A cadre of school inspectors with different backgrounds visit thousands of schools annually in Sweden as is also the case in several other European and other nations. Do these inspectors believe that they 'make a difference'? In this chapter we elaborate on inspection effects as they are perceived by Swedish inspectors and inspection managers at…

This chapter introduces four mechanisms of change to explain how school inspections may lead to improvement of school quality and higher student outcomes, schools accepting and using inspection feedback, the setting of expectations around inspections standards and methods, voice, choice and exit of stakeholders to motivate school improvement, and…

Performance measurement in the public sector is largely based on objective metrics, which may be subject to gaming behaviour. This paper investigates a novel subjective performance evaluation system where independent inspectors visit schools at very short notice, publicly disclose their findings and sanction schools rated fail. First, I…

In many European countries and in North America, home education is a viable alternative for education at school. Parents who want to home school their child are legally allowed to do so, although some countries impose rather strict conditions. This article concentrates on the way authorities supervise or inspect the quality of home education. A…

This bulletin provides descriptions of two of the most widely used business and industry quality models--the British Standards Institution system (BS5750) and Total Quality Management (TQM). The focus is on applications of the models in further education colleges. The first section clarifies what the term "quality" means, in general and…