School Evaluation

This paper examines the current academic and policy literatures concerning school evaluation inprimary and secondary education within the OECD countries. First, it provides a typology of the existingsystems of school evaluation across the OECD. It encompasses the diverse criteria and instrumentscommonly used to carry out schools evaluation, as well as the players involved in the design andimplementation of school evaluation. It also describes potential consequences for schools. Second, thispaper analyses how school evaluation schemes are interrelated with other components of the evaluationframework, such as teacher evaluation and system evaluation. The potential complementarities, duplicationand inconsistency of objectives stemming from these interrelations are discussed. Third, this paper presentsthe advantages and drawbacks of different approaches to school evaluation, the resistance andimplementation difficulties resulting from misalignment of interests between different stakeholders, andpossible ways to overcome impediments to implementation. Finally, it reviews the quantitative andqualitative evidence available on the impact of different school evaluation schemes on school performance,student learning and the incentives for the teaching staff. It concludes by considering the circumstancesunder which school evaluation schemes seem to be more conducive to school improvement. Theeffectiveness of school evaluation schemes relies on developing competencies for evaluation and for usingfeedbacks. Alignment of stakeholders' interests is also critical to have the support of those being assessed.