The value of School Self‑ Assessment for Educational Process Quality Improvement

Abstract

In Lithuania and in every developed country in the world, it is important to ensure the effectiveness, continuity and competitiveness of educational institutions in new markets. Educational process quality is defined as student’s edification and comprehensive development of student’s innate powers in compliance with the standards of education and school goals.

In educational institutions quality must be ensured by school leaders and teachers as well as the whole school community. That is why it is important to establish an ongoing quality integrity system – self-assessment in schools. The e quality of educational process is assured by a continuous aspiration of perfection requiring to establish a regular and consistent evaluation system which can balance the state education policy, educational institution‘s goals and community needs.

To ascertain self-assessment’s influence of educational process quality in Lithuanian comprehensive schools the following research tasks were raised:

1) to describe the practice of self-assessment quality in Lithuanian comprehensive schools in 2008-2010;

2) to distinguish the advantages of self-assessment that help to raise the quality of the educational process in schools.

A survey was carried out in 2010–2011, to analyze how education quality in Lithuanian comprehensive schools is assessed and managed. Analysis of the survey data revealed that the quality of self-assessment and the usage of its results in comprehensive schools is far from perfect and does not completely meet the needs of students. The e survey confirms the necessity of closer cooperation among school leaders and community, for interaction helps to organize and manage expedient educational practice.