Do parents play a crucial role as well? The involvement of parents in the implementation of educational standards

Description

In order to promote quality assurance and quality improvement in schools, most European countries have introduced instruments supporting the concept of evidence-based policy, such as educational standards and annual comparative student assessment. For instance, student achievement data can be reported to all actors in a school system to reinforce evidence-based school improvement. Through the introduction of these new steering mechanisms, the formal steering architecture in multi-level school systems has changed. Under the new policy, all actors – government representatives, regional school administrators, teachers, parents and students – are to provide guidance and motivation for quality improvement in accordance with their individual roles (e.g. Halbheer & Reusser, 2008; Klieme, 2004; Oelkers & Reusser, 2008). Thus, actors must reorganise and reposition themselves in their roles and constellations within the multi-level system. The most drastic changes have been reported in school administrations: Their traditional intermediary role in matters of administration has shifted towards triatic counselling, inspection and administrative tasks (Preuss, 2013). This reflects the necessity of discussing quality improvement steps with schools based on data feedback under the new evidence-based policy. Previous studies investigating the allocation of new tasks under evidence-based governance have primarily focused on teachers and the in-house use of data feedback for quality improvement in schools (e.g. van Gathen, 2006; Groß Ophoff, 2013; Maier, 2008). A few additional studies report findings on quality improvement strategies emerging from administrations and principals (e.g. Muslic, Ramsteck & Kuper, 2013). Although the new monitoring concept prescribes greater involvement on the part of parents (e.g. Kohler, 2003; Krumm, 1996), their role in the multi-level school system has not yet been investigated.

Period	23 Aug 2016
Event title	Leading Education: The Distinct Contributions of Educational Research and Researchers
Event type	Conference
Location	IrelandShow on map