Jenny Ozga Centre for Educational Sociology University of Edinburgh Teacher Professionalism , Quality Assurance and Evaluation

Jenny Ozga

Centre for Educational Sociology

University of Edinburgh

Quality improves, respect declines? 47% of survey respondents believe that the quality of education is improving by comparison with the 1980s Is this surprising- given the level of investment by national systems in promoting QAE? 74% of respondents across the different systems believe there is less respect for teaching now than twenty years ago So teachers are raising quality but losing respect

What is Quality in Education? Teachers’ choices of what defines quality are clustered around the following definitions: (i) Pupils reaching their full potential (ii) Confident and independent individuals (iii) Good literacy communication and numeracy skills Teachers and principals give very low priority (between 1 and 2% of respondents) to high attainment, or critical thinking as defining quality

Teacher self-evaluation (90% said this improved quality) School self-evaluation (89%) Analysis/tracking of pupils’ progress (88%) Targets set by school (73%) Quality management models at school level (65%) Inspection (62%) Use of performance indicators and data (57%) Parent or pupil satisfaction surveys (56%) QAE processes that improve quality

Teacher self-evaluation (90% said this improved quality)

School self-evaluation (89%)

Analysis/tracking of pupils’ progress (88%)

Targets set by school (73%)

Quality management models at school level (65%)

Inspection (62%)

Use of performance indicators and data (57%)

Parent or pupil satisfaction surveys (56%)

How does National Testing influence quality in education?

Internal uses of QAE 91% Pupil-level data help me to identify problems of potential underachievement 93% In general, evaluation is beneficial for teaching External uses of QAE 86% “Public ranking of schools leads to ‘teaching to the test’” 85% “Publishing school performance tables does not improve teaching” Internal and external uses of QAE

Internal uses of QAE

91% Pupil-level data help me to identify problems of potential underachievement

93% In general, evaluation is beneficial for teaching

External uses of QAE

86% “Public ranking of schools leads to ‘teaching to the test’”

85% “Publishing school performance tables does not improve teaching”

Teachers' creativity & spontaneity have been eroded by QAE?

Policy technologies: marketisation, managerialism and performativity (a) target-setting (b) evaluation (c) performance related pay (a) devolution of decision- making (b) school-based management (a) parental choice (b) variety of school types (c) league tables 3. Performativity 2. Managerialism 1. Marketisation

Policy technologies: QAE and teacher attitudes (a) choice/ marketisation (b) local accountability (c) regulation/ deregulation (a) school self evaluation (b) teacher assessment (c) school benchmarking (d) parental consultation (a) inspection (b) national testing (c) league tables (d) performance management (e) benchmarking (f) national targets 3. System characteristics 2. Soft QAE forms 1. Hard QAE forms

The survey was part of the ESF/ESRC project Fabricating Quality in European Education/Governing by Numbers Further details at: http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/research/FabQ/index.htm http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/index.htm