1. Quality Assurance in Education:
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
Quality Assurance in Education:
Self-Evaluation Process at the level of School Unit
prof. V. Koulaidis and A. Kotsira
University of Patras
Education Research Centre
The Education Research Centre, an official agency of the Hellenic Ministry of Education, was assigned the task to develop and install a country-wide indicator system for monitoring school performance. Within this context, a 3-year project entitled ‘Monitoring of the Education System at the level of the School Unit’ was launched in March 2001, being funded by the 3rd Community Support Framework. This project constitutes the first systematic initiative towards developing an integrated and comprehensive information framework to track the performance of the education system.

2. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The aim of this presentation is to raise some initial thoughts on how schools could proceed with organising processes of self-evaluation towards assuring and developing the quality of education they provide.  
The main activities involved in the project refer to:
the development and standardization of a set of indicators for producing and providing comprehensive, up-to-date and reliable information about the prerequisites, performance, results and impact of the school system at national, regional and local levels
the monitoring, by the use of the developed indicator system and through the communication channels which will be gradually established, of all the school units across the country. 1

3. The cycle of school self-evaluation
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The cycle of school self-evaluation
Evaluation of School’s Work
«How are we doing in our school?»
Establishing Priorities for Action
«Where do we want to get to?»
Action Monitoring and Reviewing
«What progress have we made?»
Improvement of
educational practices
and outcomes
Action Planning
«How do we get there?»
Action
Implementation 2

4. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The Object of School Self-Evaluation: Areas referring to resources and staff
School Building, Spaces and Equipment
Financial Resources
Teaching and Other Staff 3

5. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The Object of School Self-Evaluation: Areas referring to school management
Coordination of School-Life
Formation and Implementation of School Programme
Development of Resources
Project’s outcomes can serve several functions directly pertinent to quality assurance and improvement in education. They have the potential,
at national level:
-to provide a constant flow of information regarding the operation of the education system
-to support a systematic policy of corrective interventions
at school and regional level:
-to facilitate efficient use of available resources
-to indicate aspects that could be or need to be improved
-to develop and reinforce cooperation and solidarity among school actors
-to encourage developing school action plans and innovative interventions. 4

6. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The Object of School Self-Evaluation: Areas referring to school climate and relations
Relationships Among Teachers and with Other Staff
Teacher-Student and Student-Student Relations
School-Parent Relations
School Relations with Education Institutions/Agents and Local Society 5

7. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The Object of School Self-Evaluation: Areas referring to educational processes
Teaching Process
Learning Process
The Function of Assessment
In a first stage, an instrument, having the form of a questionnaire, was developed to collect data from schools. The questionnaire, being designed in separate versions for nursery, primary and secondary schools, is consisting of 3 parts: 6

8. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The Object of School Self-Evaluation: Areas referring to educational outcomes
Students’ Attendance-Flow-Dropping Out
Students’ Performance-Progress
Students’ Personal and Social Development
Students’ Educational and Career Orientation   
Part A, entitled ‘School Identity/ Description’, includes questions pertaining to:
general school characteristics (i.e. school name/code/address, type of school, whether the school is part of a cluster of schools, whether it shares lodgings with other schools)
general characteristics of school environment (i.e. district size and type)
general characteristics of the school building (i.e. age, overall size, state of maintenance, whether it is a private/public/rent property, special operational building constructions, appearance of the building)
available spaces and equipment (i.e. class size, size of laboratories and other available spaces inside and outside the building, operational characteristics of spaces, library facilities, curriculum materials, IT equipment). 7

9. School Self-Evaluation Processes: Evaluation of school’s work
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
School Self-Evaluation Processes: Evaluation of school’s work
Two approaches are suggested:
The whole school review, where the whole set of key areas are briefly reviewed by the school
The systematic investigation of key areas, where one or more key areas selected by the school are more thoroughly examined 8

10. School Self-Evaluation Processes: Establishing priorities for action
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
School Self-Evaluation Processes: Establishing priorities for action
The school sequences and selects priorities for development action, considering for each possibility in turn:
How urgent is it?
Does it require much time and effort?
Is there a foundation already in place?
Are there natural links with other priorities?
Part B, entitled ‘Human Resources/Operation of the School’, addresses a number of items about:
the teaching staff (i.e. number of teachers, work status, level of education, teaching experience, teaching staff stability)
the administrative- complementary scientific- auxiliary and other staff (number, type of responsibility assigned, work status)
the school population (i.e. pupils’ enrolment and attendance, number of foreign pupils, number of pupils with special needs, number of schools composing the school’s intake area)
the formation and implementation of the school programme (i.e. types of classes in operation, languages taught others than Greek, number of hours non taught, innovative activities, within and outside curriculum activities, contacts with the wider community of the school). 9

11. School Self-Evaluation Processes: Action planning
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
School Self-Evaluation Processes: Action planning
The school constructs a detailed action plan for each development objective determining:
targets
success criteria
implementation strategies
timescale
resources
evaluation procedures 10

12. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
School Self-Evaluation Processes: Implementing, monitoring and reviewing action
The responsible team for each action plan
carries out all the development activities according to the plan
monitors action implementation on an ongoing, formative basis, making any alterations to the original plan that emerge as necessary
proceeds on a summative evaluation of action implementation 11

13. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
‘Monitoring of the Education System at the Level of the School Unit’ and School Self-Evaluation
‘Monitoring of the Education System at the Level of the School Unit’, besides facilitating rational management of educational provision by the sate, provides an external reference and support framework to all the stages of school self-evaluation.
For increasing reliability of responses as well as for checking the validity of the instrument itself, a number of teachers/researchers seconded in the Education Research Centre visited a first sample of 2000 schools and proceeded information gathering and questionnaire completion in collaboration with the head teacher of each school. A revised form of the questionnaire resulted through the evolution of this process. A manual, providing information to the head teachers regarding questionnaire completion, has been also prepared so as, in the following stage, they will be able to take the filling in of the questionnaire upon themselves. In a subsequent stage, and through the appropriate electronic installation, schools will be able to self-manage their data entry in the information system.
In parallel to data collection, the appropriate database and software application for data’s statistical elaboration and indicators’ formation have been developed. By the end of the project, all the schools of the country are expected to be part of the information system being developed. 12

14. ‘Monitoring’ data: during the evaluation of school’s work
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
‘Monitoring’ data: during the evaluation of school’s work
may determine the evaluation focus, indicating those areas of school reality that need a more thorough examination by the school
can support the validation of the themes derived during self-evaluation data analysis
can contribute to the validation of the explanations generated during self-evaluation data interpretation
contribute to the economy of the process, reducing the scope of data to be collected by the school
provide an overview of school’s performance on a wide range of key areas, functioning as a ‘condensed’ self evaluation process 13

15. in establishing priorities for action
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
‘Monitoring’ data:
in establishing priorities for action
may affect the sequence and the selection of priorities for action, indicating the primal needs for change and development. 14

16. ‘Monitoring’ data: in action planning
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
‘Monitoring’ data: in action planning
can influence the development of action plans, specifying the concrete targets and the success criteria for each action. 15

17. ‘Monitoring’ data: in reviewing progress of action implementation
EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
‘Monitoring’ data: in reviewing progress of action implementation
can support the summative evaluation of development actions
can contribute to reviewing whether recently introduced changes have a sustained impact or need further support for their maintenance 16

18. EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF GREECE
The issues raised reflect only thoughts and considerations that need further elaboration and critical appraisal to become operational. 17