Indicators for Participatory Assessment of Schools in Turkey: Monitoring Schools with the School Community

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Strengthening Schools through Participation: Leadership Models, Community Monitoring, and Student Support Reforms

Proposal

In Turkey, where top-down accountability mechanisms in school evaluation often reflect and reinforce societal divisions, this study promotes participatory evaluation as a means of building understanding rather than increasing divisions within school communities. The Education Reform Initiative (ERG) is an independent non-profit think-and-do-tank that has been examining the quality of education in Turkey since 2003. Since 2007, it has been issuing Education Monitoring Reports annually (ERG, 2025). In Turkey, most school-level evaluations are conducted with a top down approach, with limited input from students, teachers, and parents. They prioritize inspections that are based on compliance over evaluations that are focused on improvement (Kurum & Cinkir, 2022). Although the Ministry of National Education's 2024–2028 Strategic Plan emphasizes school-based monitoring and evaluation, it lacks participatory frameworks that have been shown to support school improvement (MoNE, 2023; Chapman & Sammons, 2013; Antoniou et al., 2016).

School self-evaluation (SSE) is increasingly prevalent in global educational reforms, as it is required in most OECD nations (O'Brien, McNamara, & O'Hara, 2014). Using Lipsky's (1980) idea of street-level bureaucracy, our theoretical framework sees teachers and students as policy actors who, by implementing policies, translate theoretical changes into real-world use. This viewpoint contests conventional hierarchical evaluation frameworks by seeing all educational stakeholders as contributors of knowledge concerning school quality (MacBeath, 2006; McNamara & O'Hara, 2008). Further, evaluation processes could become more democratic by positioning parents, teachers, and students as co-researchers instead of providers of data (O'Brien et al., 2022).

Our research will conduct interviews with parents, teachers, and students in pilot focus groups to formulate indicators for a participatory evaluation of schools. By employing the principles of participatory action research, stakeholders not only share their views but also help frame research questions and make sense of the results (Creswell, 2012). We will create indicator toolkits to provide individuals in the education field with a way to monitor their schools.

Our indicators will be both diagnostic and prescriptive tools (Chapman & Sammons, 2013; MacBeath, 2006). Each indicator will be linked to potential pathways for improvement, rather than just identifying issues (Hofman et al., 2009). The development process consists of three steps: 1) creating indicators with stakeholders’ input and testing them; 2) researching how schools have dealt with similar problems, making a database of different ways of doing things and their results; and 3) making guidance materials that link the problems that have been found to possible solutions, based on various examples from different settings.

The conference's examination of education's function in reducing divisions and fostering social cohesion is consistent with this bottom-up evaluation methodology. Administrators, teachers, parents, and students are invited to examine the schools through the participatory process, which provides organized chances for cooperative problem-solving. The project investigates whether participatory evaluation processes can help schools practice democratic engagement and peaceful conflict resolution, which are skills crucial for navigating divided societies.

Author

• Seyma Dagistan Terzi, Education Reform Initiative