Abstract Title
An ecological approach to Catholic school reviews: Going beyond verification and accountability to achieve real school improvement
Abstract
In our current climate of globalisation and international education comparisons, evaluation, verification and accountability within some form of school review have become key school issues in all developed countries. The introduction of school reviews is linked to certain hopes and expectations, often encapsulated in the more palatable term, “improvement”. Often, judgements about the degree of improvement are based on standardised criteria for evaluating good teaching and good schools according to normative expectations determined by administrative and/or government bodies. However, research data now highlights that most school review processes are yet to produce any real and sustainable improvements. Moreover, concern has been raised as to the potentially distractive impact that such school review processes can have on the mission and identity of the Catholic school. Thus, this article takes a closer look at the nature, function and limitations of current school review processes and then proceeds to describe how our unique ecological approach to a school review overcomes these current limitations in order to not only produce substantial and manageable school improvement outcomes but also to more naturally align the process and outcomes to the mission and identity of a Catholic school.
An ecological approach to Catholic school reviews: Going beyond verification and accountability to achieve real school improvement
In our current climate of globalisation and international education comparisons, evaluation, verification and accountability within some form of school review have become key school issues in all developed countries. The introduction of school reviews is linked to certain hopes and expectations, often encapsulated in the more palatable term, “improvement”. Often, judgements about the degree of improvement are based on standardised criteria for evaluating good teaching and good schools according to normative expectations determined by administrative and/or government bodies. However, research data now highlights that most school review processes are yet to produce any real and sustainable improvements. Moreover, concern has been raised as to the potentially distractive impact that such school review processes can have on the mission and identity of the Catholic school. Thus, this article takes a closer look at the nature, function and limitations of current school review processes and then proceeds to describe how our unique ecological approach to a school review overcomes these current limitations in order to not only produce substantial and manageable school improvement outcomes but also to more naturally align the process and outcomes to the mission and identity of a Catholic school.