Development History

Since 1998, HKIER of CUHK has been receiving grants from the Education Bureau and the Quality Education Fund to embark on a series of comprehensive school improvement projects. Established in 2004, the Quality School Improvement Project (QSIP) absorbs years of valuable frontline experience from the precedents and becomes one of the largest school improvement projects in the territory.

In its early phase of development, the team mainly transferred and localised overseas experience to assist schools and teachers to respond to education reform initiatives. Actions for school improvements and renovations were mainly policy-led and expert-led. With the expansion of the team and the maturity of support modes, the team started to nurture teachers to become change-agents, and to turn actions for school improvement practitioner-led. For instance, works include enhancing the leadership of the middle management and instructional leaders, organizing cross-school learning communities, opening up professional exchange platforms and the teacher secondment opportunities. These all contributed to teachers’ professional growth and jubilated the energy for educational improvements.

1998 - 2001 Induction Period

Sowing seeds of a large-scale university-school partnership experiment

Inspired by the renowned Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) led by Professor Henry Levin of Stanford University in the US, HKIER of CUHK was successfully endorsed with a grant over HKD$60 million from the Quality Education Fund to kick off the Accelerated Schools for Quality Education (ASQE), pioneering local university-school partnership schemes.

At this starting period, the team learned from overseas successes and carried out transfers and trials in local context. The three core values “Unity of Purpose”, “Empowerment Coupled with Responsibility” and “Building on Strengths” were established. The model incorporating the interlocking “Big- and Small-Wheel programmes” is also formulated to serve as a vital exemplar for later projects.
Professor Henry Levin from Stanford University
Experts from The "ASP" shared their experiences
ASP successfully received funding from The "QEF"

2001 - 2004 Flourishing Period

Localised mode of partnership and the team of
professionals blooming

With the HKD$34 million and HKD$5 million grants from the Quality Education Fund in 2001 and 2003 respectively, the Quality Schools Project (QSP) and the Quality Schools in Action (QSA) were launched. With the hands-on experience that we have collected locally, we formulated the localised school improvement strategy. The two projects distinguished themselves with the ¡§comprehensive, interactive and organic¡¨ approach, as well as concepts of “evidence-based” and “student-oriented”. We also placed emphasis on assisting schools to evaluate own situations and hence, provided them corresponding supports.
Strengthening collegiality
Individual “internalized” growth
Developing self-improvement mechanism.

2004 - 2011 Promising Period

Professional support for schools flourishing
in an all-rounded scale

Supported by the Education Development Fund in 2004, we continued to assist schools in form of comprehensive to adapt to new educational policies and initiatives, together we contoured strategic development plans for schools. The assistance on “points” (helping teachers internalize professional learning), “lines” (establishing collegiality which enhances teachers’ professional capacity) and “planes” (establishing self-improving mechanism and culture favorable to improvement) also kicked off the evolutions of ideas and cultures within schools and geared the teams up.

Meanwhile, we also endeavored on expanding inter-school learning communities to build platforms for teachers’ professional developments. Through every fruitful exchange, teachers are empowered with knowledge and teaching proficiencies. And since 2005, inter-school learning communities were set up one by one, each specializing on different school subjects and duties to fuel our school-based support.
First inter-school learning community
Learning community for various subjects
Hosting the first academic conference

2010-Now Period of Maturity

Sowing and sharing fruitful school improvement knowledge and experience
As an extension of the Quality School Improvement Project (QSIP), we have been assisting 80 Upper Primary and Junior Secondary Levels to implement self-directed learning (SDL) in the past three years. With SDL as the instrumental principle, we strive for learning efficiency and cater for learner diversity. We aspire to boost students’ learning motivation and effectiveness.
Cooperating with the Wharf (Holdings) Limited, we facilitate collaborations between universities, the business sector and schools. With professional support, subsidies and social capital, Project WeCan was launched in 2011 to offer six years support on school improvement for local secondary schools, especially on encouraging students with poor backgrounds to excel on academics, conducts and emotions.
Sponsored by D. H. Chen Foundation and Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation, Quality School in Hong Kong (QSHK) aims at promoting comprehensive school improvement through quadripartite partnership between foundations, university, school and NGOs. Targeting students who are with fewer opportunities yet great learning capacities and attitude, the project shall uplift them towards the goals of multi-talent and whole person development. Recently there are 5 secondary and 7 primary schools participating.