Representing the impact of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers : Final report for Independent Schools Queensland

Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) commissioned a team from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to research the impact of ISQ's Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers (HALT) certification process. Stage 1 of the research collaboration in 2018-19 demonstrated that HALTs make a significant impact within classrooms, with peers in their schools and beyond their schools. HALT applicants found the supported ISQ process to be professionally refreshing and enriching learning. HALT applicants also identified that knowing how best to represent their evidence of their impact in a portfolio was one of the greatest challenges. Stage 2 of this research addressed that challenge - how to support HALTs to represent quality evidence of impact.Demonstrating impact in a portfolio is challenging as it is an unfamiliar writing genre for teachers. It is an implied rather than explicit expectation within the certification process. Additionally what is valued as impactful can be quite different in various independent school contexts. Evidence of impact also needs to be of sufficient quality to be trustworthy. The research team gathered qualitative and quantitative data in 7 stages with HALT candidates, assessors and ISQ leaders to identify what advice about quality evidence of impact might look like given the variety of contexts that independent schools serve. Key findings include:1. there are clear characteristics of quality evidence of impact that can enable teachers from diverse contexts to present authentic evidence with confidence. 2. applicants can be supported to learn how they might represent high quality evidence, to maximise their time and energy when representing their evidence of practice.3. assessors find the portfolio review process professionally rewarding, yet time-consuming. Next steps for ISQ, other certifying bodies, and for further research include developing professional learning for HALT applicants about how to effectively represent evidence, and supporting knowledge sharing opportunities between experienced assessors and new assessors. Areas for innovation include computational analytics to augment portfolio feedback and assessment, and identifying systemic supports for HALTs to continue their impactful leadership after certification