Quality Systems for the Performance Development Cycle of Schools. Draft.

Abstract

This paper uses a quality-assurance framework to unify tFe application of school-effectiveness and school-improvement knowledge to a school system. The paper proposes that effective school development is enhanced by the implementation of quality systems that recognize the stages of performance-development cycles. It discusses quality-assurance systems and the concept of performance-development cycles for organizations and schools. The quality-assurance school review and development program in New South Wales, Australia, attempts to integrate the school-effectiveness and school-improvement knowledge bases to improve student learning outcomes. The systematic school-development approach is comprised of the following: the devolution of authority to individual schools, a context of school networks, a focus on student learning outcomes, and continuous assessment of school practices. A systems approach means th ?t the review and development process must be adapted to an individual school's stage in the performance-development cycle. For example, in the early stages of the performance-development cycle, strategies should focus on aligning school outcomes with specifications. Middle-stage quality-assurance strategies are more effective if they concentrate on monitoring compliance with process and service standards, and later-stage strategies should concentrate on fostering innovation and leadership to tap organizational creativity. Finally, schools must implement second-order changes that restructure processes in order to advance in the performance-development cycle. One figure is included. (Contains 49

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.