Top-down and bottom-up approaches to improve educational quality: their intended and unintended consequences

Excerpt

One of the main topics covered by this journal during the last three years is teacher assessment and evaluation, which has been put forward as an important strategy for assuring and developing educational quality in many countries, particularly the USA (please see Skedsmo and Huber 2018). This is also an important topic in this issue, which focuses on approaches and models to improve teaching and overall school practice, including in schools in socially disadvantaged areas. Moreover, the importance of involving practitioners’ perspectives in such approaches is addressed, as are questions related to the validity of instruments across different educational contexts and possible consequences underperformance may have for the school climate. …