This research provides policy-makers, researchers, and educators at all levels with a glimpse of the contextual influence on effective school improvement (ESI) in 8 European countries. What are the factors at the contextual level, particularly at the national level, which influence ESI? Are there any similarities or differences between the influences they exert on ESI in different countries? Can common traits be identified? These are the core questions this paper tries to explore. It has drawn on insights from 5 areas of research: school effectiveness; school improvement; curriculum; public choice (marketization); organization, organizational learning, and learning organization. This yields a "goal - pressure - support" conceptual framework accompanied by 10 contextual factors and 48 indicators. Given the original conceptual framework and the empirical support of 31 case studies contributed by 8 European countries, the findings of this study may have significant implications for policy, practice, school effectiveness, and school improvement.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to find out what kind of contextual factors that positively or negatively influence effective school improvement (ESI) in The Netherlands.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the above‐mentioned purpose, Sun's contextual level model with ten contextual factors and 48 indicators has been used to carefully identify and evaluate three large Dutch ESI programs.FindingsThe findings showed that the factors fostering ESI at the Dutch contextual level were: external evaluation and external agents; national goal setting in terms of student outcomes; an adequate time, financial and human resource support; strong centrally steering and empowering ESI; national goal setting in terms of school improvement; engendering a culture in support of ESI; school accountability; offering school some autonomy. The factors hindering ESI at the Dutch national contextual level were: market mechanisms, allowing too much school/teacher autonomy in test taking; and instability of school staff and school counselors.Practical implicationsSun's model with ten factors and 48 indicators can be used to identify or to evaluate the positive or negative factors at the contextual level of any ESI programs in different countries. The findings of this study may have significant implications for ESI, practice and policymaking.Originality/valueThe paper identifies and evaluates positive or negative contextual factors of ESI.

This article describes the empirical research that contributed to the development of the model of "effective school improvement". The focus is mainly on the findings of that research but the problematic nature of designing a methodology that is applicable in 8 very different education systems is also discussed. The 4 key factors to emerge from the research were the importance of context, the role of external changes agents, the importance of internal change agency, and the complexity of the relationship between all the factors and influences. These factors and their contribution to the emerging ESI model are discussed in relation to the theoretical reflections reported in the previous article.

In this article, we describe the history, current practice and future of teacher evaluation in The Netherlands. After a short introduction describing the Dutch educational system, we present information about teacher evaluation practices performed by persons outside the school (the Inspectorate) and inside the school (the principal). We then pay attention to the progress of teacher and school effectiveness research in The Netherlands and the relatively weak links between research and evaluation practices in schools. Finally, we outline some potential future developments in the field of teacher evaluation in The Netherlands.

In a research project into the effectiveness of mathematics teaching in the first year of secondary education, external observers and students rated teachers' behaviour. The reliability and validity of both methods were established. The results show that teacher behaviour is assessed well when student ratings are aggregated at the classroom level. The quality of aggregated student ratings is as good as the quality of data from external observers. The predictive validity of aggregated student ratings is higher than the predictive validity of external observations when subject motivation is taken as a dependent variable.

Description du projet PEQIP (Projet pour l'Amelioration de la Qualite dans l'Enseignement Primaire) en Indonesie. L'objectif de ce projet etait d'introduire de nouvelles politiques et mecanismes devant permettre l'amelioration du niveau general de l'education primaire et de l'efficacite pedagogique, par la reduction des resultats mediocres obtenus dans la derniere decennie, dus notamment au faible niveau de formation des enseignants et a des manuels scolaires inadaptes.

ABSTRACT Results from school effectiveness studies that took into account differences among teachers or departments within schools indicate that these teacher or department differences outweigh the differences between schools. The present study shows that differences in student achievement between parallel classes taught by different teachers may be very small. Coordination efforts among teachers relate primarily to the content and goals of instruction. With respect to classroom instruction large differences between teachers may still be detected. School effectiveness differences usually found across grades and subjects may be due only in part to loose internal coordination. The fact that it is extremely difficult for teachers to compare the results of teaching across grades and subjects may be equally important.

In this study quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) were calculated between hydrophobicity of a group of organic chemicals with anaesthetic potency and toxicity (immobilization, mortality and inhibition of reproduction) to Daphnia magna . Differences in slopes of the high quality QSARs might be explained in terms of possible different sites of action for the three criteria of effect. The combined effects of mixtures of 5–50 chemicals on immobilization and mortality did not deviate from additivity, while the effect on reproduction deviated somewhat from it.

1 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 2. BACKGROUND AND OBJECT IVES OF TH E PROJECT 10 2.1 Background information for the construction of an ESI model 10 2.2 The role of models in educational science 12 2.3 General principles for the construction of an ESI model 13 3. SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTIO N OF THE PROJECT RES ULTS AND METHODOLOGY 15 3.1 Contribution from theories to an ESI model 15 3.1.1 School improvement theories 15 3.1.2 Curriculum theories 16 3.1.3 Behavioural theories 17 3.1.4 Theories of organisation, organisational learning and the learning