A scorecard for monitoring and evaluation of governance of special schools in the Western Cape

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Conflicts and dysfunctionality in public schools is often the cause of poor schoolperformance and learner outcomes. This often is a direct result of poor schoolgovernance. Studies have previously identified a number of factors affecting thestandard of school governance. One of these is absence of an effective monitoringand evaluation system for school governance. The current approach of WholeSchool Evaluation, which incorporates the Integrated Quality Management System(IQMS), unfortunately does not possess adequate tools for the measurement ofschool governance with view to identifying specific areas of failure.School governance failures are widespread and costly, but effective governance canprovide significant benefits not just for the schools but also for the department, thecommunity and the learners themselves. However, there are two challenges: movingbeyond suggestive anecdotes to a systematic approach for measuring thegovernance of schools, and using the data and rigorous analysis to support schoolsand improve governance.The researcher has designed a measurement instrument to address this particulargap in the management of public schools. This takes the form of a balancedscorecard based on the Kaplan and Norton Model, but has been specificallydeveloped for measuring the public, education and non-profit sector. A number ofschool governance performance areas based on regulatory frameworks such as theSouth African Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996) have been linked to specific indicatorsand measures. These performance areas related to key targets in order to ascertainthe achievement of good school governance outcomes. A learning anddevelopmental approach in the form of a peer review format using a clear and simpleprocess has been developed to apply this measurement system.Through an evaluation study the normative model was applied and tested at selectedspecial schools throughout the Education Management and Development Centres(EMDC) in the Western Cape to test the hypothesis that such a balanced scorecardeffectively measures school governance while identifying actual areas of failure. It therefore enables School Governing Bodies (SGBs) to focus on these failures inorder to improve school governance and therefore promote the schools' overallperformance. The outcomes of the study have been so impressive that the systemcan be further developed with stakeholder organisations utilising an online approachthat can improve management and save time in view of the schools' 'time-on-taskfocus. This is the national government term for time management in teaching andlearning in schools. Participants at selected schools further indicated that, witheffective orientation and training of SGBs and application teams, this instrument canproduce good school and learner outcomes.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University