The Education Act 1998 clearly delineates the responsibility of the Minister for Education and Science with regard to quality assurance within the education system generally. Under Section 7(2)(b) of the Act the Minister is required

"... to monitor and assess the quality .... and effectiveness of the education system provided in the State by recognised schools and centres for education, ..."

Ireland, along with other European countries, is adopting a model of quality assurance that emphasises school development planning through internal school review and self-evaluation, with the support of external evaluation carried out by the Inspectorate.

The school's role in quality assurance

The maintenance of the quality of education in individual primary schools is a major aim of education policy in Ireland. Schools themselves have a key role in the task of identifying existing good practice as well as areas for further development.

The centrality of the school's role with regard to evaluation and development is clear from the following statement:

"... schools are complex institutions in which change can only come about through internal acceptance by staff and management both of the school's strengths and of the need for action in those areas of activity where further development is desirable."

Report on the 1998/1999 Pilot Project on Whole School Evaluation, p.49

In order that primary schools may engage effectively in quality assurance activity, it is necessary that school management and staff have access to instruments and methodologies that will assist them, through internal review, self-evaluation and planning, in achieving those standards of quality to which they aspire. The evaluation themes that follow are designed to provide schools with a basis for evaluating their own performance and for identifying areas for further development.

School context factors and the self-evaluation process

As well as operating in a national context, each primary school works within a very specific local context. Local factors that affect schools include:

• the size, location and catchment area of the school
  
  
• socio-economic circumstances of the pupils and community, including local employment availability and patterns
  
  
• pupils' special needs
  
  
• physical, material and human resources available to the school.

These context factors serve as a backdrop for the work of the school, and any self-evaluation by the school should take them very much into account. As well as being important for internal review purposes, school context considerations are also central to all other stages of the school planning process.

Structure of the evaluation themes

This document presents a set of themes through which a primary school may undertake a review and self-evaluation of its own performance. These themes encompass five broad dimensions, or areas, of the operation of a school, as follows:

1. school management
2. school planning
3. curriculum provision
4. learning and teaching in curriculum areas
5. support for pupils.

Each of these areas is divided into a number of aspects, which represent the different activities collectively constituting the area of the school's operation that is to be evaluated. The aspects are further broken down into components for each of which a number of themes have been identified as a basis for evaluation. The extent to which the themes are relevant to a school will be influenced by the context factors which apply to the school, as outlined in the previous section.

Using the themes in a self-evaluation context

These evaluation themes are designed to assist primary school management and staff in the process of making professional judgements regarding the operation of the school. It is acknowledged that, while these evaluation themes are extensive, there are other aspects of its functioning that the school may wish to evaluate. In such cases, the school may wish to draw up its own set of themes.

When engaging in a self-evaluation exercise, a primary school may decide to focus on an area, an aspect or a component of its activity. In making this decision, the school is guided to an appropriate range of evaluation themes that can be used as a guide in judging or measuring its own performance. In order to be in a position to make judgements, the school will gather information in relation to the theme or themes under evaluation. Having engaged in a process of collecting and analysing this information and evidence, the school will then be in a position to make a statement or statements indicating its own performance in the relevant component, aspect or area of its activity. Cumulatively, such statements will be an invaluable source of information and perspective in subsequent school development planning tasks and in the context of external evaluation carried out by the Inspectorate.

When considering how the school is performing under any theme, it may be useful to think of a quality continuum consisting of a number of reference points representing stages of development in the improvement process. A commonly used continuum (with variations) consists of four levels - significant strengths (uniformly strong), strengths outweigh weaknesses (more strengths than weaknesses), weaknesses outweigh strengths (more weaknesses than strengths), significant/major weaknesses (uniformly weak). An acknowledgement by the school of its position on such a continuum in relation to a number of themes will assist in the process of identifying its strengths and those areas of its operation where it considers further development and improvement is necessary.

Principles of equality

In accordance with the Education Act 1998, it is the policy of the Department of Education and Science to promote and support principles of equality, including gender equality, in primary education. Under Section 9(e) of the Act a school is required to

"promote equality of opportunity for both male and female students and staff of the school."

The school evaluation themes in this document reflect principles of equality in education and will be of assistance to primary schools in ensuring that school policies and practices meet equality requirements, including those under Section 7(2) of the Equal Status Act 2000. They will, therefore, be especially helpful in the planning, implementation and monitoring of progress on equality issues throughout the school.

Conclusion

It is intended that these evaluation themes will be continually updated to reflect changes in primary schools and in the education system generally. In this way they will continue to be of assistance and relevance to schools in their internal review and self-evaluation activities as part of the school development planning and school improvement process.