Page 94 - ALR2018 Handbook

Modes of inquiry

One important aspect of this project is that it is an example of bringing an

improvement initiative to scale. All sub-projects run for 3 years and every semester 10
new school districts are added to the project and will get externa support from
universities with their improvement processes. The paper will describe the project
methods for improvement in relation to the State School Inspection reviews. We will
have access to and analyze different types of documents, the State Inspection report of

each school, each schools self-evaluation and response to the inspection and finally
each schools proposal for improvement activities. The two last documents are
produced by the schools in cooperation with the National Agency for Schools.

Data Sources

We will use a database, which contain data from all the mention 40 project school districts
and 60 schools. The empirical material will be both statistic information and interviews
collected fall 2017 and spring 2018.

Results

By studying how these underachieving schools understands and react to inspection reports
and external support, we will get new knowledge about the schools internal processes.
Preliminary results shows many of the schools have great challenges with the systematic
quality work that they are expected to have in their improvement processes. The schools
improvement actions relate to current highlighted strategies in Sweden such as collegial
learning and formative assessment but there are also local solutions related to the schools
culture and structure. There is an emphasis in all schools on dialogue and to help principals to
analyse and understand their own organization but there are less focus on the political or
central administrative level and its role in the school’s history of under preforming.

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