The Evolution of School Inspection towards the Attainment of International Comparative Evaluation in Education

School Inspection is regarded as the core mechanism of quality improvement in education. Undeniably, the current demand for greater quality assurance and accountability has emerged as the prominent force in education influencing sustainable development goals of a nation. International comparative evaluations of education systems such as TIMSS, PISA and PIRLS have further prompted continuous reforms to fulfill the requirement of student attainment. These have created significant demand towards the changing face of school inspection. Henceforth, this study aims to investigate the leadership roles to meet the demand of change and growth in school inspection as a monitoring system in education. A mixed-methods approach was employed for the analysis and comparison of data from 120 leaders of the Malaysian High Performing Schools and three inspectors of the Malaysian School Inspectorate. Findings of this study identified the prominent roles of leadership featured in the inspection manual known as the Standard Quality of Education in Malaysia contributed to the leadership performance which gives rise to student outcome. This is parallel with the aspiration of the organization to promote improvement through school inspection in nurturing the quality of teaching and learning, leadership and management as well as the overall educational standards.