The initiatives for educational effectiveness experienced 3 waves of movements. Each wave had its own paradigm in conceptualizing the nature of education and its effectiveness and formulating related initiatives for improvement of educational practice in the classroom. This article aims to discuss how the conceptualization and characteristics of…

Examined how school-based management (SBM) at the school, group, and individual levels is related to school performance at different levels. From a sample of 82 Hong Kong schools, the strength of multi-level self-management in schools was found to be strongly related to quality indicators of organizational performance, and moderately correlated to…

Aims to apply structural, human resource, political, and cultural perspectives to review and analyze the case of Hong Kong in implementing school-based management. Hopes this analysis can provide a useful illustration of applying multi-perspectives to support development of school-based management and draw useful implications for school reforms in…

This presentation reports on three waves of reform efforts for school effectiveness and improvement in Hong Kong, and analyzes related challenges and issues with the hope of drawing international implications for ongoing research and reform efforts in different parts of the world. These three waves represent paradigm shifts and different…

The assumption that school-based management enhances school effectiveness and educational quality becomes problematic if the relationship between educational quality and SBM is conceptually unclear. This paper explains how SBM characteristics at multilevels can contribute to the emphasis and concerns of seven different educational models…

Addresses conceptualization and measurement of school effectiveness from an organizational perspective and discusses how school-based management (SBM) and strategic management are related to school effectiveness. Discusses development of an SBM mechanism for pursuing long-term school effectiveness and educational equity. Reports on a training…

There is a strong need to understand, monitor, and enhance educational quality. This paper reports on a project that developed a framework of indicators for monitoring educational quality in Hong Kong primary schools. The framework was developed through various case studies and 2 large surveys of over 200 Hong Kong primary schools (involving over…

This paper draws on the opinions of principals, teachers, and students regarding the state of education in Hong Kong. It examines the conceptualization of education quality in schools and introduces a multilevel and multi-indicator framework. The text profiles indicators of student attitudes, student satisfaction, negative feelings, and attainment…

This cross-sectional study of 190 Hong Kong elementary schools investigates how principals' leadership influences school performance in terms of multilevel indicators (organizational characteristics, teacher performance, and student performance). Survey results show that strong leadership is associated with high organizational effectiveness,…

Investigates how school organizational culture is related to important organizational characteristics and how the profiles of strong culture-effective schools differ from those of weak culture-inefficient schools, in terms of organizational variables, teachers' job attitudes, and school effectiveness criteria. The survey of 54 randomly sampled…

Responding to the need for a comprehensive framework for monitoring and improving school effectiveness in local and international contexts, this paper presents the findings of a case study of one effective and one ineffective school. Data were derived from a survey of schools, document analysis, and field observations. The case schools are…

This paper describes why and what transformational leadership is needed to pursue school effectiveness and development in the rapidly changing education environment and in the coming new century. The paper first discusses the challenges to school leadership and the need for new leadership in light of the pursuit of school effectiveness and the…

Determining how to monitor and enhance school effectiveness is one of the major concerns in current education reforms in different areas of the world. This paper describes the existing conceptual and practical possibilities and dilemmas in developing a framework for monitoring school effectiveness. The paper identifies the different types of…

Many educational reforms that have focused on fragmentary improvement and remedial treatment did not lead to long-term effectiveness. This paper examines a new direction for educational reforms in Hong Kong and other international contexts. The new direction should include the following 10 tendencies: (1) toward multiple school functions from…

This paper provides a framework for the discussion of policy and development of educational quality. Based on the choice of indicators, the purpose of assessment, and the type of evaluation, the paper proposes a whole-matrix approach to addressing the critical issues in assessing and monitoring educational quality. These critical issues include…