The Unintended Effects of School Inspection: Evidence from an EU Comaparative Study

Description

It has been widely documented in the literature that accountability systems, including school inspections, bring with them unintended side-effects that are often negative and have the potential to undo the intended positive effects. Therefore in order to conduct a sound evaluation of school inspection these unintended effects need to be considered. Despite this, there is limited empirical evidence in the literature. We present survey data showing the relative pressure that each country is under to do well in inspections. We also present data on the prevalence of unintended consequences such as the extent to which principals manipulate documents and data and the extent to which teachers are discouraged from experimenting with new teaching methods. A key finding is that increasing pressure in school inspection systems is associated with a narrowing and refocussing of the curriculum and instructional strategies.

Period	10 Nov 2014
Event title	The Governance of School Development in Relation to Accountability and Evaluation Systems
Event type	Conference
Location	GermanyShow on map