Research on School Improvement in Scandinavia.

In this selective review of research of school improvement in the Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Norway, and Sweden—we use the definition of "school improvement" first proposed by Miles and Ekholm [26]. They state that school improvement is "a systematic, sustained effort aimed at change in learning conditions and other related conditions in one or more schools, with the ultimate aim of accomplishing educational goals more effectively" [p. 48]. Using this definition, we focus on school improvement that occurs at the local level. We also focus on efforts that are planned and managed rather than those that are haphazard. We deal mainly with school improvement at the comprehensive level of the school system in the three countries.