The Road to Quality Improvement project is focused on the all-purpose support of schools in the area of self-assessment. It is a national project of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the investigator of which is the National Institution of Technical and Vocational Education (NITVE) and National Institute for Further Education (NIFE), is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Budget of the Czech Republic.
Self-evaluation – creating the system and support for schools in the self-evaluation area, or Road to Quality Improvement
Since January 1, 2005 every school elaborates (in accordance with the Education Act and in compliance with § 9, Article 1 of Regulation No. 15/2005 Coll.) self-assessment over a period of three years. The fact that schools urgently need support in this area arises from specific circumstances, which are reflected in a number of empirical investigations. For example, in the investigation within the Coordinator project (the executor of which being the NIFE), it was found that 60% of the elementary school headmasters perceived self-evaluation as a major problem.
The project aims to support schools in their self-evaluation processes, offer them methodological support, training, call centre, opportunity for schools to meet and mutually enrich themselves with experience and a lot of quality information available at one place. The project is designed for special kindergartens, primary schools, basic art schools, secondary schools, conservatories and higher vocational schools. School headmasters and teachers may actively participate in the project or monitor the activities of the project from a distance. The project website will regularly publish information, verified instruments applicable in school self-evaluation, experiences of schools and examples of good practice.
The project aims to support the process of self-assessment (self-evaluation) in schools that is intended to be a means to improve their work.
Specific project objectives:
To identify and assess the status of self-evaluation processes (including legislative framework).
To design, verify and subsequently adjust:
- methods and procedures of self-evaluation,
- support systems for schools,
- system of further education of school staff.
Meeting the following project interim goals will contribute to achieving them:
- to identify and assess the status of self-evaluation processes and identify different concepts of self-evaluation - to unify the terminology currently used in the evaluation and management of the quality of schools in the Czech Republic and identify the input conditions for the development of self-evaluation culture, to design and verify self-evaluation tools and methods in pilot projects;
- to create a database of good practice examples (from the CR and abroad) in self-evaluation and a database of verified self-evaluation methods and tools and to work with networks of schools co-operating in the area of self-evaluation;
- to develop specific proposals for systemic organization of the evaluation process in the Czech educational system (i.e. to harmonize self-evaluation links with external evaluation, including potential legislative proposals);
- to design and verify the content and organizational conditions for education of the parties involved in the development of schools and for their qualified decisions.