Teaching and Learning

School Quality

What makes a quality school? The National Education Association's KEYS program - a research-based checklist of indicators of an excellent school - is an tool to put a school on the road to quality, and can ultimately lead to improved student achievement. These indicators are the basis of NEA's Keys to Excellence in Your Schools (KEYS) Initiative.

Members are finding that their work with KEYS:

Is a direct way to engage parents and others in the community in the ongoing work to improve schools.

• Promotes "internally driven" changes that will last because it is based at the school site where those most invested in its success are engaged in charting its course.

Is generating extremely positive results that align directly with the NEA's chief goals of strengthening America's public schools by improving teaching and learning.

Research-Based, Pilot Tested
The KEYS Quality Schools Initiative is based on a five-year NEA research project whose results were used to develop a diagnostic survey to measure school quality. That tool was piloted in different parts of the country with various student populations. The resulting assessment survey measure a schools' conditions of teaching and learning, pointing to strengths and areas that need improvement to put the school on the quality track.

What does it Measure?
KEYS assesses the organizational conditions in five major areas that research indicates pave the way to the continuous improvement of schools and have a direct impact on student outcomes. The five major areas of the indicators and measure the conditions of teaching and learning are:

1. Shared understanding and commitment to high goals.
2. Open communication and collaborative problem solving.
3. Continuous assessment for teaching and learning.
4. Personal/professional learning.
5. Resources to support organizational change.

For additional information contact your UniServ Director or the Director of Professional Development, 1-800-369-6332.

Link to NEA KEYS website