Evaluation systems in a crowded policy space: Implications for local school governance

Abstract

Evaluation systems of various types are an integral part of a country's education policy space, within which they are supposed to have the basic functions of enhancing accountability and supporting school development. Here we argue that in a crowded policy space evaluation systems may interfere with each other in a way that can have unintended consequences and create new ‘policies by the way’ that are not the result of intentional policy decisions. To shed light on this argument, we examine five of approximately 30 evaluation systems operating in the Swedish education system. Our analysis examines a situation in which many evaluation systems are doing almost the same thing, i.e. collecting a similar and limited set of quantitative data, and addressing the same local governance actors with the primary goal of supporting school development in the same direction. By doing so, these evaluation systems could thus give rise to several unintended consequences, including a scaling down of the school law and curriculum, multiple accountability problems, increased administration and new intermediary job functions at the level of local education governance.

• evaluation systems
• crowded policy space
• policies by the way
• unintended consequences
• multiple accountability problems

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lena Lindgren

Lena Lindgren is Associate Professor at the School of Public Administration, Gothenburg University. She works with teaching and research focusing on evaluation and policy analysis, and has also conducted several evaluations on commission for government agencies, particularly in the field of education. Email: [email protected]

Anders Hanberger

Anders Hanberger is Professor in Evaluation and director of research at the Umea Centre for Evaluation Research, Umea University. His research areas cover policy analysis and evaluation research and focus on public policy, governance, evaluation, evaluation systems, and methodology. Email: [email protected]

Ulf Lundström

Ulf Lundström is Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Educational Science, Umeå University. His main research interests lie within the areas of education policy, e.g. focusing on marketisation and inclusion, evaluation and the teaching profession. Email: [email protected]