Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

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Heliotrope
Posts: 1167
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 1:48 am

Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by Heliotrope »

While the ISR reviews are only one part of the puzzle when researching a school, they can be a very helpful part, and have undoubtedly saved some teachers from spending two miserable years at an awful school. I especially like the comments below the scoring rubric, since I feel the rubric is lacking some questions, and a score sometimes needs context or an explanation.


As I’m sure the ISR admin team will welcome constructive criticism to further improve their website, I thought I’d ask what questions YOU would add to (or take out of) the scoring rubric, or in what other way you think the reviews could be improved.
At the bottom of this post I’ll include the current scoring rubric and other questions you will get when you fill out a review.



I would add the following questions to the current rubric:

1. Average number of years an IT stays at the school
2. Savings potential (rather than or in addition to the salary question) with an indication if that is for a family/single/teacher couple
3. Is a yearly flight home provided? (no / yes, yearly / yes, but after initial contract, and: lump sum / actual amount)
4. Is school housing or housing allowance provided?
5. Average commute (or minimum/maximum commute)
6. Tick boxe(s): School good for [ ] beginners / [ ] experienced / [ ] veteran / [ ] parents of kids what will attend the school
7. Curriculum(s)
8. Perceived difficulty of getting a job at the school
9. Number of students
10. Percentage of local students
11. Air quality in city
12. How much of a hardship location is the city?
13. What tier you would say this school is (1,2,3 or 4)
14. Do you teach in Primary or Secondary?
15. For-profit / Not-for-profit

My other suggestions would be:

A. Separate average scores for the city/country & the school
B. In the comment section underneath the rubric, have a separate field for comments about the city, and perhaps even one for travel opportunities in the country & region
C. Add a section about what they know about other schools in the same city/country, and perhaps a ranking (‘other ISs in the same city that are better / worse / about the same’), as teachers often know a fair bit about the other ISs in the same city.
D. Add a Google Maps link for the school
E. Add a link to the Numbeo.com Cost of Living and/or Quality of Life-page for the city, and/or have those Numbeo scores displayed
F. Add ‘after taxes’ to the ‘Yearly salary range for teachers in US dollars’-question


This is the current rubric, although I’ve separated the questions that apply to either the 'city' or 'school' (as I would prefer separate scores):

School:
- Academic integrity of school
- Effectiveness of administration
- Academic and disciplinary support provided
- Director's involvement in academics
- Fair and equitable treatment by board and director
- School has adequate educational materials on hand
- Yearly salary range for teachers in US dollars
- Satisfaction with housing
- Satisfaction with school health insurance policy
- Assistance with visas, shipping and air travel
- Family friendly / child friendly school
- Extra curricular load is reasonable

City:
- Attitude of local community towards foreigners
- Cost of living in relation to salary (10 = most favorable)
- Community offers a variety of activities
- Availability and quality of local health care
- Family friendly / child friendly community
- Security / personal safety

Other fields when filling in a review form currently are:
- Director's name
- School name & country (Please spell complete name of school)
- Dates I am / I was at this school
- School website address


What changes do you think would further improve the ISR reviews?
fine dude
Posts: 651
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:12 pm
Location: SE Asia

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by fine dude »

You have a nice list there. I would add:
- Length of contract and conditions for renewal
- Type of health insurance (individual / family/ cashless/ deductible etc.)
- Annual Bonus
- Pension contributions
- Professional development (Differentiated / fixed allowance)
- Chances of internal promotion / growth
Illiane_Blues

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by Illiane_Blues »

Nice lists! The bit about other schools in the same city would be very helpful yes - teachers usually know which international schools in the city are top and which ones should be avoided.
I would add
- List of all benefits
- Any tips for applying at the reviewed school and which method they prefer: agency or direct?
- Average workload and what time most teachers leave campus
- Would you want your own child to attend this school?
- Something about the use of technology at the school
Thames Pirate
Posts: 1150
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by Thames Pirate »

Heliotrope wrote:

> 1. Average number of years an IT stays at the school

This might be tough as one might not be able, at larger schools, to calculate the average. Also, you always have lifers and transients. So maybe formulate it differently? Not sure how to do that, but I do think knowing that the lifers that have gone native stay and everyone else stays only 2 years or even breaks contract can be helpful.

> 2. Savings potential (rather than or in addition to the salary question)
> with an indication if that is for a family/single/teacher couple

Also tough because family, lifestyle, flights, etc. are so variable. I can save at a school which pays less than another in the same city while others can't save at the higher paying school. Super subjective, so the salary range is helpful, especially if you include the post-tax or gross amounts as suggested below. Maybe include a cost of housing range. I once had a director tell me people could get an apartment for 20% less than what the average cost; he was trying to be helpful, but he was so out of touch. My own research on the city made it clear that while his number was POSSIBLE, it wasn't very PROBABLE. We signed anyway and were not disappointed, but our housing estimates were more in line than the director's.

> 5. Average commute (or minimum/maximum commute)

Also tough; if housing is not provided, singles might want to live in the city centre and families further out--sometimes far out--regardless of the location of the school. The school in the city centre that is also mostly full of young teachers would score well. But location in general or ease of access might be useful information; schools far off a train line or that require a car are less ideal for many teachers.

> 8. Perceived difficulty of getting a job at the school

Also tough because if you got the job, the perception is that it's reasonably doable. And then you wonder how the bozo next to you got the job, not realising that the job was posted late or that this was a particularly tough year for finding good [subject] teachers and this was the best option. Or you see someone with minimal experience and you think "maybe it's easier to get a job than I thought," not realising the person lied on their resume or is actually brilliant.

> 13. What tier you would say this school is (1,2,3 or 4)

Not sure I like this one. Too subjective.

> 14. Do you teach in Primary or Secondary?

As anonymity is important, I would make this optional

> A. Separate average scores for the city/country & the school

YES! A great school in Bangladesh might score similarly to a mediocre or poor school in Europe or other countries where healthcare is excellent.

> C. Add a section about what they know about other schools in the same
> city/country, and perhaps a ranking (‘other ISs in the same city that are
> better / worse / about the same’), as teachers often know a fair bit about
> the other ISs in the same city.

I wonder if this is useful; if I am considering School A, I don't care how it compares to School B.

> D. Add a Google Maps link for the school

People can do their own research here. And on Numbeo.

> F. Add ‘after taxes’ to the ‘Yearly salary range for teachers in US
> dollars’-question

Yes!


[quote="fine dude" post_id=61701 time=1627219464 user_id=105776]
You have a nice list there. I would add:
- Length of contract and conditions for renewal
- Type of health insurance (individual / family/ cashless/ deductible etc.)
- Annual Bonus
- Pension contributions
- Professional development (Differentiated / fixed allowance)
- Chances of internal promotion / growth
[/quote]

I like these.

[quote=Illiane_Blues post_id=61703 time=1627220551 user_id=235743]
Nice lists! The bit about other schools in the same city would be very helpful yes - teachers usually know which international schools in the city are top and which ones should be avoided.
I would add
- List of all benefits
- Any tips for applying at the reviewed school and which method they prefer: agency or direct?
- Average workload and what time most teachers leave campus
- Would you want your own child to attend this school?
- Something about the use of technology at the school
[/quote]

I like these.

It seems a lot of the suggestions are somewhat comment-based.

Here are my thoughts:
I would like to see the "score" be split into two parts with separate scores. So one part is "School / Working Conditions"--this might be things like director's involvement, extracurricular workload, etc. and the other part is "Community / living conditions" which include things like local attitude toward foreigners, quality of healthcare, difficulty of getting visas

Some questions I would add or modify for the school:
--"Support for families and spouses" instead of "family friendly"--that feels different from family/child friendly, which should also be teased out. I might send my kid there gladly, but my spouse who isn't working might be miserable and lonely.
--"Quality and consistency of systems" to address how fairly discipline is addressed, how well the school handles simple and complex things like exams, fire drills, and placements, curriculum management, etc.
--Maybe something about teaching load and overall work load expectations
--Hard because it's subjective, but maybe find a way to ask about sense of community / collegiality?
--Trend or direction of school--is the school improving but still scoring a bit low, is the school resting on its high scores? So maybe "School is trending towards positive change"?

Some questions I would add or modify for the community
--Separate out family vs. child friendly. A single or young couple or empty nester might not care about playgrounds or kids sports leagues. Parents don't care about the club scene. Food scene might also have a different target audience. So finding a way to separate this out might be helpful.
--physical environment (air quality, green spaces)
--Pet friendly


These scores should be TOTALLY separate.

I would also like to see the two score averages posted. So if the average for the school is 4.7, is that because the city score is high or because the school is good? If you have a separate rating, you might find the school average is 2.2 but the city score is 7.6 or something (note that I did not do math on these under the current system, I'm just spitballing as an example). If I see a school with a score of 8 regardless of the local situation, I am impressed, while if I see a school with an average of 3 I am concerned. But under the current system the scores often tend toward the middle.

The comments are indeed the most important part, and while I understand the need to do it quickly sometimes, I prefer the details. For the few reviews I have written on admin / schools I have tried to use the questions and my scores as a guide on what to write.

I actually would also want to change the admin review section.
EyEyEy
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:32 pm

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by EyEyEy »

Everything that has been mentioned are things I would like to know about a school, so yes to everything.
Some of these things will not fit in the current scoring rubric format though, and some things should be optional but I think that's already the case now I think.
I would like the option, once a review has been posted, to discuss it below the review. For example, some reviews I have read seem to be written by SLT, so I think it would be useful if others can comment on a review pointing this out, so nobody is fooled by a misleading review. Others contain disprovable falsehoods that can easily be rectified by a comment.

With regards to 'Average number of years an IT stays at the school', yes that would be useful, but as Thames Pirate mentions, an average only says so much. Maybe if you rephrase the question so that 'lifers' that stay because they're married to a local and have little choice other than staying are left out of that equation, but that would be hard. Maybe ask what percentage of teachers leave after one contract or less?
secondplace
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:40 pm

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by secondplace »

Just a point about 'lifers' in a school - I don't agree with the notion that people stay because they 'have no choice' because of marriage etc.

Most of us are in a privileged position of having choice and whilst I agree that marriage/relationships/children may be incentives to stay they're not a form of handcuffs.

The fact that people choose to stay says something about the location and/or school.
Thames Pirate
Posts: 1150
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by Thames Pirate »

It can, but not always. Lifers, like all people, come in varying types. There's the "married a local, went native" types. There's the "I can't make more money elsewhere" types. There's the "I have a sweet gig and don't care that I am making the school hell for others" types; they are actively contributing to the negative side of the school, yet their life status gives the impression the place is great. There's the "I'm a crap teacher who landed a job I like and I can't be sacked" types. There's the "my wife likes it here and the kids like it here even though I am miserable because the school sucks" types. There's the "admin gives me anything I want" types.

So yes, they are all a choice, but their staying may or may not be related to the quality of the school. Their presence offers no insight, and it can skew things like averages. More than one contract is also problematic because often, particularly in Europe, you get an "unlimited" contract after your initial one. Or maybe you're at one of those rare one-year-contract schools. That can affect that number. So there is no good way to measure it, but it could be in the list of suggested comments rather than in a numeric score. So someone might say "Of those who are not lifers, most stay 2-4 years." I've seen reviews that say things like "people don't stay" or "turnover is high" or other similar comments. So I would say that if it is truly a significant talking point, it's already often mentioned.
Thames Pirate
Posts: 1150
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by Thames Pirate »

EyEyEy wrote:

> I would like the option, once a review has been posted, to discuss it below
> the review. For example, some reviews I have read seem to be written by
> SLT, so I think it would be useful if others can comment on a review
> pointing this out, so nobody is fooled by a misleading review. Others
> contain disprovable falsehoods that can easily be rectified by a comment.

I like this idea!
cms989
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:07 pm

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by cms989 »

Given the difficulty in enforcing international school contracts, I'd like to see schools rated on adherence to contract terms and conditions. Sadly in some countries, some diversion from what's written is to be expected and the only question is how much and how often.
Heliotrope
Posts: 1167
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 1:48 am

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by Heliotrope »

Lots of great suggestions, I like almost all of them!
My favorites are the option to discuss reviews, a score or field for professional development, workload, and adherence to contracts.

Yes, some won't fit in a scoring rubric, or require a scale or figure to fill in rather than a grade (just like 'Salary' is now), but there could be separate fields to fill in for some of those, instead of one big comments-field. And of course those could be optional to fill in.


@Thames Pirate
My idea about a field for the section about what the reviewer knows about other schools in the same city/country could be quite helpful I think, since it will allow you to look at reviews for other schools in that city and see what they say about the school you're interested in. There was another school in the city I worked in that has three reviews, and the two positive ones of those are probably written by admin, but not obviously so, especially not to people who don't know about the school. I'm fairly sure every teacher at every other international school in that city heard the horror stories about that school, and they could have warned people about it in the reviews for their own school. Also, I would have loved to recommend some other lesser-known schools in the same city in some of my reviews.

I would also still include tier, just to get a sense of what the reviewer thinks about the school's tier, especially if there are multiple reviews and a pattern emerges.

For savings potential there would ideally be a few drop-downs, where I can indicate that I'm (for example) [single], [travel twice a year], [live a modest lifestyle], followed by a savings potential number.


I know it's unlikely that ISR will change the review form anytime soon (or ever), but perhaps they will some day. Hopefully they'll include some of the suggestions made by myself and others. Then again, if they include all of them, filling out a review will likely take way too much time than someone is willing to spend on a review.
Thames Pirate
Posts: 1150
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Improving the ISR reviews - what would you add?

Post by Thames Pirate »

Oooh, I like the drop down idea for savings. Because at the very least it will give you some parameters. Of course, with anonymity being an issue, I would be hesitant to use that part myself, but if I could submit with those categories blank it would be okay--some people would use them.

The salary information in general could be a bit clearer because ultimately it's a person's own responsibility to look up cost of living. I find that a salary range or estimate of some kind and information on rough tax percentage is enough for me to reasonably see what I would save in a place. In fact, it always amazes me how few people do this type of research--literally go on rent websites and get ideas of what a local apartment that meets my needs costs, look at maps of the city and public transport, price out monthly tickets, food price comparisons, etc. Sure, it's easier in some places than others, but at the end of the day you can probably get a pretty good overview of what your monthly expenses might be. But that's a topic for another thread.
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