School Inspection System Research Articles

The development and status of self-evaluation as a component of school inspection and quality assurance: A comparison across four countries

Objective and rationaleThe increasing prominence of school self-evaluation (SSE) as a pivotal element in global quality assurance practices is attributed to its cost-effectiveness, relevance to school contexts, empowerment of schools in managing and leading the school self-evaluation processes and holding them accountable for achievement standards. This paper aims to explore various approaches and SSE practices through the evolution and current status of school self-evaluation within the realms of school inspection and quality assurance in Dubai, Ireland, New Zealand and Pakistan. The paper emphasises a comparative perspective to showcase SSE models from these countries as pioneering initiatives for quality assurance in educational improvement, especially for nations where SSE practices are still evolving. MethodsThis study employs literature review, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with school leaders (n = 32) to offer insights into current school self-evaluation practices in these four countries through a comparative analysis. These methods were chosen in line with the specific aims and research questions of the paper which are to provide an overview from the research literature of the development and current status of SSE as an element of school evaluation in each country studied. To analyse, compare and contrast policy in the area in each case and to obtain, through interviews, rich deep data and findings on the attitude and opinions of key personnel in each country on SSE as a policy and practice. ResultsSchool self-evaluation (of varying types) is being built into each school evaluation system and becoming an integral part of inspection and quality assurance, and it is argued here, broadly moving along a similar spectrum in each case. However, for now, SSE practices are different in all four countries, usually due to the stage of development of the school inspection system and, above all, the overall structure of their respective educational landscapes— that is to say, whether it is a centralised, controlled and hierarchical education system or a decentralised and autonomous system. ConclusionThe study suggests that it is possible to integrate school self-evaluation into a wide range of educational systems and philosophies, eventually leading to educational improvement in any country following the case study countries discussed as models.

How Parents Understand Evaluation Process – Mental Models as the Main Obstacle for Engaging Parents in School Evaluation

One of the most important elements ofthe recent reform of the school inspection system in Polandis to focus on the parents’ voice through the collection of data during evaluation process in schools. Three years of experience with this system has shown that there still is a lot of confusion with the actual understanding of the evaluation process among all the groups actively involved: external evaluators (school inspectors), head-teachers, teachers, and representatives of school partners, parents and students. The authors claim that this is the most important obstacle in the promotion of evaluation as a crucial element in the process of school development. The paper presents an attempt to describe different understandings of school evaluation among parents actively partaking in this process which was undertaken randomly in Polish schools of different types. The paper shows how these understandings can influence participation of parents in an external evaluation process, and following developmental activities that take place in schools. The authors claim that an understanding of different ways of thinking about evaluation process through the analysis of the metaphors used by parents can be a good basis for drawing up recommendations for those working on parents’ participation in transforming school reality.

Empowering principals to conduct classroom observations in a centralized education system: does it make a difference for teacher self-efficacy and instructional practices?

PurposeIn 2014, Turkish policymakers implemented a policy change in the school inspection system that encouraged school principals to conduct classroom observations and provide feedback to teachers as a means to improve teaching. However, the question of whether or to what extent such feedback has an impact on teaching has not previously been researched. The study presented in this article scrutinizes the relationship between classroom observation feedback from principals and teachers’ classroom practices, as well as the mediating role of teachers’ self-efficacy in terms of instructional practices, student engagement and classroom management.Design/methodology/approachConfirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are employed to examine the relationship among principals’ feedback, teacher self-efficacy and teachers’ instructional practices using data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), compiled by the OECD in 2018.FindingsThese analyses indicate a small but significant direct correlation between principals’ feedback and teachers’ instructional practices, as well as an indirect relationship mediated by teacher self-efficacy in instructional practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings support the policy shift in Turkey by concluding that classroom observation feedback from principals makes contributions to the improvement of instructional practices.Originality/valueThis study establishes a connection between teachers’ classroom practices and leadership behaviors, which has not been extensively researched in developing nations.

Assessing the Ethos of Anglican Primary Schools in Wales: The Student Voice Project

AbstractSince the Anglican Church in England and Wales began to build schools long before the state developed machinery to do so, around a quarter of all primary schools remain connected with the Anglican Church. The church school inspection system maintains that Anglican schools have a distinctive ethos. The Student Voice Project argues that school ethos is generated by the implicit collective values, beliefs and behaviours of the students, and was designed to give explicit voice to the students in response to six specific areas of school life identified by the Anglican school inspection criteria as relevant to school ethos. Drawing on data provide by 8,111 year-five and year-six students attending Church in Wales primary schools, the present study reports on the six ethos measures and on significant differences reported by female and male students, and by year-five and year-six students.

Stakeholder perceptions on the role of school inspection standards in demonstrating education quality in China

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the factors and issues within the policy context of education and the school inspection system which might affect education quality in China and examine stakeholder perceptions of inspection content and context in one city region in China. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods design was used. In all, 365 teachers, headteachers and administrative staff from ten schools across the urban and rural area have responded the questionnaires. A total of 13 interviewees including teachers and headteachers from two urban schools and a rural school, city and national inspectors and an educational officer were conducted. The interview instrument was informed by both international and local literature and some of the quantitative findings. Findings This paper argues that student non-academic outcomes were perceived by participants to be more important than academic achievements in demonstrating education quality. The prevailing exam-oriented evaluation system still sets barriers for student all-round development. Educational equity in student performance has not drawn sufficient attention from the inspectorates of Shandong province. Practical implications School inspection standards remain to be improved to better support student all-round development and equity in educational outcomes within and between schools, and better accommodate policy contexts and local needs. Originality/value This study examines the school effectiveness factors which have been rarely tested in Chinese context and collects new empirical evidence to explore participants’ perceptions on the quality of school inspection criteria and education quality in Shandong province.

From restoration to transitions: delineating the reforms of education inspection in China

This article examines the reforms of basic education inspection in China since 1977, which is accomplished by drawing from a historical institutionalism approach. The empirical analysis is based on policy documents and laws and is supplemented with interview materials. Throughout this work, we have identified three distinct periods: the restoration stage from 1977 until the 1990s, the formalization stage from the 1990s until 2007, and the transition stage from 2007 onwards. The changes of education inspections indicate there is a perceptible path dependency, especially in the change from the first stage to the second one, where the expansion of education inspections was to consolidate the selected path by enhancing its jurisdictive power and promoting its disposition in the educational system. Reforming these inspections to some extent proves the historical stance of “positive feedback” as coined by Pierson (2004) for the growing stage of an organization, but in fact, the expansion of the system appears also to be significantly more problematic or complex than a linear development that is based on positive feedback. From the transition stage, interaction with global players is increasing, with implications for the development of the school inspection system. The finding shows that by 2015, the collaboration with global players influenced the development of Jiance system—a large-scale assessment of students’ academic achievement at grade four and eight—which the inspection sector managed to incorporate into itself. The article argues that this decision to extend the spectrum of education inspection to assessment practices reflects the aspiration of the inspection authorities to reinforce the capacities to survive and thrive in the changing local and global environments of educational quality assurance and evaluation.

Standard language ideology and Dutch school inspection reports (1801–1854)

AbstractThe decades around 1800 saw the rise of standard language ideology in the Northern Netherlands, and its almost immediate implementation in concrete policy measures. For the first time, the national government initiated official spelling and grammar regulations (1804, 1805). Policy measures were also taken to reorganize and nationalize the field of education. The language and education policies were part of a wider range of measures aimed at the formation of a Dutch nation-state. One of the control mechanisms introduced in this period was a national school inspection system. In this paper, we discuss school inspection reports of the first half of the nineteenth century, focusing on the way language planning and multilingualism interacted. In particular, we want to find out whether school inspectors and teachers actively promoted the officially codified variety, and to what extent this implied discouragement of the use of other varieties of Dutch.

The unintended consequences of school inspection: the prevalence of inspection side-effects in Austria, the Czech Republic, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland

It has been widely documented that accountability systems, including school inspections, bring with them unintended side effects. These unintended effects are often negative and have the potential to undo the intended positive effects. However the empirical evidence is limited. Through a European comparative study we have had the rare opportunity to collect empirical evidence and study the effects (both intended and unintended) of school inspections (a key system of accountability) in a systematic way, across seven countries. We present the findings of the unintended effects in this paper. Survey self-report responses from school principals in each country, with differing school inspection systems, are analysed to measure the prevalence of these unintended effects and to investigate the part played by pressure to do well in inspections. A key finding is that increasing pressure in school inspection systems is associated with the undesired effect of the narrowing and refocusing of the curriculum and instructional strategies. We also show that a proportion of school principals admit to misrepresenting the school in data sent to the inspectorate and show evidence for formalisation/proceduralisation (excessive focus on records) and ossification (fear of experimentation in teaching), although these factors are less related to changes in pressure.

Comparing effects and side effects of different school inspection systems across Europe

In this article, different inspection models are compared in terms of their impact on school improvement and the mechanisms each of these models generates to have such an impact. Our theoretical framework was drawn from the programme theories of six countries’ school inspection systems (i.e. the Netherlands, England, Sweden, Ireland, the province of Styria in Austria and the Czech Republic). We describe how inspection models differ in the scheduling and frequency of visits (using a differentiated or cyclical approach), the evaluation of process and/or output standards, and the consequences of visits, and how these models lead to school improvement through the setting of expectations, the use of performance feedback and actions of the school's stakeholders. These assumptions were tested by means of a survey of principals in primary and secondary schools in these countries (n = 2239). The data analysis followed a three-step approach: (1) confirmatory factor analyses, (2) path modelling and (3) fitting of multiple-indicator multiple-cause models. The results indicate that Inspectorates of Education that use a differentiated model (in addition to regular visits), in which they evaluate both educational practices and outcomes of schools and publicly report inspection findings of individual schools, are the most effective. These changes seem to be mediated by improvements in the schools’ self-evaluations and the schools' stakeholders’ awareness of the findings in the public inspection reports. However, differentiated inspections also lead to unintended consequences as principals report on narrowing the curriculum and on discouraging teachers from experimenting with new teaching methods.

TÜRKİYE VE AVRUPA BİRLİĞİ'NE ÜYE BAZI ÜLKELERİN EĞİTİM YAPILARI VE YÖNETİMLERi AÇISINDAN KARŞILAŞTIRILMASI

The aim of this study which is based on comparative education is to examine Turkey and ten EU countries (Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, England, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Greece) in terms of educational levels - preschool education, obligatory education, secondary education, higher education and adult education - and in addition to that, in terms of educational ministries, school administrations, education finance, inspection and teacher education programs. Although these countries have some common similarities as for their educational systems and administrations, they have some differences. For example, as not all these countries propose compulsory pre-school education, they how some variances in their extension of compulsory education. Turkey, when compared to the other ten countries, has the shortest compulsory education period. The countries involved in this study have some different applications in high school types and university acceptance rules. In all these countries, there are pre-graduate, undergraduate and graduate programs at university level. The number of authorities in education and responsible institutions and the title of school administrators differ from country to country. When examined in terms of educational finance, all these countries are observed to finance education much more than Turkey. As for school inspection, it is surprising that there is no school inspection system in Finland as opposed to the other countries. While the instruction time in teacher education schools ranges between 4 to 5 years as it is in Turkey, it is obligatory to have a graduate degree to be able to become a teacher, as in Finland. The educational systems of Germany, Sweden and Finland - which has exhibited a great success at international exams in recent years - are the leading countries that have some original perspectives. Based on the data gathered from this study, it has been suggested that compulsory education period and university acceptance rules should be rediscussed, the allocation of finance to education should be increased and inspection system should be improved. Keywords: Comparative education, educational system, educational management, European Union Countries.

Ofsted’s role in promoting school improvement: the mechanisms of the school inspection system in England

Most countries across Europe now have their own Inspectorate as part of a school improvement and accountability system. However, there has been little research on the impact of school inspections or on the aspects of school inspections that maximise the positive effects and minimise the unintended consequences. As a precursor to further research, this paper presents a program theory of the school inspection system in England (Ofsted), highlighting the underlying mechanisms that explain how Ofsted intends to promote school improvement. The program theory is derived in a systematic way using the policy scientific approach, which draws evidence from the multiple methods of interviews and source documents. The key mechanisms that underpin Ofsted’s promotion of school improvement were found to be the setting of standards, giving feedback, the use of sanctions and rewards, the collection of information on schools and public accountability. Details showing the logic behind these mechanisms are presented. The program theory is validated by senior personnel from Ofsted. The paper argues for more research in evaluating the impact of school inspection and the specific mechanisms that underpin it.

School Inspection System

School Inspection System

Class Struggle and Education: Neoliberalism, (Neo)-conservatism, and the Capitalist Assault on Public Education

In this article I examine the nexus, the mutually reinforcing connection between neoliberal and neoconservative ideology and social and political forces, and variation between countries such as Britain, the USA and Turkey. This analysis is then applied in particular to neoliberal/ neoconservative education `reform’ in England, focusing on marketisation, high-stakes testing, privatization and pre-privatisation, and the increased surveillance of teachers as a result of new public managerialism in education, as reinforced and enforced by the school inspection system. These effects are then related to the lived work experiences of specific teachers, using their own word. I conclude the article by examining and calling for resistance, for teachers and critical education workers to educate, agitate and organize in various arenas, and to consider the importance of political programme- in particular to consider the utility of the transitional programme as advanced by Trotsky.

Education Inspectorate Systems in New Zealand and the Netherlands

The United States is an outlier with respect to its heavy emphasis on student test scores for the purposes of school accountability. Many other countries instead use school inspection systems that pay more attention to a school's internal processes and practices. This policy note focuses on the school inspection systems of New Zealand and the Netherlands, with the goal of drawing lessons for the United States. It addresses three main policy issues: For what should individual schools be held accountable? Should inspectors be more like coaches or more like judges? And how independent should they be of policy-making bodies?

Tensions in the quality assurance processes in post‐apartheid South African schools

This paper tracks the development of the Integrated Quality Management System in South African schools after the dismantling of apartheid in 1994. We argue that the quality processes that are now in place emerged in response to the autocratic school inspection systems that preceded them but did not sufficiently address the impact of educators’ experiences of the preceding systems. In the new democratic environment, it was important that new systems recognized the need for educator and school development. But given the breakdown of the culture of teaching and learning in South African schools, it is also not surprising that there was a concern that the new systems should ensure accountability. We analyse interviews with teachers to argue that the new system presents a tension between accountability and development processes which results in surface compliance rather than genuine engagement.

School inspection in small states and territories: an overview and case study of Macau

This paper reviews school inspection systems in small states and territories (SSTs), indicating tensions, challenges and sensitivities that relate to their small size. A qualitative case study is presented of the new school inspection system in Macau, a post‐colonial, small territory facing issues experienced in other SSTs. Macau's inspection system is contextualized within its decentralized, developing schooling system and local sensitivities, potentiated in the Chinese culture where relationships, harmony and ‘face’ feature highly. Implications are drawn for policy and practice, including the need for bespoke inspection systems in SSTs, the development of resident expertise, attention to economic, personal and interpersonal costs of inspection, the need for transparency, the time cycle of inspections, the need for sanctions following inspection, and the need for experience of other schooling and inspection systems in order to make informed judgements about quality. Though large‐scale inspection systems often separate inspection from development, support and advice, in SSTs that separation may be blurred. It is argued that the content and methodology of comparative study of school inspection in SSTs has to take account of their unique economic, cultural and professional features.

A randomised control trial of the effectiveness of personalised letters sent subsequent to school dental inspections in increasing registration in unregistered children.

BackgroundRecent studies have cast doubt on the effectiveness and efficiency of school based dental screening programmes in improving dental attendance or improving dental health. In 2002 the National Dental Inspection Programme was introduced in Scotland which categorises children by their dental health and informs parents of the findings via a personalised letter home and encourages dental registration. In addition, epidemiological data for local and national planning purposes is collected. This replaced an earlier school screening system in Lothian where a generic letter urging registration was sent to children who were identified as not being registered with a dentist. The objective of this study is to compare dental registrations rates among unregistered children in these two school inspection systems with a system where letters were sent home but no dental inspection was carried out.MethodsThe study was designed as a single blinded, cluster randomised, controlled trial involving 12,765 12–13-year-old children attending all 65 state Secondary schools in Lothian and Fife during the academic year 2003/4.After stratifying for school size and range of social deprivation, schools were randomly allocated to one of four groups:1. 'Traditional' inspection, letter to unregistered children only,2. Letter sent home to unregistered children only, no inspection,3. National Dental Inspection Programme, letter to all children,4. Control group in which the children were neither inspected nor sent a letter.Dental Registration status was compared at baseline and 3 months post inspection.ResultsThe registration levels in both the 'Traditional' screening and the NDIP inspection groups rose 3 months post inspection (14% and 15.8% respectively) but were not significantly different from one another or the control group which rose by 15.8% (p > 0.05). The group who were sent a letter home but were not inspected also has a rise in registration levels of 18.1% which was not significantly different from either of the groups who were inspected or the control group (p > 0.05). The only significant predictors of registration were previous registration (p < 0.05) and within those who previously registered, the length of time since last registration (P < 0.001).ConclusionNeither of the two dental inspection methods nor a letter home to unregistered children resulted in a significant rise in registration rates in 12–13-year-olds compared to a control group of children who received no intervention.

School self-evaluations and school inspections in Europe: An exploratory study

This article presents the results of an exploratory study into the effects of School Self-Evaluation (SSE) used by eight Education Inspectorates in seven European countries. This study reveals that in the countries where SSE is strongly incorporated into the school inspection system, there is a rather substantial degree of steering by the Inspectorate with respect to the form and content of the SSE; it also tends to be both oriented towards improvement and accountability (England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Northern Ireland). On the other hand, in countries where SSE holds a moderate or weak position in the school inspection structure, the degree of steering varies from open (Hesse, Denmark) to pre-structured (Belgium, Lower Saxony) and is more improvement-oriented.

The Establishment of the School Inspection System and its Meaning in England

The Establishment of the School Inspection System and its Meaning in England