1. Irish Evaluation Network DCU September 2004 Embedding a Culture of Evaluation: The Whole School Evaluation Experience

2. The School Evaluation Spectrum Finland / Italy Ireland Holland England Ireland along with other European countries is adopting a model of quality assurance that emphasises school development planning through internal school review and self-evaluation with the support of external evaluation carried out by the inspectorate. (LAOS, 2003, P. Viii)

3. Two Questions 1. Where will the final balance fall between external inspection and internal self-evaluation? 2. What procedures and processes can enable school-based self evaluation to work not only as a basis for school planning and improvement but also meet demands for credible quality assurance and democratic accountability?

4. Whole-School Evaluation (Pilot Phase) (DES, 1999) 35 schools. “Consultative evolutionary evaluation.” (DCU) Closely linked to school planning “two sides of the same coin” (DES 1999) and the process described as “external validation of internal evaluation.” Work of the school as a whole – no identification of individual teachers. But included classroom visits & examination of pupil work.

5. Pilot Outcome Largely positive – little controversy or resistance. Principals – “It was the management that was evaluated and while the process might uncover certain issues and problems, it did nothing to help schools deal with these problems.” (DES 1999). Inspectors – “reports tended toward superficiality and “quality of data available in schools very poor.” – “better organised in-school data on pupil performance.” – “the process should involve collection of hard data” (ibid,28).

6. Looking at Our School (LAOS) (May, 2003) Very close to WSE (Pilot) but more complex. Five Areas: Quality of School Management Quality of School Planning Quality of School Curriculum Provision Quality of School Learning & Teaching Quality of School Support for Students Each with a number of aspects, which in turn has a number of components, each of which has a number of themes for self-evaluation.

7. Much more stress on self-evaluation – very little mention of the role of the inspector/external evaluator. “Schools themselves have the key role in the task of identifying existing good practice as well as areas for further development”. (Laos, 2003, VIII).

8. Embedding a Culture of Evaluation? On the positive side: LAOS - A lot of work/thought in evidence - Close to the emerging majority consensus on approaches to school evaluation - In line with the wishes/views of principals teachers - In place without the controversy and resistance that might have been expected

9. On the other hand… WSE can support improvement but what about accountability? – Two Roles Role of the stakeholders – – parents – pupils – community

10. What Data? Stream of High Quality Data? “Having engaged in a process of collecting and analysing this information and evidence the school will be in a position to make a statement indicating its own performance on the relevant component” (DES, 2003) Using existing Instruments? CEM?