School self-evaluations and school inspections in Europe: an exploratory study

This article presents the results of an exploratory study into the effects of School Self-Evaluation (SSE) used by eight Education Inspectorates in seven European countries. This study reveals that in the countries where SSE is strongly incorporated into the school inspection system, there is a rather substantial degree of steering by the Inspectorate with respect to the form and content of the SSE; it also tends to be both oriented towards improvement and accountability (England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Northern Ireland). On the other hand, in countries where SSE holds a moderate or weak position in the school inspection structure, the degree of steering varies from open (Hesse, Denmark) to pre-structured (Belgium, Lower Saxony) and is more improvement-oriented.