ANNEX C2

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ANNEX C2

• Presentation conference Cluj, Romania 16th March
  2007

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Effective School Self-Evaluation in fourteen
European Countries

• Esse-project

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Involvement

• 14 countries/regions
• An initiative of central and general
  inspectorates of education (2001)
• Financed by the EU Commision
• Focus on the external evaluation of the
  self-evaluation

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Countries/regions involved

• Austria
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• England
• Flanders
• France
• French-speaking community of Belgium

• Hesse
• Ireland
• the Netherlands
• Northern Ireland
• Portugal
• Saxony
• Scotland

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Conceptual framework

• External evaluation
• Self-evaluation
• The relationship between them

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External evaluation

• Need at centralised level to control and guide
  schools
• Ensure that quality education is provided and
  that schools use resources efficiently
• Ensure that agreed outcomes are met
• Offer feedback to schools on their strengths and
  weaknesses
• Provide comparative data on schools performance
• Perspective of accountability (and improvement)

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Self-evaluation

• To improve quality from within
• To monitor the progress of the school
• To report accurately to parents and wider public
• To plan and improve at classroom, school and
  community levels
• To raise the involvement of all relevant actors
• Perspective of improvement (and accountability)

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The relationship between internal and external
evaluation

• Three dimensions are involved. Each dimension
  describes a continuum
• The internal-external dimension from
  self-evaluation to evaluation from an outside
  source
• The pressure-support dimensios from high level
  of support to extremely strong pressure
• The top down-bottum up dimension from dictation
  from above to growth from below
• Challenge find the ideal point of balance within
  and between these three dimensions

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State of the art, in search for balancing

• Provision of legislation
• Self-evaluation outcomes and school planning
• Schools reports on self-evaluation
• Provision of statistical data
• Provision of quality standards
• Provision of guidance and training
• Provision of external inspection towards
  self-evaluation

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Provision of legislation

• A formal obligation to implement self-evaluation
  (3)
• No formal obligation, but schools are strongly
  encouraged to self-evaluation (8) by
• A school development plan
• A self-evaluation form
• Standards for professional performance
• Formally report
• No formal obligation (3)

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Self-evaluation outcomes and school planning

• The use of self-evaluation outcomes is an
  essential element for school development
  planning, action planning and improvement (11)
• Both self-evaluation and school development
  planning are compulsary (3)

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Schools reports on self-evaluation

• Very disparate situation
• Compulsory reports including self-evaluation
  outcomes (6)
• Reports as a starting point for meta-evaluation
  (3)
• Reports meant for the inspectorate (5)
• Internal reporting to the relevant steakholders
  (8)
• Informative portfolios about the school to the
  wider public

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Provision of statistical data (benchmarking)

• National performance benchmarks (11)
• National value-added indicators (4)
• Annual report of the inspectorate on the state of
  the education system (6)
• Other national data
• England
• National Summary results
• National Value Added Information
• National Benchmark Information
• Performance and Assessment Report

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Provision of quality standards

• Inspection frameworks (with quality indicators)
  for evaluating schools (8)
• Key areas of the school development plan as a
  framework of quality indicators (4)
• Alternative quality frameworks (10)
• EFQM
• ISO 9000
• Research based instruments
• DIS
• SAS

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Provision of guidance and training

• The use of guidance is free (9)
• The use of guidance is (relatively) compulsory,
  but only in a particular education sector (4)
• There is no guidance available (1)
• Support is provided in different ways, on
  different topics, and by a range of different
  organisations

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Provision of external inspection towards
self-evaluation

• The inspectorate provides support, advice and
  guidance in different ways (14)
• The inspectorate provides a framework with
  indicators (10) and other tools (7)
• The inspectorate has a commitment to
  complementarity of internal and external
  evaluation (7 explicit)
• The inspectorate stimulates self-evaluation (11)

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Aimes of the Esse-project

• Identification of the most important criteria for
  the evaluation of the self-evaluation in schools
• Development of a common methodology for
  inspectorates
• Identification of strenghts and weaknesses in
  self-evaluation
• Analysis of the relation between external
  evaluation and self-evalution
• To look for examples of effective self-evaluation
  in schools

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Quality criteria

• Two sets of criteria
• One for the evaluation of the quality of the
  external evaluation and support
• One for the evaluation of the effectiviness of
  the process of self-evaluation in schools

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First set of criteria concerning the external
evaluation

• External support is effective when it provides
  the school with
• Statistical data for comparison between schools
• The same standards and quality criteria for a
  whole region
• Support and training in the methodology of
  self-evaluation
• Independent and regular external evaluation of
  the self-evaluation
• A legal framework

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Second set of criteria concerning the
self-evaluation

• Self-evaluation is effective when the school has
• A common vision and strategy on quality
  management
• A human resources policy
• A quality management on learning and educational
  processes
• A system of evaluation of the output (results)
• A method to measure the impact of the
  self-evaluation

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ESSE-project

• Is also a methodology to set up an evaluation
  with specific instruments
• Can be used by the school and external support
• To become reliable results and effective
  self-evaluation in schools, training of methods
  and instruments and external support is necessary.

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Self-evaluation and external evaluation

• The relation between them is complex
• External evaluation is a control of quality
  (perspective of accountability)
• Self-evaluation supports the development of the
  school (perspective of improvement)

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Advantages and disadvantages

• Advantages
• Self-evaluation and external evaluation are using
  the same methodology and instruments
• It is possible to compare schools
• Disadvantages
• Less diversity in the self-evaluation
• More focus on the perspective of accountability,
  less focus on the perspective of improvement
  this is a challenge for support services

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Case studies

• Schools with a very effective self-evaluation
  have common characteristics
• Strong leadership
• Clear and communicated goals
• Involvement of everyone in the school
• A system of self-evaluation with defined
  procedures, activities and control
• Amount of external support
• Support of the local community
• Self-evaluation is a start for actions to improve

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The full report

• http//sici.org.uk/ESSE