Involve Me and You Will Understand: Stakeholder Involvement and Use of Information in Decision Making by School Boards

• In Event: Data Use From a Comparative Perspective: Exploring How Teachers, Schools, and Districts Use Evidence and Research

Abstract

A global trend is that decision-making in education becomes more and more decentralized. The Netherlands is an example of a strong decentralized educational system; school boards in the Netherlands are responsible for most aspects of education. Decisions that boards have to make, involve several internal stakeholders. By use of a policy simulation, we tried to gain insight into the involvement of stakeholders and the use of information in decision-making processes of school boards. Our results indicate that stakeholders are only incidentally involved in the decision-making process. Moreover, boards use only a small portion of the available information. Nevertheless, the participation of stakeholders and the use of information seem to be a predictor for the quality of the board’s policy.

Authors

• Marinda Spithoff, Groningen Institute for Educational Research

• Gerry J. Reezigt, Inspectorate

• Roel J. Bosker, University of Groningen