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…

Most countries across Europe now have their own Inspectorate as part of a school improvement and accountability system. However, there has been little research on the impact of school inspections or on the aspects of school inspections that maximise the positive effects and minimise the unintended consequences. As a precursor to further research,…

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…

The Shanghai Education Evaluation Institute (SEEI), expanding from the Shanghai Evaluation Institute for Higher Education first established in 1996, is an institution under the management of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. Among the provincial education evaluation agencies in China, it is by far the largest in terms of its scale and…

This article describes Local Education Authority (LEA) practices in England and Wales, with regard to institutional evaluation during the mid to late 1980s. It considers the various approaches and systems used and particularly looks at issues of information handling, reporting, follow-up, and adviser (inspector) training. (IAH)