The Academic Standards of LEADS School System are a way
of describing the level of achievement that a student has to reach to gain an academic award. It should be at a similar level across the LEADS Education network.
Academic Quality is a way of describing how well the learning opportunities available to students help them to achieve their award.
It is about making sure that appropriate and effective teaching, support, assessment and learning opportunities are provided for them. Quality can be assured and it can also be enhanced.
Quality Assurance: The QAA defines quality assurance as the ‘'systematic monitoring and evaluation of learning and teaching, and the processes that supports them, to make sure that the standards
of academic awards meet LEADS School System expectations, and that the quality of the student learning experience is being safeguarded and improved.
Quality Enhancement is taking deliberate steps to bring about improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experience of students. It means that we are committed to reviewing our activities
systematically to see whether we can identify features of current practice that can be improved. It also means that we systematically look ahead,
considering ‘where we want to be’ and taking the necessary steps to ensure we get there. It does not mean that our quality is not presently at a high level, or that what we provide for students must be subject to constant change.
Learning Opportunities:
The QAA defines learning opportunities as “the provision made for students' learning including planned programs of study, teaching, assessment, academic and personal support resources (such as libraries and information systems,
laboratories etc.) and staff development.”
Professional Development
Professional development is a formal on-job training to upgrade the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers is widely viewed as an important means of improving teaching and learning.
Opportunities for active learning, content knowledge, and the overall coherence of staff development are the top three characteristics of professional development. Opportunities for active learning and content specific strategies for
staff development refer to a focus on teacher application of learned material. Overall coherence refers to the staff development program perceived as an integrated whole and development activities building upon each other in a consecutive fashion.
