Accountability and Educational Improvement – serie

This book explores how peer reviews are used in school improvement, accountability and education system reform. Importantly, these issues are studied through numerous international cases and new empirical evidence. This volume also identifies and describes barriers and facilitators to the development, use, sustainability and expansion of school peer review. School peer reviews are a form of internal evaluation driven by schools themselves rather than externally imposed, such as with school inspections. Schools collaborate with other schools in networks, collect data through self-evaluation and in school review visits. They provide feedback, challenge and support to each other. Despite the increased use of school peer review in system reform and school improvement, very little research has been conducted on this model and there is a dearth of literature that looks at the phenomenon internationally. This book fills this gap and will be an invaluable source for academics in school leadership and educational evaluation and accountability, as well as those working at the level of executive leadership in school networks, NGOs and in government policy-making.

This book explores how peer reviews are used in school improvement, accountability and education system reform. Importantly, these issues are studied through numerous international cases and new empirical evidence. This volume also identifies and describes barriers and facilitators to the development, use, sustainability and expansion of school peer review. School peer reviews are a form of internal evaluation driven by schools themselves rather than externally imposed, such as with school inspections. Schools collaborate with other schools in networks, collect data through self-evaluation and in school review visits. They provide feedback, challenge and support to each other. Despite the increased use of school peer review in system reform and school improvement, very little research has been conducted on this model and there is a dearth of literature that looks at the phenomenon internationally. This book fills this gap and will be an invaluable source for academics in school leadership and educational evaluation and accountability, as well as those working at the level of executive leadership in school networks, NGOs and in government policy-making.

This open access book discusses challenges in school improvement research and different methodological approaches that have the potential to foster school improvement research. Research on school improvement and accountability analysis places high demands on a study’s design and method. The potential of combining the depth of case studies with the breath of quantitative measures and analyses in a mixed-methods design seems very promising. Consequently, the focus of the book lies on innovative methodological approaches.The book chapters address design, measurement, and analysis developments as well as theoretical and conceptual developments. The relevance of the research presented in the chapters for educational accountability is discussed in the book’s discussion chapter.More specifically, authors present one specific innovative methodological approach and clarify that approach with a concrete example in the context of school improvement, based on empirical data whenpossible. In this way, this book helps researchers designing complex useful studies.

This open access book discusses challenges in school improvement research and different methodological approaches that have the potential to foster school improvement research. Research on school improvement and accountability analysis places high demands on a study’s design and method. The potential of combining the depth of case studies with the breath of quantitative measures and analyses in a mixed-methods design seems very promising. Consequently, the focus of the book lies on innovative methodological approaches.The book chapters address design, measurement, and analysis developments as well as theoretical and conceptual developments. The relevance of the research presented in the chapters for educational accountability is discussed in the book’s discussion chapter.More specifically, authors present one specific innovative methodological approach and clarify that approach with a concrete example in the context of school improvement, based on empirical data whenpossible. In this way, this book helps researchers designing complex useful studies.

This book provides an overview anddiscussion of the evidence base of effective school inspections; reflecting on issuesof validity and reliability of school inspections in relation to schooleffectiveness research, unintended consequences and emergent roles andresponsibilities of Inspectorates of Education. Chapters include findings from systematicliterature reviews and primary research while also presenting a range ofpractical examples from inspections systems from all over the world. The bookprovides relevant background materials for Inspectorates of Education who aimto improve the effectiveness of their systems and working methods, as well as clearexamples for researchers aiming to analyse and understand the effectiveness ofthese systems. The final chapter reflects on changes in the currenteducation landscape and discusses newer models of school inspections that fitwithin a more decentralized inspection system.

This book examines the role of the inspector within the context of a number of OECD member states and explores the ways in which the inspectors themselves interpret, implement and influence inspection practices and policy.Inspection policy can have various unintended consequences, some of which produce radical discrepancies between the policy intent and its implementation. A number of these discrepancies derive from the way in which the policy is articulated while others derive from the ways in which inspectors interpret and operationalise this policy. This implementation is coloured and conditioned by several factors, including the evidence on which inspectors base their judgements; what counts as evidence in different policy contexts; what counts as valid knowledge in inspection processes; the qualities needed by inspectors working in differing policy contexts and the identities that they adopt in order to successfully carry out their work.The book provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of the politics and practices which colour and shape the legitimacy and operational execution of inspection policy. The work is unique in its focus on the inspectors’ role within the implementation of the inspection process— an element often overlooked in the literature. It also includes two chapters co-written by inspectors, offering unique insights into their life worlds and identities.

This book provides an overview anddiscussion of the evidence base of effective school inspections; reflecting on issuesof validity and reliability of school inspections in relation to schooleffectiveness research, unintended consequences and emergent roles andresponsibilities of Inspectorates of Education. Chapters include findings from systematicliterature reviews and primary research while also presenting a range ofpractical examples from inspections systems from all over the world. The bookprovides relevant background materials for Inspectorates of Education who aimto improve the effectiveness of their systems and working methods, as well as clearexamples for researchers aiming to analyse and understand the effectiveness ofthese systems. The final chapter reflects on changes in the currenteducation landscape and discusses newer models of school inspections that fitwithin a more decentralized inspection system.