While there is ample literature regarding theory underlying whole school evaluation (WSE), there are few examples of implementation. This paper provides a case example in one jurisdiction; the public school system in the State of Victoria, Australia. The paper shows how a commitment to mutual accountability underlies implementation success. On one hand, the State Department of Education (DoE) encourages individual schools to use WSE for improvement purposes. On the other, each school provides outcome information that enables the DoE to aggregate outcome information across the system, for accountability purposes. The paper outlines key strategies that have led to the success of this systemic arrangement.

This paper reviews the school evaluation system in Korea to identify the system’s characteristics and problems for provision of a new direction. The jurisdiction on schools is prescribed by law and the school evaluation is a part of administrative affairs. Accordingly, school evaluations over elementary and secondary schools are controlled by the 17 local autonomous entities and higher educational institutions overseen by the central government (Ministry of Education). In the case of elementary and secondary schools, the evaluations are further diversified depending on the elected local superintendent. Recently, external evaluation has mostly disappeared as it was replaced by internal evaluation and follow-up consultation that was suggested as alternatives to improve the educational quality. Although quantitative evaluation as prescribed by law is mainly used in the evaluation process, qualitative evaluation is what actually determines the results, and typical perspective has been transformed from “positivistic” to “constructivist” paradigm. In this process, there has been an emerging issue on the accountability of school education. To review those matters, this paper considered first, the relationship between school evaluation system and the local governments, and summarized periodical transition process of evaluation system. And finally a comparative analysis was conducted to study the managing status of school evaluation in each local government body by studying the 16 MPOEs except one, the newly opened Sejong Office of Education.

This study analyzed the characteristics of elementary and junior high school evaluation in Taiwan. Document analysis was used to examine the evaluation systems of seven local governments across Taiwan. The context of Taiwanese educational evaluation was first analyzed. Then, referring to a theoretical framework, this study investigated the evaluation practices of elementary and junior high schools in terms of purposes, organization, evaluators, procedures, criteria, methods, reporting, and intended evaluation use. Finally, challenges involving school evaluation systems were discussed. This study highlighted how government-mandated school evaluation practices are structured and challenged in the context of education reform.

This note describes the current trend of school evaluation in Japan, points out its characteristics, and considers what is wanted. Starting with a broad overview of the system of school evaluation, this note will introduce the idea that school evaluation has functioned more poorly than expected, and the note will describe seven specific factors that may have obstructed the successful implementation of school evaluation. These seven factors are: 1) a lack of accurate understanding of the meaning of the Japanese word “evaluation”; 2) school evaluation not linked to schools’ goals; 3) poor indicators for evaluation; 4) evaluation results not utilized for school improvement; 5) an absence of appropriate evaluators or coordinators; 6) a lack of training courses; and 7) poor funding. These issues do not appear in all Japanese schools, and every factor requires further investigation; however, this note provides the hypothetical characteristics of typical Japanese schools. Researchers may be able to share tentative conclusions for comparison between school evaluation systems as they are implemented in other countries.