PBI is based on the tradition of English school visits.  It was developed by Dr. Thomas Wilson (educator and president, Catalpa, Inc.) and has been tested and refined for over 14 years.  The Chicago Schools Alliance’s Briefing Paper on Practice-Based Inquiry provides a history of the PBI’s origins, how it works, an overview of the visit week, and offers a comparison to other visit-based school evaluation strategies.

Rhode Island Experience

Over ten years ago, Rhode Island’s Department of Education (RIDE) introduced PBI-styled school visits to its comprehensive school evaluation process.  Public schools in Rhode Island host a school visit about every five years.  Roughly sixty visits occur statewide each year: 300 Visits have now been completed and 1,900 teachers and administrators have participated on a Visit Team.  The state’s commitment to the value of the Practice-Based Inquiry model is evident in the full institutionalization of the process, including the formal place of the Visit Team’s report in the school’s ongoing evaluation, the establishment of a professional staff dedicated to organizing and chairing the Visits, and the public availability of the Visit Reports.

In Rhode Island, the School Visit is only one element of the entire SALT process, which also includes a self-study and a three-year improvement plan.  Additionally, as follow up to the Visit, the school and state sign a compact that lays out how the school will incorporate the Visit Team’s recommendations into its improvement plan, and how the state will support the school in doing so.

SALT has been cited nationally as a model of rigorous school evaluation focused on school improvement. It appears to be the best tested and longest-running expression of the school visitation process since traditional school accreditation visits.

Chicago Experience

One of the first orders of business for the founding members of the Chicago Schools Alliance was to determine the most effective ways to support its members.  Qualitative, whole-school assessment was identified as a crucial element in helping schools continuously reflect on their practice, codify successful innovations, and identify areas of challenge limiting their students’ learning.

After considerable analysis, the Alliance chose to bring PBI, the critical theory and methodology underlying the Rhode Island Department of Education’s school visitation process, to Chicago.  Because of its long, public track-record in Rhode Island, the Alliance was confident that the PBI process would provide the desired benefits to visited schools, and that its use within the Alliance could inform the wider Chicago discussion about the best approaches to school evaluation and improvement.

Upcoming Chicago Visits

Schools that will receive School Visits in 2007-08 are in the process of being identified.