • Key principles:
• Open • Inclusive • Positive • Evidence-informed • Value stability and improvement
• Pragmatic but with strong outcomes focus
Four Areas of Focus • Structures • Vehicles for input and dialogue • Use of evidence • Capacity-building
Structures • Not that important • Don’t spend much time changing them
• i.e. governance changes not central focus • Many different approaches can work
• Ontario examples
• Legislation on role of school boards - late
Input and Dialogue • Need formal and informal vehicles for this
Input and Dialogue • Need formal and informal vehicles for this • Multilateral as well as bilateral • Public as well as professionals • Put ideas on the table early, get input • Listen to opposition carefully
• Ontario examples
• Partnership Table • Consultation processes • Student Success Commission
Evidence
Evidence • Make lots of data available
• Do not get caught up on single indicators • Improve research capacity and use • Disciplined innovation with evaluation
• Avoid destabilizing changes without strong evidence • Use third parties
• Ontario examples
• Education research strategy • Statistical Neighbours
External evaluations
Capacity Building • Helping people get better at this work
• Skills are not automatically there; have to be created
• Training/certification • Can be provided by third parties
• Politicians and political staff • Civil servants • School and district leaders • Teachers • Parents • Media
Implementation • These ideas are do-able
• Many countries using at least some of them, though few use all
• Dialogues require more political leadership and support • Evidence and capacity building less so
• Can put elements of this in place everywhere
Challenges • Mindsets – the idea that structures are key • Mindsets- desire to exert authority • Habits – conflict as a primary way to do things • Belief in driving change through policy and documents or
through gross incentives
Excessively Optimistic?
Thank you!