Review your colleagues’ postings and post a response to your colleagues’ comments. Address the following:
• Critique by supporting or refuting your colleagues’ analysis of roles and goals of internal and external evaluations. Consider your colleagues’ analysis of roles and goals of internal and external evaluations and provide one additional point for consideration.
• Reflect on how your colleagues’ examples of events, which illustrate the need for accountability, relate to examples in your own area of interest.
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The project focuses on the evaluation of Independent Schools in Canada. These institutions vary greatly depending upon the wants and needs of their users. Evaluation of these school present several challenges in the meeting of preconditions.(Www2.gov.bc.ca. 2017)
Technical Preconditions
IN this regard, the current evaluations methods are sufficient. There are already the technical capabilities in place for the successful evaluation of Independent Schools.(INDEPENDENT SCHOOL ACT)
Organizational Preconditions
This presents a significant problem in evaluation. At the moment there is an evaluative committee which oversees the evaluation.(INDEPENDENT SCHOOL ACT,1996-2017) Evaluations are done within various timeframes depending on the school classification. This ranges from 2 – 6 years. There are formal evaluations done with as needed informal evaluations between the prescribed times. As the authors point out (Wholey, 2010) a pitfall of these types of evaluations may be a change in the behaviour of the people being evaluated.
Political Preconditions
As mentioned above there are several pieces of legislation which dictate how evaluations will be carried out. A part of this process involves the schools being able to ask for further evaluations should the finding and recommendations (Wholey, 2010) not be to their liking. Another major concern in the evaluative process with concern the independent schools in the changing of legislation. There are been almost yearly amendments to these processes’. Furthermore, an evaluative committee must be able to recognize whenever this changes. (Www2.gov.bc.ca. 2017)
Social and cultural preconditions
Often times, Independent Schools exist due to the users wants to have their children educated in a certain religious, cultural or linguistic way.(www2.gov.bc.ca. 2017) This presents an issue as evaluators must be able to in some ways have a one size fits all attitude in terms of ensuring standards are met but also must be able to navigate some various cultural differences. (Richards, J., Vining, A. and Weimer, D. 2010)
Recommendations
Organizational Preconditions
To account for both the length of time and the fact that many of the individuals being evaluated may act in a different way, the use of randoms RFE’s would occur. (Wholey, 2010) This would be able to bridge the time difference between evaluations and ensure that there was not a large change in the behaviours of those being evaluated. For this evaluative process, a member of the committee must make it their responsibility to ensure that all changes are recorded, told to the evaluative committee, their subordinates and the school being evaluated.
Bibliography
Www2.gov.bc.ca. (2017). External Evaluation and Inspection for Independent Schools – Province of British Columbia. [online] Available at: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/administration/legislation-policy/independent-schools/external-evaluation-and-inspection-for-independent-schools [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
INDEPENDENT SCHOOL ACT. (2017). [ebook] Victoria: Ministry of Education. Available at: http://file:///C:/Users/Administrator/Downloads/independent_school_act_contents%20(4).pdf [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
Richards, J., Vining, A. and Weimer, D. (2010). Aboriginal Performance on Standardized Tests: Evidence and Analysis from Provincial Schools in British Columbia. Policy Studies Journal, 38(1), pp.47-67.
Wholey, J. S., H. P. Hatry, & K. E. Newcomer, (2010) Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation, 3rd edition, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
