Educational effectiveness improvement research policy and practice: the rise of performance-based reform

Abstract

Systems of educational organisation are run in three ways (Anderson, 2005):

• Through ‘regulatory’ responsibility to rules, regulations etc. (what can be called ‘administrative accountability’);
• Through adherence to ‘professional’ norms, values and standards (‘professional accountability’);
• Through ‘results driven’ accountability related to the effectiveness and efficiency of the educational system in generating desired outcomes (‘performance’ or ‘outcome accountability’).

The first method demands compliance with rules, regulations and laws – current procedures about child protection are an example of this, as are the current Inspection Frameworks (albeit differently administered in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). The second method specifies the professional conduct, behaviour and processes expected from groups of professionals – the ‘Association of Educational Psychologists Code of Conduct’ is an example of this kind of accountability. And the third method attempts to take performance data about how well educational systems and schools individually have been doing into the society outside schools and colleges in order to give information to government, parents and the general public, which they will then use to inform their decisions about education.

The direction of travel over the last 30 years, internationally, has been strongly of the third type - performance based reforms - using the ‘demand’ side of education as a lever of improvement through parents choosing what they see as more appropriate schools for their children, and monitoring the performance of these schools and the education system more generally. Performance based reform has also been linked to the supply side of education directly – to the actions and operation of the national and local ‘states’ that run public education. This latter model is therefore one of simultaneous ‘supply-side/demand-side’ reform, and of ‘supply-side/demand-side’ accountability, and has become increasingly influential across the world’s educational systems over time. It is also closely related to the emergence and findings of EER.

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ORCID for Anthony Kelly: orcid.org/0000-0003-4664-8585

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