To ensure and develop the quality of schools, external school evaluations are carried out or school inspections have been founded in some cantons.

The aim of the research project is to gain knowledge about the effects of external evaluations of schools. The project will investigate the cantonal quality frameworks, the procedures, the mechanisms and the effects of external school evaluations as well as the perceptions among the different actors, such as school administration/school supervision, school management and teachers.

The specificity of Switzerland with its federal structure will also be taken into account by examining external evaluation in different German-speaking cantons against the background of the respective cantonal contextual conditions. This project thus has a cantonal as well as an intercantonal perspective. In addition, the project has an international perspective; it is embedded in an EU project that is being conducted in collaboration with research consortia from nine different countries. Participating countries are the Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Norway. The USA, represented by Harvard University, is also participating in this project as a non-European country.

The research project is based on the following research questions:

How is external evaluation conducted in the Swiss cantons?

What types of external evaluation exist in Switzerland; how can they be distinguished?

How and to what extent does external evaluation contribute to the development of school quality, what are the intended and unintended mechanisms of impact?

This knowledge helps to develop an effective school evaluation and to contribute to a high school quality.