Opinion: Accountability

What Chicago taught us about making schools more inclusive

A pilot programme building on the US city’s 5Essentials framework has provided our schools with powerful new ways to assess performance

A pilot programme building on the US city’s 5Essentials framework has provided our schools with powerful new ways to assess performance

3 Feb 2025, 5:00

When Johanna Klinsky joined Lift Schools last year, bringing years of experience as a school leader in Chicago, we seized the opportunity to pilot a programme that has shown remarkable impact there but was a first in England. Now, we believe the 5Essentials has the potential to transform our trust and could do the same for school improvement across the system.

The Chicago 5Essentials is a research-based framework with 30 years of data demonstrating that a school’s culture, climate and ethos can predict outcomes like pupil attendance, teacher retention and college enrolment.

The five ‘essentials’ in question (effective leaders, collaborative teachers, ambitious teaching, supportive environment, and involved families) are measured by pupil and staff surveys to examine how they influence a school’s culture and ethos.

Evidence shows that schools that are strong in three of these five are ten times more likely to show improvement in pupil learning than weaker schools.

Here as in Chicago, school improvement efforts have traditionally focused heavily on measurable outcomes like exam results while overlooking important social aspects of school culture. We want to understand just how important these relational factors are to building and running truly excellent schools in England.

To reflect the English context, we introduced a sixth essential, ‘well-organised schools’, focusing on workload and time management as fundamental drivers of school culture. Altogether, they provide a powerful tool that provides leaders with a clear understanding of their schools and sharper insights into their challenges.

The clear lines of questioning in the programme’s surveys give leaders new perspectives on relationships, teaching practices and workload management. Most importantly, they offer leaders tangible areas of strength and challenge, sparking essential conversations which they can act on.

It’s early days, but initial results are promising

For example, there are clear strategies school leaders can adopt in answer to a question like ‘Do requirements around lesson planning get in the way of teaching effectively?’ as opposed to ‘How hard do you find it to keep on top of your workload?’

The pilot, involving 17 schools, produced some eye-opening findings. One principal commented that it was “the only measure I have seen that captures the true ‘essence’ of a school”.

One school uncovered specific safety concerns in toilets and playgrounds from boys with SEND. Initially defensive about the findings, the leadership team engaged pupils in focus groups, revealing that the concerns were less about bullying and more about environmental factors.

These insights led to immediate improvements, including better hygiene, increased adult presence and curriculum discussions around resilience and calculated risk-taking.

The pilot also underscored the importance of using perception data to explore root causes rather than just manage symptoms. This approach shifts the focus from managing attendance, behaviour, and safeguarding data to understanding and addressing their underlying causes.

For example, data on how effectively teachers are collaborating showed how productive conversations about curriculum and pedagogy directly support ambitious teaching and improved pupil outcomes.

That seems obvious, of course, but how do you effectively assess whether true collaboration is happening without asking teachers?

The lessons are clear. Leaders must approach the data with humility, recognising its value in sparking conversations and driving change. As one principal noted, “You find issues you dislike, take five minutes to object, then get to work”.

Involving students and staff in solutions builds agency and trust. The 5Essentials remind us that culture and climate are not abstract—they are the lived and evolving experiences of everyone in a school community.

This academic year, we will expand the programme to all 57 schools in our trust. Our aim is not just to improve individual schools but to show how addressing these ‘upstream’ factors can create environments where children achieve and thrive.

It’s early days, but initial results are promising. Schools are using the data to set priorities, celebrate successes and address challenges with fresh insight. Most importantly, it is enabling deeper, more meaningful conversations about the relationships and experiences that shape our school environments.

As we refine and grow this approach, I hope it will not only transform our trust but also encourage a broader shift in how schools improve.

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