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Self-Evaluation and School Improvement: The Issemod Model to Develop the Quality of School Processes and Outcomes

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 56 - 69, 31.08.2015
https://doi.org/10.18768/ijaedu.95839

Abstract

Recent European and North American government policies, implementing new systems of evaluation and accountability, have highlighted the use of performance data to inform judgments about schools and stimulate school improvement. This has led to the implementation of school self-evaluation considered as an effective means to increase school quality and effectiveness. Decentralization of education systems, which is the official policy in many European countries, has evoked increased interest in accountability, responsiveness and self-improvement of schools. This trend has promoted, on the one hand a broadening of educational evaluation methodologies and, on the other, a conceptualization of theoretical approaches and research in the field of school effectiveness and improvement. A viable working definition, also used in this research, is that school self-evaluation concerns a type of educational evaluation that is initiated at school level and, at least partially, controlled by the school itself.

This study presents a self-evaluation model, called the  ISSEMod, thought to improve school accountability, applicable in different countries, combining central control managed by public authorities (external control) and the autonomy reserved for schools related to pedagogical, instructional and organizational practices (internal control). Using a sample of 58 Tuscan schools, an empirical and evidence-based model of school self-evaluation focused on a flexible system of areas and indicators to investigate and analyse school quality, is proposed here.

Keywords: self-evaluation, school effectiveness, quality assurance, accountability, learning organizations 

References

  • Akpe, C.S. and Afemikhe, O. A. (1991). School of Self-Evaluation: An Examination of the State of The Art in Nigeria. Studies in Educational Evaluation, vol. 17, 117-127.
  • Argyris, C. and Schön, D. A. (1978). Organisational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley.
  • Barzanò, G. (2002). School self-evaluation: Towards a European dimension. European Journal of Teacher Education, 25(1), 83-100.
  • Blok, H., Sleegers, P. and Karsten, S. (2008). Looking for a balance between internal and external evaluation of school quality: Evaluation of the SVI model. Journal of Education Policy, 23(4), 379-395.
  • Brookover, W.B. et al. (1979). School Social Systems and Student Achievement: Schools Can Make a Difference. New York: Praeger.
  • Carnall, C.A. (1990). Managing Change in Organisations. New York: Prentice Hall.
  • Carnoy, M., Elmore, R. and Siskin, L.S. (2003). The New Accountability. High Schools and High Stakes Testing. New York: Routledge.
  • Coe, R. (2002). Finding Out What Works: Evidence-based Education. Durham: Durham University Press.
  • Coleman, J.S., Campbell, E.Q., Hobson, C.J., McPartland, J., Mood, A.M., Weinfeld, F.D. and York, R.L. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
  • Creemers, B.P.M. (1994). The Effective Classroom. London: Cassell.
  • Creemers, B.P.M. and Kyriakides, L. (2008). The Dynamics of Educational Effectiveness. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Dalin, P. (1993). Changing the School Culture. London: Cassell.
  • Earley, P. et al. (Eds). (1996). Improvement Through Inspection? Complementary Approaches to School Development. London: David Fulton.
  • Ellett, C.D. and Teddlie, C. (2003). Teacher evaluation, teacher effectiveness and school effectiveness: Perspectives from the USA. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, vol. 17(1), 101-128.
  • European Commission (2004). Evaluation of Schools Providing Compulsory Education in Europe. Brussels: European Commission.
  • European Commission/ EACEA/Eurydice (2015). Assuring Quality in Education: Policies and Approaches to School Evaluation in Europe. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
  • European Parliament and The Council of the European Union (2001). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2001 on European cooperation in quality evaluation in school education.
  • European Parliament and The Council of the European Union (2006). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning.
  • Fitz-Gibbon, C.T. (1996). Monitoring Education Indicators, Quality and Effectiveness. London: Cassell.
  • Goldstein, H. et al. (1993). A multilevel analysis of school examination results. Oxford Review of Education, vol. 19(4), pp. 425-433.
  • Goldstein, H. and Thomas, S. (1996). Using examination results as indicators of school and college performance. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. 159, 149-163.
  • Goodlad, J. (1984). A Place Called School: Prospects for the Future. New York: McGraw Hill.
  • Harris, D.N. and Herrington, C.D. (2006). Accountability, standards, and the growing achievement gap: Lessons from the past half-century. American Journal of Education, 112, 209–238.
  • Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of Over 800meta-analyses Relating to Achievement. London: Routledge.
  • Hofman, R.H., Hofman, W.H.A., Gray, J. and Daly, P. (2003). Institutional Contexts of Education Systems in Europe. A Cross-country Comparison of Quality and Equity. Boston: Kluwer Academic Press.
  • Hofman R.H., Hofman W.H.A. and Guldemond H. (2003). Effective families, peers and schools. A configurational approach. Educational Research and Evaluation, vol. 9(3), 213-237.
  • Hofman, R.H., Dukstra, N.J. and Adriaan Hofman, W.H. (2005). School self-evaluation instruments: An assessment framework. International Journal of Leadership in Education, vol. 8(3), 253-272.
  • Jakobsen, L., MacBeath, J., Meuret, D. and Schratz, M. (2003). Self-Evaluation in European Schools: A Story of Change. London: Routledge.
  • Janssesns, F.J.G. and Van Amelsvoort, G. (2008). School self-evaluations and school inspections in Europe: An exploratory study. Studies in Educational Evaluation, vol. 34, 15-23.
  • Leithwood, K. and Aitken, R. (1995). Making Schools Smarter. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
  • Leithwood, K., Aitken, R. and Jantzi, D. (2001). Making Schools Smarter: A System for Monitoring School and District Progress (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
  • Leithwood, K., Edge, K. and Jantzi, D. (1999). Educational Accountability: The State of the Art. International Network for Innovative School Systems (INIS). Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Foundation Publishers.
  • Levine, D.U. and Lezotte, L.W. (1990). Unusually Effective Schools. Madison, WI: the National Center for Effective Schools Research and Development.
  • Lissitz, R. (2005). Value-added Models in Education: Theory and Applications. Minnesota: JAM Press.
  • MacBeath, J. (1999). Schools Must Speak for Themselves: The Case for School Self-Evaluation. London: Routledge-Falmer.
  • MacBeath, J. (2003). The Self-Evaluation File. Good Ideas and Practical Tools for Teachers, Pupils and School Leaders. Glasgow: Learning Files Scotland Ltd.
  • MacBeath, J., Meuretz, D., Schratz, M. and Jakobsen, L. B. (1999). Evaluating Quality in School Education. A European Pilot Project. Final Report. Bruxelles: European Commission.
  • McNamara, G. and O’Hara, J. (2008). Trusting Schools and Teachers: Developing Educational Professionalism through Self-Evaluation. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Mintzberg, H. (1979). The Structuring of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
  • Mortimore, P. (1994). The positive effects of schooling. In: Rutter M. (Ed.). Youth In The Year 2000: Psycho-social Issues and Interventions. Boston: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mortimore, P. et al. (1988). School Matters: The Junior Years. Somerset: Open Books.
  • Nevo, D. (Ed.). (2002). School-based Evaluation: An International Perspective. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
  • Newmann, F.M., King, M.B and Rigdon, M. (1997). Accountability and School Performance: Implications from restructuring schools. Harvard Educational Review, vol. 67, 41-74.
  • OECD (2005). Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • OECD (2014a). Education at a Glance 2014. OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • OECD (2014b). Equity, Excellence and Inclusiveness in Education. Policy Lessons from Around the World. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • Olssen, M., Codd, C. and O’ Neill, A. (2004). Education Policy, Globalisation, Citizenship and Democracy. London: Sage Publications.
  • Reezigt, G.J. and Creemers, B.P.M. (2005). A comprehensive framework for effective school improvement. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, vol. 16(4), 407-424.
  • Reid, K., Hopkins, D. and Holly, P. (1987). Towards the Effective School. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Reynolds, D. and Teddlie, C. (2000). The Process of School Effectiveness. In: Reynolds, D. & Teddlie, C., (Eds).The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research. London: Falmer Press.
  • Reynolds, D., Teddlie, C., Hopkins, D. and Stringfield, S. (2000). Linking school effectiveness and school improvement. In: Reynolds, D. & Teddlie, C., (Eds). The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research. London: Falmer Press.
  • Sammons, P. (1994). Findings from school effectiveness research: some implications for improving the quality of schools. In: Ribbins P. and Burridge E. (Eds). Improving Education: Promoting Quality in Schools. London: Cassell.
  • Scheerens, J. (2000), Improving School Effectiveness. Paris: UNESCO.
  • Scheerens, J. (2002). School self-evaluation: Origins, definition, approaches, methods and implementation. In: D. Nevo (Ed.), School-based evaluation: An international perspective. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
  • Scheerens, J., Glas, C.A.W., Thomas, S.M. and Thomas, S. (2003). Educational evaluation, assessment, and monitoring: a systemic approach, vol. 13, Taylor & Francis.
  • Scheerens, J. and Hendriks, M. (2004). Benchmarking the quality of education. European Educational Research Journal, vol. 3(1), 101-114.
  • Simons, H. (2002). School self-evaluation in a democracy. In: Nevo D. (Ed.). School-based Evaluation: An International Perspective. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
  • Stoll, L. and Fink, D. (1996). Changing Our Schools: Linking School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Buckingham: Open University Press.
  • Stoll, L. and Wikeley, F. (1998). Issues on linking school effectiveness and school improvement. In: Hoeben W.T. (Ed.). Effective School Improvement: State of the Art Contribution to a Discussion. Groningen: GION/RUG.
  • Stringfield, S., Reynolds, D. and Schaffer, E.C. (2001). The High Reliability Schools Project. Paper presented at the ICSEI, Toronto, 2001.
  • Stringfield, S. and Slavin, R. (2001). Compensatory Education at the Crossroads, Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Association.
  • Stufflebeam, D.L. (2000). The CIPP model for evaluation. In: Stufflebeam, D.L., Madaus, G. F. and Kellaghan, T. (Eds.). Evaluation Models (2nd ed.). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Thomas, G. and Pring, R. (Eds.). (2004). Evidence-based Practice in Education. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
  • Wastiau-Schlüter, P. (Ed.). (2004). A Close-up on the Evaluation of Schools. Brussels: Eurydice.
  • West, M. and Hopkins, D. (1997). Using Evaluation Data to Improve the Quality of Schooling. Frankfurt, Germany, ECER-Conference.
  • Wilcox, B. and Gray, J. (1996). Inspecting Schools: Holding Schools to Account and Helping Schools to Improve. Buckingham Philadelphia: Open University Press.
  • Woessmann, L., Luedemann, E., Schuetz, G. and West, M.R. (2009). School Accountability, Autonomy and Choice around the World. Cheltenham, UK/Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 56 - 69, 31.08.2015
https://doi.org/10.18768/ijaedu.95839

Abstract

References

  • Akpe, C.S. and Afemikhe, O. A. (1991). School of Self-Evaluation: An Examination of the State of The Art in Nigeria. Studies in Educational Evaluation, vol. 17, 117-127.
  • Argyris, C. and Schön, D. A. (1978). Organisational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley.
  • Barzanò, G. (2002). School self-evaluation: Towards a European dimension. European Journal of Teacher Education, 25(1), 83-100.
  • Blok, H., Sleegers, P. and Karsten, S. (2008). Looking for a balance between internal and external evaluation of school quality: Evaluation of the SVI model. Journal of Education Policy, 23(4), 379-395.
  • Brookover, W.B. et al. (1979). School Social Systems and Student Achievement: Schools Can Make a Difference. New York: Praeger.
  • Carnall, C.A. (1990). Managing Change in Organisations. New York: Prentice Hall.
  • Carnoy, M., Elmore, R. and Siskin, L.S. (2003). The New Accountability. High Schools and High Stakes Testing. New York: Routledge.
  • Coe, R. (2002). Finding Out What Works: Evidence-based Education. Durham: Durham University Press.
  • Coleman, J.S., Campbell, E.Q., Hobson, C.J., McPartland, J., Mood, A.M., Weinfeld, F.D. and York, R.L. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
  • Creemers, B.P.M. (1994). The Effective Classroom. London: Cassell.
  • Creemers, B.P.M. and Kyriakides, L. (2008). The Dynamics of Educational Effectiveness. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Dalin, P. (1993). Changing the School Culture. London: Cassell.
  • Earley, P. et al. (Eds). (1996). Improvement Through Inspection? Complementary Approaches to School Development. London: David Fulton.
  • Ellett, C.D. and Teddlie, C. (2003). Teacher evaluation, teacher effectiveness and school effectiveness: Perspectives from the USA. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, vol. 17(1), 101-128.
  • European Commission (2004). Evaluation of Schools Providing Compulsory Education in Europe. Brussels: European Commission.
  • European Commission/ EACEA/Eurydice (2015). Assuring Quality in Education: Policies and Approaches to School Evaluation in Europe. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
  • European Parliament and The Council of the European Union (2001). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2001 on European cooperation in quality evaluation in school education.
  • European Parliament and The Council of the European Union (2006). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning.
  • Fitz-Gibbon, C.T. (1996). Monitoring Education Indicators, Quality and Effectiveness. London: Cassell.
  • Goldstein, H. et al. (1993). A multilevel analysis of school examination results. Oxford Review of Education, vol. 19(4), pp. 425-433.
  • Goldstein, H. and Thomas, S. (1996). Using examination results as indicators of school and college performance. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. 159, 149-163.
  • Goodlad, J. (1984). A Place Called School: Prospects for the Future. New York: McGraw Hill.
  • Harris, D.N. and Herrington, C.D. (2006). Accountability, standards, and the growing achievement gap: Lessons from the past half-century. American Journal of Education, 112, 209–238.
  • Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of Over 800meta-analyses Relating to Achievement. London: Routledge.
  • Hofman, R.H., Hofman, W.H.A., Gray, J. and Daly, P. (2003). Institutional Contexts of Education Systems in Europe. A Cross-country Comparison of Quality and Equity. Boston: Kluwer Academic Press.
  • Hofman R.H., Hofman W.H.A. and Guldemond H. (2003). Effective families, peers and schools. A configurational approach. Educational Research and Evaluation, vol. 9(3), 213-237.
  • Hofman, R.H., Dukstra, N.J. and Adriaan Hofman, W.H. (2005). School self-evaluation instruments: An assessment framework. International Journal of Leadership in Education, vol. 8(3), 253-272.
  • Jakobsen, L., MacBeath, J., Meuret, D. and Schratz, M. (2003). Self-Evaluation in European Schools: A Story of Change. London: Routledge.
  • Janssesns, F.J.G. and Van Amelsvoort, G. (2008). School self-evaluations and school inspections in Europe: An exploratory study. Studies in Educational Evaluation, vol. 34, 15-23.
  • Leithwood, K. and Aitken, R. (1995). Making Schools Smarter. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
  • Leithwood, K., Aitken, R. and Jantzi, D. (2001). Making Schools Smarter: A System for Monitoring School and District Progress (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
  • Leithwood, K., Edge, K. and Jantzi, D. (1999). Educational Accountability: The State of the Art. International Network for Innovative School Systems (INIS). Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Foundation Publishers.
  • Levine, D.U. and Lezotte, L.W. (1990). Unusually Effective Schools. Madison, WI: the National Center for Effective Schools Research and Development.
  • Lissitz, R. (2005). Value-added Models in Education: Theory and Applications. Minnesota: JAM Press.
  • MacBeath, J. (1999). Schools Must Speak for Themselves: The Case for School Self-Evaluation. London: Routledge-Falmer.
  • MacBeath, J. (2003). The Self-Evaluation File. Good Ideas and Practical Tools for Teachers, Pupils and School Leaders. Glasgow: Learning Files Scotland Ltd.
  • MacBeath, J., Meuretz, D., Schratz, M. and Jakobsen, L. B. (1999). Evaluating Quality in School Education. A European Pilot Project. Final Report. Bruxelles: European Commission.
  • McNamara, G. and O’Hara, J. (2008). Trusting Schools and Teachers: Developing Educational Professionalism through Self-Evaluation. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Mintzberg, H. (1979). The Structuring of Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
  • Mortimore, P. (1994). The positive effects of schooling. In: Rutter M. (Ed.). Youth In The Year 2000: Psycho-social Issues and Interventions. Boston: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mortimore, P. et al. (1988). School Matters: The Junior Years. Somerset: Open Books.
  • Nevo, D. (Ed.). (2002). School-based Evaluation: An International Perspective. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
  • Newmann, F.M., King, M.B and Rigdon, M. (1997). Accountability and School Performance: Implications from restructuring schools. Harvard Educational Review, vol. 67, 41-74.
  • OECD (2005). Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • OECD (2014a). Education at a Glance 2014. OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • OECD (2014b). Equity, Excellence and Inclusiveness in Education. Policy Lessons from Around the World. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  • Olssen, M., Codd, C. and O’ Neill, A. (2004). Education Policy, Globalisation, Citizenship and Democracy. London: Sage Publications.
  • Reezigt, G.J. and Creemers, B.P.M. (2005). A comprehensive framework for effective school improvement. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, vol. 16(4), 407-424.
  • Reid, K., Hopkins, D. and Holly, P. (1987). Towards the Effective School. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Reynolds, D. and Teddlie, C. (2000). The Process of School Effectiveness. In: Reynolds, D. & Teddlie, C., (Eds).The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research. London: Falmer Press.
  • Reynolds, D., Teddlie, C., Hopkins, D. and Stringfield, S. (2000). Linking school effectiveness and school improvement. In: Reynolds, D. & Teddlie, C., (Eds). The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research. London: Falmer Press.
  • Sammons, P. (1994). Findings from school effectiveness research: some implications for improving the quality of schools. In: Ribbins P. and Burridge E. (Eds). Improving Education: Promoting Quality in Schools. London: Cassell.
  • Scheerens, J. (2000), Improving School Effectiveness. Paris: UNESCO.
  • Scheerens, J. (2002). School self-evaluation: Origins, definition, approaches, methods and implementation. In: D. Nevo (Ed.), School-based evaluation: An international perspective. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
  • Scheerens, J., Glas, C.A.W., Thomas, S.M. and Thomas, S. (2003). Educational evaluation, assessment, and monitoring: a systemic approach, vol. 13, Taylor & Francis.
  • Scheerens, J. and Hendriks, M. (2004). Benchmarking the quality of education. European Educational Research Journal, vol. 3(1), 101-114.
  • Simons, H. (2002). School self-evaluation in a democracy. In: Nevo D. (Ed.). School-based Evaluation: An International Perspective. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
  • Stoll, L. and Fink, D. (1996). Changing Our Schools: Linking School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Buckingham: Open University Press.
  • Stoll, L. and Wikeley, F. (1998). Issues on linking school effectiveness and school improvement. In: Hoeben W.T. (Ed.). Effective School Improvement: State of the Art Contribution to a Discussion. Groningen: GION/RUG.
  • Stringfield, S., Reynolds, D. and Schaffer, E.C. (2001). The High Reliability Schools Project. Paper presented at the ICSEI, Toronto, 2001.
  • Stringfield, S. and Slavin, R. (2001). Compensatory Education at the Crossroads, Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Association.
  • Stufflebeam, D.L. (2000). The CIPP model for evaluation. In: Stufflebeam, D.L., Madaus, G. F. and Kellaghan, T. (Eds.). Evaluation Models (2nd ed.). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Thomas, G. and Pring, R. (Eds.). (2004). Evidence-based Practice in Education. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
  • Wastiau-Schlüter, P. (Ed.). (2004). A Close-up on the Evaluation of Schools. Brussels: Eurydice.
  • West, M. and Hopkins, D. (1997). Using Evaluation Data to Improve the Quality of Schooling. Frankfurt, Germany, ECER-Conference.
  • Wilcox, B. and Gray, J. (1996). Inspecting Schools: Holding Schools to Account and Helping Schools to Improve. Buckingham Philadelphia: Open University Press.
  • Woessmann, L., Luedemann, E., Schuetz, G. and West, M.R. (2009). School Accountability, Autonomy and Choice around the World. Cheltenham, UK/Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
There are 67 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Davide Capperucci

Publication Date August 31, 2015
Submission Date August 28, 2015
Published in Issue Year 2015Volume: 1 Issue: 2

Cite

EndNote Capperucci D (August 1, 2015) Self-Evaluation and School Improvement: The Issemod Model to Develop the Quality of School Processes and Outcomes. IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education 1 2 56–69.

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