Abstract
School quality care has become important in many Western countries. Expectations are high, but little is known about the nature and extent of the use of self‐evaluation instruments within schools. From this longitudinal study into the use of a Dutch school self‐evaluation instrument, it became clear that schools vary in the extent to which they are able to make use of self‐evaluation results. A minority of schools in this study were able to use the self‐evaluation results for developing measures at the school and classroom level to improve the quality of education. Potential causes for the findings and alternatives for promoting the utilisation of school self‐evaluation instruments are discussed.