The most well-known and controversial version of accountability policies is high-stakes testing. However, various countries employ diverse instruments of 'soft accountability' or low-stakes accountability tools. This paper highlights the main results of a study conducted in Chile that examines the enactment of one of these soft accountability…

In England, a substantial proportion of school inspections are conducted by current school leaders. This may lead to concerns that this gives their school (about 2% of schools) an advantage in the inspection process when it is their turn to be inspected. Yet scant evidence exists on this issue. This paper thus presents the first evidence on this…

Purpose: This study explored how the SchoolWeavers Tool could enhance South Africa's Whole-School Evaluation process and support South African school leaders in creating school learning ecosystems that facilitate learner success, offering a diagnostic assessment tool enabling educational leaders to assess school culture from multiple perspectives.…

Despite the fact that organisational values play a pivotal role within organisations and allow for a broad differentiation between universities, little is known about the organisational values universities select to pursue, and the factors impacting the selection of specific values. Therefore, we aim in this study to explore what type of…

Evaluation is an important tool for facilitating and promoting the growth of school members and improving the quality of schooling. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) claimed that effective school evaluation involves continuously using the results of such evaluations in school operations (2019). Based on the…

All internal evaluation units of public sector agencies face tradeoffs arising from the tension within the "independence-accountability-learning" nexus. Most such units are not independent, unlike the World Bank unit, which was ostensibly independent from its inception half a century ago. But new archival evidence reveals that between…

This research addresses two important developments in the academic field: First, universities are transforming into organisational actors, gaining more responsibilities and capacities for strategic action, and second, competition has reached a new level. An important driver of competition and universities' development towards strategic actorhood…

While school accountability systems were implemented to improve student outcomes through increased transparency, creating linkages between successful behaviors and rewards, they have often faced controversy. One strand of criticism posits that the systems are designed to reward conformity, punishing schools that deviate from standardization.…

In response to global competition in higher education, university rankings have been developed. These have been interpreted as indicating the regions and countries with the most prestigious and competitive higher education institutions. The rankings are viewed as important in many countries, but their role is ambiguous and contested in the Nordic…

This report presents a summary of the vast array of activities that comprised the 2023-2024 accreditation year for all Commission approved educator preparation programs. Currently, there are 252 Commission approved program sponsors offering 933 different and active educator preparation programs and many of those are offered through various…

The implementation of global teacher and school evaluation reform has often been contentious, in ways that differ according to national context. Teacher trade unions have frequently been active opponents of reform but their strategies and motivations have been relatively little studied. This article examines evaluation reform in Greece and the…

This research article establishes the relationship between key performance indicators and the academic and research quality performance and assessment and quality assurance of any large multidisciplinary academic and research institution or university. The indicators in terms of qualitative and quantitative are being proposed below and are…

This research aims to comparatively examine the changing appearance of world rankings of Asian HEIs among their global competitors from 2015 to 2025. The study group consists of the top five HEIs indexed in the 2024 Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings from the nine countries with the largest population in Asia and the top five HEIs…

The practice of school inspections is well-established across many European countries. While it is part of broader international traditions and trends, the Flemish Education Inspectorate takes a unique approach. The Education Inspectorate engages in dialogue with schools and operates in a participatory manner. This case study explores the effects…

This article contributes to research on evaluation by examining how organizational actors respond to and use evaluation imposed on them within an evaluation system. Drawing on Henry and Mark's theory of evaluation influence, this study uses Q-methodology to explore how staff within English higher education providers experience evaluation and its…