Aspects of accountability and assessment in the Netherlands

This article describes aspects of test-based accountability in the Netherlands. It provides a description of the design of the Educational system in the Netherlands, it gives a short introduction to the role of the Dutch Inspectorate of Education in the accountability of schools and describes different assessments that are used as sources of information in the accountability system. For each assessment, the primary function in education and its role in the accountability system are discussed. Finally, the factors that can potentially influence the validity of the accountability indicators and the strong and weak points of the current system are identified and some directions are presented of potential developments of this system

Toezicht en schoolverbetering

The effects and side effects of school inspections have been investigated only to a limited degree. Studies in Great Britain, which is the only country to have a research tradition in this area, show that school inspections can lead to behavioral changes on the part of school leaders and teachers, as well as to school improvement. These studies do not offer satisfying explanations, however, for how school inspections generate these effects. The goal of this dissertation is therefore to expand the available knowledge concerning whether Dutch school inspections lead to school improvement. The research answers the following question: Is there evidence that school inspections have any effects and, if so, how do features of schools and school inspections contribute to these effects

Corruption and trust in South African Education: Perceptions of teachers and school boards

South Africa’s history of oppression and apartheid has led to great inequalities, and educational outcomes are generally poor. Corruption has been identified as one of the reasons for systemic failure to improve. This paper supports the idea of corruption as a cultural construct, ‘its whole drama revealed in light of the existential insecurity which people feel towards it’ (Taussig, 1992: ,p.4).Using documentary analysis of a key report on corruption in education, along with focus group data, the paper examines normative perceptions of corruption and how they undermine trust in educational processes & practices, asking: a) Which factors colour normative perceptions of corruption in education b) To what extent do these perceptions undermine trust in the education system. The paper concludes that educator corruption perceptions are powerful in undermining educators’ sense of agency and self-efficacy and that distrust affects the way in which the education system operates

The relationship between school inspections, school characteristics and school improvement.

The effects of school inspections on school improvement have been investigated only to a limited degree. The investigation reported on in this article is meant to expand our knowledge base regarding the impact of school inspections on school improvement. The theoretical framework for this research is partly based on the policy theory behind the Dutch Educational School Supervision Act (the latter includes assumptions about how school inspections lead to school improvement). Interviews and a survey with school inspectors gave insight into how school inspectors implement the Supervision Act and how they assess schools, and stimulate schools to improve. The results of ten case studies showed that all schools started to improve after a school visit. The innovation capacity of the school and the school environment do not seem to contribute to school improvement after school inspections. No effects were found on school-improvement processes of the number of insufficient scores that schools received from inspectors, the extent of feedback and suggestions for improvement, and the number of agreements. The provision of feedback about weaknesses, the assessment of these weak points as unsatisfactory, and the agreements between an inspector and the school regarding improvement activities do appear to make a difference in promoting school improvement

Place-based disparities faced by stuck schools in England: a contextual understanding of low performance and the role of inspection outcomes

In 2017 the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) identified stuck schools that have failed inspections continuously since 2005. Our study used quantitative methods to identify factors associated with improving or remaining stuck by analysing a sample of 580 primary and secondary stuck schools and their matched comparison group. We found that not only geographical location, student population, and deprivation play a part when explaining stuckness, but critically, persistently receiving less than good inspection grades contributed to this through two negative cycles: Schools located in more challenging places or with more disadvantaged pupils received worse inspection grades, which triggered increases in teacher turnover, and further received less than good Ofsted inspection judgements. These findings call for place-based inspections that consider school location and student composition, and recognise the detrimental role that inspections can play when judging school effectiveness, particularly of schools educating the most disadvantaged communities

Factors contributing to and detracting from relational trust in leadership: The case of primary schools in South Africa

Trust in leadership is a key element in organizational effectiveness and the foundations of a successful school. However, this element of leadership is underexplored in terms of empirical work, concomitantly, distrusting school cultures have been identified as inhibitors of school improvement. This paper explores trust in leadership through a relationship-based perspective of trust, taking by taking the case of eight primary schools, in South Africa, to examine: Which factors positively influence trust in leadership of primary schools and which undermine it. The paper begins by conceptualizing trust and relational based trust in leadership before moving on to analyze trust in educational settings. It explores trust between leaders and staff and within staff member groups. From there the paper discusses the implications of the findings within the particular cultural context of South Africa. The paper concludes with a summary of factors detracting from and contributing to trust in leadership, and to what extent these align with relational trust in leadership and the construction of effective learning communities. In so doing, the paper raises awareness of the importance of trust in leadership in the context of South African Primary Education and how it can undermine leadership if not established throughout relationships in schools, offering insights for primary leaders working within the African context. It also questions the appropriateness of adopting a relational understanding of trust in distributed leadership in relation to this particular context