COVID-19: Do we need to redefine practices for school inspections?

Professor Carmen Montecinos, Director of PUCV Lideres Educativos, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile
Professor Melanie Ehren, Director of LEARN!, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Professor Chris Chapman, Director of Policy Scotland, University of Glasgow

This paper presents the findings from a webinar with 17 colleagues from Inspectorates of Education from eight countries, discussing the question: Do we need to redefine practices for school inspections in response to the pandemic?

Delegates shared new practices that had been, or were intended to be, implemented in their jurisdictions with the purpose of: (a) producing evidence to evaluate schools’ quality and pupils’ growth, (b) identifying evidence available in the system that could be used to inform school quality, and (c) meeting the evolving needs of schools as well as of inspectors themselves.

Examples of changed practice that were discussed included:

Virtual and blended inspection practices
Judging the quality of online and blended learning
Innovative practices to address missing data due to the cancellation of exams and on-site visits
Engaging with parents and students

Across the four themes, inspection colleagues talked about how and why inspection practices are strengthening collaboration and the type of new skills and capacities which are needed to adapt to the changes in schools and education systems.

Please cite as: Montecinos, C., Ehren, M. C. M., and Chapman, C. (October 2020). COVID-19: do we need to redefine practices for school inspections? ICSEI internal report.

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