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Journal of Educational Change

, Volume 16, Issue 3, pp 327–348 | Cite as

Redefining high performance in Northern Ireland: Deeper learning and twenty-first century skills meet high stakes accountability

  • James H. Nehring
  • Stacy Szczesiul
Article
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Abstract

This study examined four secondary schools in Northern Ireland serving a significant percentage of low income families: two schools from the ‘Maintained’ (de-facto Catholic) sector, one school from the ‘Controlled’ (de-facto Protestant) sector, and one school from the ‘Integrated’ (mixed faith) sector. The objective was to identify when and how the schools fostered higher level cognitive skills, interpersonal skills and intrapersonal skills, known collectively in the literature as twenty-first century learning. This paper focuses on the Integrated school as representative of many of the attributes encountered in all four schools and as a particular exemplar of high performance. The selected school served 28 % low income families, consistently outperformed demographic peers on required exams for the General Certificate of Secondary Education, and revealed through inspection reports and professional reputation a school wide commitment to instruction of twenty-first century skills. Analysis of classroom observations and focus group interviews with students, teachers, and administrators revealed that (1) Twenty-first century task demand is relatively higher when student learning is assessed with portfolios, performances, and local assessment practices, and twenty-first century task demand is relatively lower when learning is assessed with external exams. (2) Pastoral care, thoughtfully deployed, is a powerful lever for twenty-first century learning. (3) Cross-community contact, developed in meaningful ways, is a potentially powerful lever not only for peace-building in the province, but high level learning for the province’s youth. (4) The School fostered twenty-first century skills by advancing a vision for learning that extends well beyond the low level demand of state accountability metrics. Recommendations for policy and practice are offered.

Keywords

Accountability Excellence High stakes testing Secondary schools Twenty-first century skills Deeper learning 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the support of the United States Department of State Fulbright Program, the US-UK Fulbright Commission, the University of Massachusetts Lowell Seed Grant Program, the Dean’s Office of the University of Massachusetts Lowell Graduate School of Education,, the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queens University Belfast, St. Mary’s University College Belfast, and University of Haifa, Israel. The authors also wish to thank Margaret Murray, Ed.D., for her assistance in developing the positive deviance analysis which was crucial for the identification of schools in this study. This case study grew out of of an earlier international study entitled, Redefining High Performance: James Nehring, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Stacy Szczesiul, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Martin Hagan, St. Mary’s University College, Belfast; Frank Hennessy, St. Mary’s University College, Belfast; Rivka Eisikovits, University of Haifa; Lily Orland-Barak, University of Haifa; Merav Ben-Nun, University of Haifa.

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© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Graduate School of EducationUniversity of Massachusetts LowellLowellUSA

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