This article proposes reform of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). It considers the purpose of inspection in English schools and describes the previous system of inspection based on Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI). The question of how effective Ofsted is -- in comparison to similar countries -- is then addressed. The…

This paper performs a critical examination of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF), which was accompanied by an Inspection Handbook for Further Education and Skills, and argues that this policy document reinforces the neoliberal project in education. Drawing on concepts from Michel Foucault's analysis of the nature and effects of…

School inspection has always attracted great controversy, but especially since the inception of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). Over the years, many voices have entered the debate about inspection, but one particular voice has hardly been heard--that of rank-and-file inspectors themselves. This…

At a time of great threat to the education of the current school cohort caused by the prolonged COVID-19 lockdown, the phrase 'never let a good crisis go to waste' sounds apt. Education will have to change to meet new demands. The author wishes to advance the case for teachers, fully recognised as the key workers they are, to have their…

In transnational policy, directives on how to improve "quality" through auditing flourish. However, more research is needed about how these quality audits affect school personnel in local contexts. This paper has scrutinised the discursive effects of how "quality" is construed in school personnel's comments during a quality…

This paper contributes to recent debates pertaining to neoliberal technologies of performativity including fabrication, panopticism and post-panopticism. These terms are discussed here in relation to constant visibility from recent school inspection arrangements in England and the impact of this on school leadership. Case study research within one…

The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (CCDBG Act, as amended) is the main federal law governing child care programs for low-income working families. The CCDBG Act authorizes discretionary appropriations to support grants to state, territorial, and tribal lead agencies. Lead agencies use these funds to subsidize the child care…

Kazakhstan has made tremendous progress in ensuring universal access to primary and lower-secondary education. Nevertheless, results international surveys reveal that almost two-thirds of students from Kazakhstan complete schooling without mastering the basic skills needed to be successful, and that student achievement is increasingly inequitable.…

During recent years many European countries have modernized the governance of their education systems according to an 'evidence-based model' which, e.g., materialized in new school inspections and comparative performance assessment. Qualitative case study data of six primary and secondary schools is used to explore in-school processes of…

Despite resurgent public interest in censorship issues, research and reporting on prison censorship policies remain largely localized, with few wide-scale, systematic studies of the issue. There is good reason for this: the highly decentralized nature of the carceral system in the United States and the practical challenges in discovering and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the factors and issues within the policy context of education and the school inspection system which might affect education quality in China and examine stakeholder perceptions of inspection content and context in one city region in China. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods design was…

This book presented the methods and modalities of effective school inspections, summarizing the current evidence base and discussing issues of validity and reliability of school inspections in relation to school effectiveness research. In our book we have focused on inspections of single schools which are currently dominating the landscape of both…

External consultancy in schools by those who do not belong to the teaching staff has always been an important factor in school development. Such consulting goes hand in hand with the idea that internal school development processes and their results can be influenced positively by external experts. This is even more so for "failing…

State school inspection in Norway has undergone multiple reform initiatives from the state level, a system predominantly aimed at controlling legal compliance of school districts and individual schools. Rather than focusing on policy reform, this article draws attention to how enactment of state inspection policy has taken place through…

Problem Statement: The new regulations for the last ten years in terms of educational inspection in the Ministry of National Education reveal the requirement of setting up a new inspection model that will focus on compliance with statutory regulations and improving the quality of education. In this context, this study is significant, assuming that…