In search of good practice in school selfevaluation:

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Good practice in school self-evaluation
In search of good practice in school
self-evaluation An exploratory study in
secondary schools Geert Devos Jef C. Verhoeven
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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• 1. Problem
• How do educational experts perceive
  self-evaluation?
• How does self-evaluation take place with
  external self-evaluation
• instruments in secondary schools?
• 2. Method
• experts from the Inspectorate, the Services for
  Educational
• Development, and the pedagogical support services.

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• 8 schools were asked about their self-evaluation
  activities.
• - Selection
• information from Inspectorate and pedagogical
  support services
• schools had to be open to the idea of
  self-evaluation
• - Action of self-evaluation schools were asked
  to administer two questionnaires on the school
  policy and the school organisation
• - Interviewing
• heads about experiences of the schools with
  self-evaluation and their view of self-evaluation
• Questionnaires
• Feedback
• 6 months later head and one teacher

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• 3. Opinion of experts
• -Three levels of self-evaluation
• systematic inventorying of the activities
• evaluation because of specific problems
• policy driven evaluation without a specific
  problem
• - Internal instruments
• linked with the school identity
• higher commitment of teachers

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• - Self-evaluation in Flanders (1997-1998)
• small number of schools involved (second and
  third level)
• head is main actor initiative and pursuit
• rather specific and often also quite amateurish
• impetus examination by the Inspectorate, the
  development of a specific curriculum, or TQM
  programmes

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• - Main objective
• more an attitude than measurement of a particular
  moment
• prompt a school to start reflecting
• a self-evaluation instrument is only one small
  aspect
• not a ready-made package
• scientifically justified?
• it has to be practical and easy to apply
• total instrument
• yearly applicable

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4. Self-evaluation in 8 secondary schools
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Self-evaluation in 8 secondary schools
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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• The difference between theory and practice
• Self-evaluation defined
• no clearly defined view in GV1, GV2, G4, GV5 and
  V6
• but GV2, G4 and GV5 had school development plan
  
• clearly defined view in V3, V7 and M8, but not
  integrated
• in V3 and V7

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Good practice in school self-evaluation
Use of existing self-evaluation
instruments Frequent users - schools V3 and V6
external and internal instruments -school V7
external instruments ? not sufficient expertise
and not enough time ? stress the content of
self-evaluation -school M8 only internal
instruments ? external are based on values other
than the values of school ? stresses the process
of self-evaluation
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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• Administration of the instruments
• questionnaire simply handed out to the staff
  with no explanation
• from the head (Schools GV1, GV2 and GV5)
• staff was at staff meeting to fill in
  questionnaire (G4, V6 and V7)
• enquiry explained by the head to all of the
  staff (V3 and M8)
• ? strong impact on response
• Consequences for self-evaluation
• no consultation (GV1, V6)
• no communication to all parties (G4, GV5)
• consultation communication, no further action
  (GV2, V3, V7,M8)
• action after the self-analysis (M8)

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• 5. Conclusions
• 4 levels of self-evaluation
• 1) descriptive schools compile data or inventory
  school activities
• 2) problem solving occasionally - when there are
  problems
• 3) global school policy self-evaluation without
  problems
• 4) integrated systematic self-evaluation
• External instruments versus self-constructed
  instruments
• internal instruments promote self-evaluation
  culture
• external instruments have critical function

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• Pedagogical praxis and of the global school
  policy
• involvement of teachers start from the praxis of
  teachers
• global self-evaluation of school should be main
  objective
• self-evaluation has primarily to start from the
  praxis of the teachers
• systemic application during several years
  stimulates involvement of
• teachers
• importance of head for deliberation,
  communication and participation

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• Self-evaluation in vocational schools different
  from
• other schools?
• No clear difference between vocational schools
  and other
• good practice of school self-evaluation is
  related
• to the school culture

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Good practice in school self-evaluation

• results of the self-evaluation project are quite
  sobering
• problem of a single inquiry
• the development of self-evaluation processes is
  central
• initiatives in which the teachers and the other
  staff feel
• involved
• developing a systematic approach to
  self-evaluation that
• integrate the various enquiries in a global
  policy plan