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Briefing Paper 53 Research Institutions: College of Europe, Belgium Interuniversitair Centrum voor Onderwijsrecht, Belgium Erasmus University, Netherlands University of Southampton, United Kingdom University of Manchester, United Kingdom Hochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung, Germany Deutsches Jugendinstitut, Germany University of Paris X, Nanterre, France University of Athens, Greece Contact Person Prof. Jan De Groof and Gracienne Lauwers College of Europe Dijver 11 8000 Brugge Belgium Tel: +32-3-238.11.55 Fax: +32-3-238.58.45 glauwers@ruca.ua.ac.be This project has been funded by DG- Research under the Key Action “Improving the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base” of FP5 Legal Framework of New Governance and Modern Policy in Education throughout Europe Context of the Research Relationships between schools, government, parents and students are changing within education systems across Europe. Many governments are creating mechanisms for schools to become more accountable to parents and to government through standardisation of the curriculum and the increased use of quality assurance mechanisms. In some cases running alongside this increased accountability, is the delegation of greater responsibility to individual schools and school governors, often in the form of greater financial control. This also involves the individual school and sometimes volunteer school governors having to take greater legal responsibility for the management of their school and the safety of their students. Underpinning all these changes is the legal and legislative framework established in education and other laws – which vary considerably across Europe. This project has established a network of partners from Belgium (Flanders), The Netherlands, Greece, France, United Kingdom and Germany and other experts from Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, the Russian Federation and Austria. It is comparing the various national education systems from a legal perspective in order to identify the best and most used legislative instruments focusing on quality, safety, responsibility and liability. The key areas of concern of this project include: • Enhancing the quality of compulsory education. • Encouraging the use of appropriate means of self-assessment and selfevaluation. • Promoting greater equity and enhanced access through the assurance of quality in all schools. • Reducing inappropriate barriers for mobility in Europe at school level through establishing a more consistent promotion of quality and standards Initial Conclusions 1. Educational systems with a high degree of educational freedom are able to provide a high degree of autonomy and quality at the same time. 2. The introduction of decentralisation policies has a profound effect on the administration of the education system at all levels. This presents officials and educationalists from the central ministry, regional, municipal and district authorities and schools with demanding challenges to adapt to new responsibilities. 3. New acts have been implemented for primary, secondary, vocational and higher education as well as for children with special educational needs aimed at developing children’s independence of judgment, providing a broad, but balanced curriculum for emotional, social and moral development. 160
4. As some legislation describes attainment targets in rather general terms, checking schools' compliance can be difficult in some cases. 5. The processes of educational change, in any country, are extremely complex affairs and can be difficult to control, particularly as responsibility is increasingly delegated towards institutions and individuals. 6. “Change management” in educational reform is not one of managing, or controlling change, but of attempting to shape the environment in which it is to take place by creating conditions that are conducive to successful implementation. 7. Monitoring quality assurance tends to lead to successful implementation of changes. 8. Schools are now being given more autonomy and responsibility for their own quality, with less rules and regulations - at the input-side – for the curriculum and finance. However, - at the output side - parents, the government and other stakeholders want to hold schools accountable for their quality and want this quality to be controlled and expect actions to be taken if there seem to be quality problems. 9. As a consequence of the policy move towards decentralization, the role of evaluation has changed. External evaluation by the Inspectorate has shifted from merely supervision of the legal requirements to educational monitoring and quality assessment, based upon evaluation criteria and standards. Internal, school self-evaluation is strongly encouraged in order to fulfil both the improvement and the accountability function. Educational institutions are expected to bear responsibility for safeguarding the quality of the education they provide and systematic self-evaluation is strongly encouraged. 10. In some countries, schools have to publish a school guide for all parents - with the school plan as a point of reference. This school guide contains the results of the school in terms of examinations, the percentage of children from primary schools transferring to various forms of secondary education and specific features of the schools such as special programmes for music education or for science education. 11. Increasingly schools are being made financially accountable through the auditing of block grants received from government. 12. In some countries, the Inspectorate has developed standards to monitor the quality of education, which includes decision rules and qualifications for judging the extent to which a certain standard has been met. One method is a school quality profile that reveals the strong and weak points and is used as a basis for discussions with the school regarding possibilities and plans for further development. 13. In other countries the relationship between the minister, ministry, the Inspectorate and the schools is subject of discussion. 14. Self-evaluation is also strongly encouraged and schools are gradually proceeding towards using self-assessment instruments. Although implementation is growing, self-evaluation activities are not yet cyclic and systematic. 15. An emerging, but increasingly important issue, that still needs to be resolved in some regions - is who has the right to information on schools and the quality of education - parents, the inspectorate and the general public? Initial Recommendations 1. The Inspectorate should involve the school as much as possible in its judgement of the schools' quality. 2. All schools should be encouraged to develop a school plan that defines the school's own quality standards in consultation with stakeholders - parents, local citizens and local associations. 3. Schools have to show how they interpret and realise the precise attainment targets as prescribed by the Education Acts. 4. Evaluation criteria should be developed in consultation and these criteria could be translated into items for questionnaires and observation forms. Training in using them and in scoring should be provided. 161
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REPORT EUR 20791 European Union-sup
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2003 EUROPEAN COMMISSION European U
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Table of Contents Foreword ……
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Notes from the editor This report i
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Briefing Paper 1 Research Instituti
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4. Other incentives to improve mobi
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4. However, the push to make work e
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Key Publications Gornitzka, “Gove
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7. Despite strong resistance from e
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10. There needs to be encouragement
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The full title of the project is: E
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2. Some employers and politicians a
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Briefing Paper 11 Research Institut
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• A greater understanding of the
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The Final Report and results of thi
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9. Policy needs to provide opportun
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• The levels of teachers’ inter
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4. Strengthening the educational re
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Key Recommendations The project mad
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National Policy Recommendations 1.
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Key Recommendations The following r
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8. Lifelong Learning is still seen
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Key Recommendations Specific recomm
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Tikkanen, T., Teknologian muutos ty
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• Moving from training-based deve
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This project is now being taken for
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13. Some of the enterprises have ha
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Key Recommendations 1. Efforts shou
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10. Although, it has been found tha
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4. Separate analysis of the wage di
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Denny & Harmon, The impact of educa
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10. In addition, important learning
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8. Opening schools to activities be
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Page 119 and 120: Briefing Paper 35 Research Institut
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Page 129 and 130: Key Recommendations The following r
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Page 145 and 146: Key Recommendations Political and l
Page 147 and 148: Further information The final repor
Page 149 and 150: 8. Learning in a “learning compan
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Page 161 and 162: Adaptability and Entrepreneurship 6
Page 163: 18. Gender audits and relevant acti
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Page 171 and 172: Key Recommendations 1. The focus of
Page 173 and 174: • Shaping European learning relat
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Page 187 and 188: Summaries of research project clust
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Page 197 and 198: 8. Compensation programmes/schemes
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