Modalities and mechanisms of effective school inspections

A public seminar from the Department of Education, given by Dr Melanie Ehren, senior lecturer at the London Centre for Leadership and Learning. School inspections are assumed to have a great impact on what students learn and how they learn it but the intermediate steps between inspection and eventual student learning outcomes are vague. It remains largely unclear how these various levers of change employed by inspectorates interact with each other to influence schools and whether particular approaches and methods are more effective than others. This seminar summarizes findings from two recent literature reviews and addresses the results of a three year longitudinal comparative study which aimed to identify and analyze the causal mechanisms intended to link school inspections to their desired outcomes, particularly improved teaching and learning. The keynote will also briefly reflect on the changing landscape in England and how school inspections can adapt to a ‘self improving school system’.