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!