The improper control of Ishiharaʼs Tokyo metropolitan government has completely destroyed democratic and independent education in the country. However, this means that the Board of Educationʼs mission is the old Fundamental Law of Education, Article 10ʠEducation shall not be subject to improper control but it shall be directly responsible to the whole peopleʡ. It is also a question of whether we were able to protect or not. Once, Kunitachi supported the decision of the board of education which chose the four town system at the time of ʼKinpyouʼ. There was a trusting relationship between the Board of Education and the public through an incessant dialogue. Ishiharaʼs intervention has systematically divided the relationship by capturing the superintendent of education, dispatching the staff of the guidance section from the Metropolitan Education Commission, conducting short-term transfer personnel affairs of the teacher and the principal, vetoing the election of the education committee of the assembly, and conducting attacks using the media. By doing these things, the Board of Education and education itself were taken away from the local citizens. The only way to counter this is to foster the power of citizen autonomy through open education.

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'Zero Tore' (i.e. zero tolerance)Standards are entering school sites like a boom. The standard determines not only the teaching content but also the teaching method uniformly, and creative educational practices made to correspond to the actual individual child are limited. And zero tolerance functions as something that goes beyond the standard without any questions. These can also be described as improper control over teachers who are in charge of education. How has the school changed over time? The words 'consistent instruction' and 'resolute instruction' were used 40 years ago, which was said to be the third delinquent peak. Is there a difference between that and the current 'Zero Tore' Standard? By examining the change of school(old basic education law enacted to realize the ideal of the Constitution, the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994, revision of the Basic Education Law in 2006, etc.)in conjunction with oneʼs own history, I considered 'just, popular will' and 'improper control' in education.

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In this paper, I considered the way of democracy that supports the autonomy required for the practice of education from the viewpoint ofʠimproper controlʡand ʠfair peopleʼs willʡ. In particular, I considered the ideal of the domain of political discretion that has also existed in the field of education(with conflict, the way of collective decision making over education). And I argued that the following three points are required for educational institutions that reflectʠjust, popular willʡ.(1) The need for a more direct democracy,(2)the establishment of trust by public opinion, and(3)the need for a mechanism to prevent the discussions from becoming rigid. I argued that there is a need for a school management system in which ʠimproper controlʡis excluded andʠjust, popular willʡis reflected. To that end, I argued that the relationship between education and politics was questioned.

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Ofsted and much more transparent accountability systems came about in response to public alarm about rapidly declining education standards in the ʼ70s and ʼ80s. The three decades of failure together with a litany of school scandals in the 1980s prompted the government to set up a national inspectorate which would inspect every school every few years. Inspection has been part of our education system over many years, but it is only since 1992 and the advent of Ofsted that schools have beensubject to routine inspection. Ofsted contributes to a performance culture, which certainly didnʼt exist in schools when I first became a teacher and headteacher. This has undoubtedly raised standards for all children. However, the relentless pace of reform together with very demanding accountability measures, have placed an enormous burden on schools. It has meant a lot of pressure on leaders and teachers, resulting in claims of burnout and disenchantment amongst significant numbers in the profession. Teacher supply is only going to get worse. Call for change is mounting inexorably and more questions now being asked about the future of Ofsted. The UK, therefore, needs to recalibrate. It mustnʼt 'throw the baby out with the bath water' and scrap everything that has improved our system, but it must now consider whether it is time to put much greater time and effort into capacity rather than focus on school structures and high-level accountability.

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In Japan there was no education decay equivalent to what took place in Britain. Japanese schools are not independent corporations like British schools. School choice is not allowed in Japanese compulsory education. These are the reasons why there is no Ofsted in Japan.

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This paper reviews the transition of Ofsted style, depending on the achievements of the Japanese previous studies on the school evaluation and Ofsted. This review has an eye to clarify the lacking points in the Japanese school evaluation, by reference to the evaluation tools, the evaluation cycle, the cultivation of evaluators, and the accumulation of data in Ofsted style. As a result, any school-self-evaluative frame focusing on the lesson and learning is essential in Japan too. And, as in order to develop an effective frame, prefectures shall construct the accumulation system of evaluative data. For the evidence-based educational administration, at the same time, developing a system of capable personnel with analytical capacity will be important. So that, from the perspective of Japanese Structural Reform, prefectures shall build the evidenced-based school evaluation system by the experimental struggle to develop such frame, such accumulation system, and to nurture such personnel. Though, the solution of those tasks is the responsibility of educational academia, and, peculiarly, a mission of this association. This paper is summery of the speech at open symposium 2018 in Senshu University. Because of limited space, the details of that speech have been reduced.

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This article demonstrates an idea, which composed the theme motifs for the SymposiumʞGlobal Education Reform Movement and Effect Verification Systems for Education: Ofstedʼs Experience and the Present Educational Policy in Japanʟheld at the 25th Annual Conference. It is important to grasp the Ofstedʼs historical events in a sequence, not as separate events. A quarter of a century of the Ofsted can be seen as a constant development of its role towards that of anʞintelligent agencyʟfor educational administration; which effectively identifies failing schools to concentrate most of its resources to help those difficult cases. This scheme is available based on a huge real time database of education, which the nationwide Ofsted inspection system has generated. The database enables the Ofsted to have slimmed down inspections for outstanding and good schools and saves energy and then to concentrate into failing schools inspecting them intensively. To get this view, it is crucial to rethink the nature of the Woodhead period, i.e. the second HMCIʼs period. This period is widely known as the harsh confrontation period against teachersʼ unions because of Woodheadʼs strict inspection policy. However, this period should rather be understood as the time when the basis of the later huge database was prepared together with the culture of accountability. This unique system would not be able to be introduced straight into Japan because of the background differences.

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The learning support project for children, including the creation of the environment for childrenʼs comfortable living and development, is implemented as the welfare measures aimed at breaking the chain of poverty by the local governments. However, the national government provides administrative guidance to the local governments to assess this project using the high school entry rate as an assessment index. As a result, many local governments place importance on the high school entry rate as the purpose of this project, while they underestimate the environment for childrenʼs comfortable living and development. Based on the Constitution of Japan(Article 13, 25, 26)and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child(Articles 6, 27, 29), the learning support project should be primarily intended to guarantee the childʼs right to development. And, by a combination of educational support and welfare assistance, it should be a social support project that encourages the child facing poverty. I will clarify the significance and advantage of the integrated social service project for childrenʼs welfare and education from the viewpoint that emphasizes the collaboration between the administrative bodies and NPO etc., and presents an alternative assessment index to the high school entry rate.

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The Fundamental Principles regarding Measures to Tackle Childrenʼs Poverty (Kodomo no Hinkon Taisaku ni kansuru Taiko), adopted by the Cabinet on 26th August 2014, designated schools as a platform for those measures. In contemporary Japanese society, schools are required to ensure that children from impoverished families do well academically and to do so they need to build more collaborative relations with the concerned families and neighbouring communities. This is also the case in other countries where the role of the school is expanded to provide child welfare, family and community services in addition to instruction. This report reviews the rationale for the expansion of the schoolʼs function, its benefits and criticisms. Most of the current policies and practices that advocate for more integration between education and welfare accept a neo-liberal project either intentionally or not, and within those boundaries take care of equality and expand the function of the school. However, it is naïve to assume that simply relocating child welfare, family and community services within or around the school will redress socio-structural inequality and exclusion. We need to discuss thoroughly how 'childrenʼs poverty' should be defined in the first instance and then what schools are expected to do; to help the children attain those skills that the labour market requires or to play a more significant role in transforming our society into a more equal and democratic one.

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This paper focuses on the Regional Youth Support Stations(RYSS)project as a public measure introducing the market principle, and clarifies the impact of the project evaluation in quasi-market by reviewing the quantitative data of the RYSS project. In addition, through this analysis, this paper extracts the implications of introducing the market principle to various educational policies. The analysis shows that the RYSS project aims to provide reasonable and efficient business operations based on the specific viewpoint of the RYSS project evaluation. This result also demonstrates the binding force of project evaluations in quasi- markets. However, by sharpening the evaluation criteria, there is a possibility that the institutional features that were originally owned by the RYSS project would be trivialized. From the above findings, there are two suggestions for introducing the market principle to various educational policies. Firstly, educational practices that cannot be standardized to a specific achievement viewpoint would be disregarded with the sharpening of evaluation criteria. Secondly, when setting the specific achievement viewpoints in various educational policies, it is necessary to continue to consider the validity of whether the viewpoints can examine clearly the educational value and outcomes that are expressed by each educational policy or practice.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role, content, and trend of using 'lesson standards' that are created by municipal school boards, focusing on whether or not the performance indicator of academic achievement test is set. Lesson standards are defined as a norm about the process of the lesson, instruction method, and learning discipline. We clarified that there are two kinds of lesson standards:(1)lesson standards to be followed, which are compulsory, and(2)lesson standards as a reference, which teachers refer to when they create their own lesson plans. Lesson standards to be followed are a part of the academic achievement policies enacted by municipalities. Importance is put on the academic development of students in a lesson. On the other hand, lesson standards as a reference are not a tool for municipalities to achieve the performance indicator; they are not meant for academic development. In order to stimulate teachersʼ growth as reflective practitioners or adaptive experts, municipal school boards, especially supervisors, should help schools and teachers by not imposing a particular lesson practice and enforcing blind adherence to it.

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze and examine the change of educational policy about juku in Japan, and to clarify the historical process up to today. The historical process was divided into three stages, focusing on how juku changed from criticism to acceptance in the educational policy. The results are as follows. First, from the late 1970s to the 1980s, the stage was set to expand the criticism of juku. The problems related to juku were emphasized, and various efforts not to attend juku have been implemented. In this stage, school and local government did not reach the idea of the acceptance of juku. Second, from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, was the stage of accepting but criticizing juku. The Ministry of Education tried to change the role of juku in accordance with the new idea of the educational policy, while taking consideration of the criticism of juku. Third, after the early 2000s, was the stage of accepting while suppressing the criticism of juku. The request of the role conversion did not look back, and the cooperation between juku and school or local government is progressing.

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