Curriculum Evaluation For School Improvement

Originally published in 1983 and as a second edition in 1988. An attempt is made in this book to disentangle some of the professional, ethical, political, theoretical and practical issues involved in curriculum evaluation. This book present evidence concerning a number of evaluation strategies and techniques, drawing on experience in several countries, including the UK, Australia and the US, to debate the potential of insider and outsider approaches to evaluation, and combinations of the two. It also offers a practical source book for those wishing to plan and conduct curriculum evaluations. Finally, it considers the crucial question of how evaluation can influence curriculum action and, thereby, teaching and learning.

Teachers and other educationalists are increasingly expected to carry out evaluations of new initiatives. David Hopkins provides a guide to evaluations, the primary focus of which is on practice.

School improvement is at the centre of educational reform and is perceived by many as a key to social and economic advance. It contributes to determining the personal fulfilment and career paths of individual students and consequently engages the interest of parents and community members. It is an ever-present commitment of teachers and managers in schools. Policy makers and politicians at international, national and local levels devote much time and effort to their search for better schools. School improvement has also attracted the attention of researchers and scholars in many countries. They have been drawn from various disciplines and fields within the educational studies community, including psychology, sociology, history, evaluation, and studies in curriculum and assessment. There is now an established body of findings from studies conducted in many contexts. This book brings together leading experts drawn from many countries and several continents, reflecting diverse approaches to educational policy and practice, evaluation and research. Variations between countries and between local communities within countries are highlighted. The possibilities and difficulties inherent in transferring evidence from one educational system, at a number of levels, to another are clearly discussed. What emerges from the cross-national and cross-cultural evidence are several significant threads, currently under active investigation, including: school structure and management, classroom organisation, school leadership, teacher training and staff development, curriculum and assessment, community involvement, lifelong learning and special provision for students with special educational needs. "School Improvement: International Perspectives" is written for national educational policy makers, teachers and student teachers, governing bodies and parents from various levels of schooling, and university researchers and scholars.

This work explains the background and context to increased accountability in secondary schools. It offers practical help with structures and techniques for monitoring and evaluation within subject departments and pastoral areas.

School effectiveness and school improvement have different origins: School effectiveness is more directed to finding out "what works" in education and "why"; school improvement is practice and policy oriented and intended to change education in the desired direction. However, in their orientation to outcomes, input, processes, and context in education, they also have much in common. In the theoretical part, different orientations have been analysed and combined in a model for effective school improvement. Based on this analysis, an evaluation framework was developed for the analysis of the case studies of school improvement projects in the participating countries. The theoretical model and the results of the analyses of the case studies were combined in a framework of effective school improvement.

This book examines the powerful concept of implementation - or what actually happens in practice when innovations or reforms are attempted - by demonstrating its uses in a variety of policy and programme applications.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.