Principals’ attitudes towards on-site school evaluations: contribution to sustained school reform

Test-based accountability offers schools limited guidance on informing sustained reforms, whereas on-site school evaluations provide broader and more nuanced evidence. In order to transform inspection feedback into long-term reforms, school leaders’ attitudes towards these evaluations are critical. Relying on organizational change theory, this study examines principals’ beliefs regarding school inspection feedback effectiveness and appropriateness as well as their readiness to implement changes. A large US district that has experimented with such school inspection serves as the case study. The results demonstrate the principals’ strong positive attitudes towards inspection, and these attitudes are associated with sustained change. But, because the accountability framework did not center on inspection, principals were ambivalent about implementing specific changes. This study highlights the tensions involved in incorporating on-site, expert evaluations in test-based accountability systems.