VELBERT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE QUALITY IN EDUCATION

Raising the quality of education, and consequently the standards of achievement, is one of the Government's key aims. In order to ensure that this objective is attained, the UK operates a system of quality assurance which is open to public scrutiny.

OFSTED 1 The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) is a non-ministerial government department which inspects and reports on the quality of education provided by state schools as well as the educational standards achieved in them.

OFSTED 2  each school is inspected every four to six years  inspections are carried out by teams of independent inspectors  the team is led by a Registered Inspector and comprises professional members (such as subject specialists) and at least one member who has no professional experience of teaching or of managing a school  teams bid against each other for contracts to inspect schools

OFSTED 3  once a contract has been won and the inspection has been carried out, a report is sent to the school and to OFSTED  this report is made available to parents of children at the school, the local media, libraries and local employers  the school then responds to the report by formulating an Action Plan which is also made available to parents.

SCHOOL EVALUATIONS: Testing and Assessment Standard Assessment Tasks (SATS): The ages for assessment are seven, eleven and fourteen years. SATs are used as a form of national external testing, to complement teachers' own assessments and schools' internal tests and examinations. GCSE: The exam emphasises coursework, examination and application of knowledge. Grades are awarded on a single seven-point scale: A, B, C, D, E, F and G.

SCHOOL EVALUATIONS: Testing and Assessment Evaluation procedures focus more on single subjects than links between them. There is a heavy emphasis on literacy and numeracy and the publishing of results Many individual schools (and LEAs) DO try to encourage cooperative learning, problem solving and citizenship but they worry about league tables and OFSTED inspections

SCHOOL EVALUATIONS: Output oriented evaluation takes place through the different stages of school education but not often beyond that, though Tameside tracks the progress of all ethnic minority pupils. The results of the evaluations lead the LEA advisors to work with schools on adjusting their targets. The schools are responsible for the targets but the LEA provides challenge and support.