Germany - North Rhine-Westphalia

Germany - North Rhine-Westphalia

Germany - North Rhine-Westphalia

Quality Analysis in North Rhine-Westphalia is an external school evaluation procedure, comparable to “school inspection” in other German states and other European countries. It was introduced in August 2006 and is compulsory for all public schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. Quality Analysis aims at providing public schools in North Rhine-Westphalia with data-based information on the progress of their development and to support the schools in their future decisions.
Overall responsibility for the Quality Analysis program lies with the Ministry of School and Education of North Rhine Westphalia, department 414 – “Quality Analysis”. It defines policy, strategy and standards. The specific organisation of the inspections is delegated to the five district governments, where specific Quality Analysis departments (“Dezernat 4Q” / “Section 4Q”) were established in 2006. These departments are part of the School Supervisory Boards, which are responsible for controlling and supporting public schools. The Quality Analysis departments work independently, yet cooperate with the School Supervisory Boards.
Since 2013, the procedure and the instruments of Quality Analysis have been updated and refined. Starting with the school year 2015/2016, all schools will be evaluated according to the newly defined procedure of Quality Analysis. In districts where all schools of a specific school type have been inspected, a second round of school inspection begins.
Schools are involved in the process of Quality Analysis from the very beginning. They actively contribute to organising and designing their ‘own’ inspection. Since 2017 the Inspection Framework of North Rhine-Westphalia, which closely refers to the Reference Framework for School Quality North Rhine-Westphalia, serves as a basis for all inspections. In addition to the compulsory criteria of the inspection framework, optional criteria can be agreed on by the school and the school inspection team. A full inspection is carried out at the request of the school only. The newly defined procedure of Quality Analysis consists of a preliminary phase and a main phase. Both phases are characterised by transparency, participation and cooperation. Depending on the schools development stage, the main phase takes place within a maximum of two years after the “initiative meeting”, which is part of the preliminary phase.
During the main phase, the actual school inspection takes place. On the basis of various sources of information, the inspection team compiles a quality report on the school. The quality report highlights strengths and potential weaknesses and explains the results regarding the compulsory and the agreed optional criteria. The aim is to provide a strong impetus to the sustainable improvement of school quality. The quality report will then be analysed by the various panels of the school. Binding targets are agreed with the responsible School Supervisory Board. This can lead to the conclusion of agreements with institutions offering further education for teachers.
 

By Global Administrator| 12/20/2011| Inspection Profiles|