Making School Reform Work: New Partnerships for Real Change

Chapter 9. A School Inspectorate

98 james harvey 98 NINE A School Inspectorate james harvey the language of the British School Inspections Act of 1996 rolls impressively off the page: “Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled , and by the authority of the same, as follows. . . .”1 With that stock formulation, developed over centuries to precede every enactment of Parliament, the English government in 1997 rechartered Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Schools in England and Wales, a system first established in 1839.2 The legislation defined the functions and authority of separate chief inspectors for each country, provided for a registry of inspectors, outlined a procedure for inspections and the reports they produced , and defined powers over schools “requiring special measures.” Separately, as part of the Labor Government’s devolution of authority, similar Scottish statutes provided in 2001 for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland.3 These institutions are part of a great tradition of inspectorates in British civil administration, dating back more than a century. These include Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, Her Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate, Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution, among others.4 The scope of issues before these officials is as broad as the range of institutions they are required to evaluate. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Schools can be said to be fawned upon. In 1995, the school a school inspectorate 99 reform enacted in Massachusetts provided for a system of school inspectors for the charter schools the reform authorized.5 Denmark and Israel have adapted inspectorates partially copied from the English model. The Republic of Ireland began to experiment with a system of inspectors in 1998–99.6 Apparently, considerable interest exists in on-site, human , face-to-face evaluation as part of comprehensive assessment of school effectiveness. Naturally, several questions arise. Could something similar to these English inspectors usefully be added to the American reform movement? Might site visits supplement the test-based accountability approach that now dominates American schools? Can we improve the emphases on standards and evaluation embedded in American school reform by borrowing anything from the inspectorate system in England? Or is the concept of the inspectorate valueless in today’s reform context—as dated, timeworn, and anachronistic as the enabling language of English statutes, the idea of “Lords Spiritual and Temporal,” and the very concept of “Majesty,” indeed monarchy, itself? In sum, my view is that although the concept cannot be imported root and branch from the Old World to the New, experiments in Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Virginia clearly show that expert assistance to distressed schools provides many of the benefits of an inspectorate without much of the baggage. Power and Authority of the Inspectorate The power and authority of the chief inspector of schools, and consequently the derivative powers enjoyed by school inspectors, are sweeping. Unlike the inspector-general of the U.S. Department of Education, who is empowered to investigate only programs and procedures supported by the parent department, the chief inspectors are authorized to look into the nooks and crannies of practically every state-funded primary and secondary school in England, Scotland, and Wales. The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), officially the Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools in England, is a nonministerial government department, independent of the cabinet’s Department of Education and Skills.7 It is charged with improving “standards of achievement and quality of education through regular independent inspection [of schools], public reporting and informed independent advice.”8 It defines its principal task as managing a system of school inspection that provides 100 james harvey for regular examination of all 24,000 schools in England that are wholly or mainly state supported. In recent years, the office’s writ has been expanded to include reviews of local education authorities; initial teacher training courses; private, voluntary, and independent nursery programs; independent schools; service children’s education; and youth services funded by the local education authority. In pursuit of this broad mandate, the chief inspector possesses statutory authority to keep the secretary of state for education and employment informed about: —The quality of education provided by schools in England; —The educational standards achieved by...