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Parental Participation in Schools
 
Parental Involvement in evaluating Schools
 
Austria: The roles of parents and students in Austrian schools and colleges
 
Waltraud Kuen
Parents' representative
 
Markus Murtinger
Students' chairman
 
School evaluation
 
In Austria, it has been widely recognised that the whole staff is responsible for the quality of an organisation. Schools and colleges are learning organisations which need to react quickly to changing circumstances. Initiatives to improve the quality of a school or college must therefore involve teachers, administrative staff, parents and all students.
 
To help deliver the best possible education for students at Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) schools and colleges, the Qualittsnetzwert for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (QTVET) was founded in 1994 to initiate and develop systematic quality management procedures.
 
Experiences of QTVET have been included in a quality initiative for schools called Quality in Schools (QIS). As part of this initiative, guidelines for the entire Austrian school system were defined in 1997. The quality development framework for Austrian schools includes a Schulprogramm and five key fields of quality.
 
Schulprogramm
 
A Schulprogramm should provide:
  • a common understanding among headteachers, teachers, parents and students about the aims and values of the school which should help develop a sense of identity and serve as a point of reference in cases of conflict;
  • a basis for evaluating provision and guiding developments;
  • a framework on which to deploy available staff and resources; and
  • a means of becoming more accountable and presenting school achievements to the public.
 
The Schulprogramm should be developed in partnership with teachers, administrative staff, parents and students. Schools should pay particular attention to five key fields of quality.
  • The quality of instruction including consideration of learning and teaching, programmes of study, student performance and student motivation
  • The quality of school and class ethos
  • School partnership between staff and students and links with business, industry and other agencies
  • The quality of school management including leadership of the headteacher, organisation and deployment of resources
  • Staff development of teachers and administrative staff
 
Schools are free to select the methods with which to evaluate the quality of their work. QTVET supports the exchange of information and good practice amongst TVE schools and colleagues and is extending this to all schools. It provides brief, practical advice on various approaches to quality management, identifies schools already making use of specific approaches, and promotes the sharing of experiences. QTVET is also developing support packages for school evaluation which emphasise the importance of involving staff at all levels and students in the process.
 
European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)
 
Vienna Business College 12 caters for students aged 15-19. It is involved in a quality management project based on the model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).
 
The EFQM-Model for Business Excellence offers a clearly-defined structure of criteria for describing and evaluating an organisation and for improving it systematically. The aim is to reach top performances by using the processes of assessment in an organisation.
 
The essential first stage of EFQM is to identify the quality of the current performance of the whole organisation. This stocktaking exercise focuses on nine criteria, which are of importance to the effectiveness of the organisation:
  • aims;
  • leadership;
  • staff;
  • resources;
  • assessments of the processes of the organisation;
  • client satisfaction;
  • employee satisfaction;
  • assessments of the organisation's achievements; and
  • positioning in society.
 
A key aim of EFQM is to raise awareness within every sub-section of the organisation, of how client satisfaction is the most important basis for the survival of any organisation. To ensure client satisfaction, there needs to be a shared understanding that the organisation can only function effectively if focused, target-oriented co-operation among the individual departments is regularly and systematically improved.
 
EFQM promotes self-assessment. Internal assessors are specifically trained for this task. They work in a team of around seven people and identify strengths and priorities for improvement on the basis of the evaluation of current performance. Their report is the basis for further decisions on improvements in the organisation.
 
EFQM indicates that the instrument of self-assessment can be used at regular intervals to monitor the performance of the organisation and to find out if it has actually achieved the improvement-related aims. Each organisation decides on the timing and frequency of its self-assessments. The full evaluation process follows a 3-4 year cycle.
 

graphic
 
The existence of a common language among organisations working with the EFQM-model offers good opportunities for exchanges of experiences with one another.
 
Professionals from outside an organisation are only involved when there is external bench-marking. In such cases, the organisation is evaluated in a report of no more than 75 pages, according to the EFQM-Model. A ranking system shows the overall quality of the organisation at a given time.
 
Following the EFQM principle that the quality of an organisation is the responsibility of the whole staff, every initiative for the improvement of quality in a school must also include parents and pupils.
 
Parents' and students' involvement in decision-making
 
To ensure the representation of pupil interests and their participation in school-life, pupil representatives are required to be elected in all schools, except in the pre-primary stage and at primary schools.
 
In addition to the rights granted to pupils as individuals, the pupil representatives have the right to be kept informed, so all laws, regulations and decrees concerning pupil issues in general need to be made accessible to the pupil representatives.
 
From the 5th grade, class representatives, are required to be elected by a direct poll of all pupils in a class. Class representatives are also members of the Pupil Representatives' Assembly, which is a forum for the discussion of issues concerning pupils' interests and participation in the life of the school. This Assembly provides a channel for the school representative to pass information to the class representatives and vice versa.
 
From the 9th grade, i.e. for all schools at upper secondary level and in vocational schools and training, a students' chairperson and two deputies are required to be elected by a direct poll of all students of the school. The chairperson and deputies take part in the School Committee, which is the representative body within the individual school and acts as the consultative and decision-making body of the school. This Committee comprises of the students' representatives, three teacher representatives, three legal guardian representatives and the head teacher (who has no vote).
 
The School Committee deals with important issues such as:
  • teaching and general education;
  • the use of budgetary resources allocated to the school for administrative purposes;
  • building projects in the school; and
  • decision-making rights on matters such as school rules and the planning of major school events.
 
Since 1993, the School Committee has also been responsible for decisions concerning school autonomy, particularly decisions on:
  • curricula;
  • the formation and division of groups; and
  • the introduction of a five-day week.
 
This has significantly increased the importance of the school partners in key aspects of school life.
 
Examples of success
 
In 1994, the School Committee of Vienna Business College 12 helped to develop a new educational role for the school with two main goals.
 
1. International dimension - an international qualification for students is achieved by using English as a classroom language for certain subjects, the improved learning of English and an external qualification in English language. This led to the development of Vienna Business College 12 as a bilingual commercial college.
 
2. Quality of Ethos - maintaining a good quality of ethos in classroom and amongst staff is a priority, reflecting the belief that high staff and student satisfaction lead directly to high student performance.
 
The success of representing students' views in the School Committee can be illustrated by the steps taken to improve the quality of the college cafeteria. The steps were as follows:
  • complaints made by students
  • headteacher informed
  • cafeteria informed of dissatisfaction
  • no improvement made
  • discussion in class speaker conferences
  • case referred to the School Committee for discussion
  • minutes of meetings discussed by the School Committee
  • cafeteria contract cancelled
  • new tenders received
  • students select a tender
  • headteacher implements the students' decision.
 
Conclusion
 
The involvement of students and parents, in partnership with teachers, resulted in tangible improvements to an identified weakness in provision. As a result, a main aim of EFQM had been met, namely:
  • raising awareness of how client satisfaction is the most important basis for the survival of an organisation, which can only function fully if staff at all levels engage in target-orientated co-operation.
 

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