Evaluating Schools

This book provides an analysis of how inspection teams evaluate schools – especially how they decide on assigning scores. It shows how the governance of schools through evaluation is enacted pragmatically. With its focus on the practice of evaluation by a group of external experts, it contributes to the expanding interdisciplinary field devoted to studying phenomena of the ‘evaluation society’ spanning from assessment research to programme evaluation, from the psychology of decision-making to the sociology of valuation and evaluation.

Additionally, it argues that official inspection systems frame the inspection process, but cannot fully determine scoring practice. The implementation of official scoring guidelines is characterized by irreducible uncertainty requiring professional discretion for its resolution. Inspection teams thus must employ a flexible and pragmatic approach to finalize their scoring task. By drawing on empirical data from six observed inspection teams from two German states, it provides profound insights into how real evaluation decisions were made. This book is valuable to anyone seeking to understand evaluation in education – in particular scholars, policy-makers and educators in the field of school evaluation and accountability.