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Schools Must Speak for Themselves: The Case for School Self-Evaluation: Arguments for School Self-evaluation (Whats in It for Schools)
 
 
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Schools Must Speak for Themselves: The Case for School Self-Evaluation: Arguments for School Self-evaluation (Whats in It for Schools) [Paperback]

John MacBeath
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (11 Mar 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0415205808
  • ISBN-13: 978-0415205801
  • Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 18.3 x 1.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 706,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

More About the Author

John E. C. MacBeath
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Product Description

Review

"Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above."
-"Choice

Product Description

This best-selling book illustrates how schools can tell their own story. It draws on ground-breaking work with the National Union of Teachers to demonstrate a practical approach to identifying what makes a good school and the part that pupils, parents and teachers can play in school improvement. Its usefulness for and use by, classroom teachers to evaluate their practice will prove to be its greatest strength in an ever expanding effectiveness literature.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is an essential read for any school, any teacher who is genuinely interested in improving the quality of teaching and learning in their school. It is probably the best book I have read in the last twenty years. I unreservedly reccomend it.
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By A Customer
Format:Paperback
John MacBeath has been an acknowledged leader in the field of school self-assessment. Now at the University of Cambridge, MacBeath was, for several years, the Director of the Quality in Education Centre at the University of Strathclyde. The development of school-based indicators in Scotland laid the foundation for further work by MacBeath in England and Wales, under the auspices of the National Union of Teachers [NUT], and further work for the European commission (see review of Self-Evaluation in European Schools).

The purpose of the NUT study was to work together with a group of schools to develop a school-friendly but robust approach to self-evaluation. Six groups of stakeholders in a small sample of schools were asked to identify the key characteristics of a 'good' school and then to rate a set of externally derived criteria of school performance. This study and subsequent follow-up are reported in Schools Must Speak for Themselves.

Indicators, or other measures of school performance, do not work in isolation; each of them is a fragment of a much larger picture. The attempts to capture this broader picture have taken the shape of building models or frameworks. The framework arising from the NUT project first appears to be defined simply by ten themes but then is presented in terms of four key elements: an overarching philosophy; procedural guidelines; a set of criteria or 'indicators;' and a tool kit. Although we would take issue with the way various terms such as 'criteria' and 'indicators' are defined and used, the book combines content and process in a frame unified by a way of thinking about assessment as a component of school improvement.

Schools Must Speak for Themselves introduces the tool kit in one chapter and then devotes a entire chapter to it, organized around the ten themes which emerged from the NUT study. MacBeath presents a description, with examples, of quantitative evidence, qualitative evidence and the methods and instruments that could be used for assessing each of the elements that define the theme. Generally speaking, the material is useful and practical, with helpful examples to illustrate the methods. However, there is some confusion in the presentation of quantitative versus qualitative evidence, and a need for greater semantic clarity of terms.

Implicit in this book is the underlying importance of values, more particularly, the importance of measuring what you value. Values are at the heart of any debate on schooling, and by extension, the assessment of schooling. Self-assessment helps the school to focus on what its stakeholders value most, and not to be driven solely by the goals of the system.

The key question after reading this book is whether their author has made the case for school self-assessment and contributed to our understanding of this policy approach. The answer to both questions, in a word, is yes. School self-assessment is a key building block for school improvement and any school leader who takes the time to read this book will find that the time was well spent.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
We have, I hope, moved on the main tenets of educational research now, away from the flawed reliance on questionnaires. Let us not lose the ground gained by a number of esteemed researchers throughout the 1990s. I could not recommend this book to anyone seeking a considered and visionary look at an education system. The very slack use of questionnaires is most disappointing. We in the field of education must not rely on this technique. There are many original books in this area but I could not describe this as one. Very poor.
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