Comenius LLP Multilateral Partnerships International Project Meeting 30

Comenius LLP Multilateral Partnerships International Project Meeting 30 January - 5 February 2012 Bünde, Germany

Quality assurance in education: tools, methods and improvement measures

„If you want to be remembered, give a flower, if you want to be in mind for long, plant a tree, if you want to be never forgotten, educate a man„ (Rabindranath Tagore)

How it started… • Making quality development one of the fundamental goals of government’s educational policy was an essential step from the point of view of the development of the Hungarian public education in 1999. • COMENIUS 2000 quality improvement programme for school education was launched on 31 January, 2000, and was to put quality assurance into practice in Hungarian educational institutions mainly according to the expectations of the European Union similarly to the previously applied ISO and TQM models in economic life.

Models and legal background • The quality programme worked out by the Ministry of Education is important for either schools or for teachers working there. Their work can be helped on a daily basis and their professional values can also be revealed within the confines of financial rationality. The creators of the programme worked out two types of institutional models, Model I and Model II. Institutional Model I earmarked partner oriented operation whereas Model II appropriated the full-scale implementation of the quality assurance system. In our school implementation of Institutional Model I started in June, 2001. § 40 of Act No. LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education, which enacts the obligation of preparation of an institutional quality assurance programme, serves the base of Model I.

• 40§ (10) Institutions of public education shall define their quality policy for the purpose of constant improvement and development of the effective, lawful and professional execution of their tasks. They build up and operate a quality development system in order to execute the quality policy. The quality policy and the quality development system must be established in the quality management programme of the institution of public education (hereinafter called institutional quality management programme). The institutional quality management programme is prepared by the head of the institution and adopted by the community of employees. The opinion of the school board (Articles 60 -61 of this Act ) and the school of hall of residence student union (Article 63 of this Act) is to sought before its adoption. This enters into effect through the approval of the maintainer.

• (11) The institutional quality management programme specifies the long-term principles of the operation of the institution and the notions serving its implementation. The process of the operation of the institution and the tasks of management, planning, control , assessment , and evaluation within the scope of the process of the operation shall be specified in the institutional quality assurance programme.

• The Ministry of Education Act 3/2002 (II. 15. ) is to guarantee that public educational institutions should provide services according to the expectations of the society. Public institutions should operate a quality development programme based on constant self -evaluation. Within self–evaluation public institutions identify their partners, constantly measure their demands and satisfaction. According to the analysis of the results institutions define their professional goals, tasks and services, and create a quality assurance plan. The outcome of this plan is evaluated and used for constant improvement of the operation of the institution.

The objectives to be reached by the school’s quality control system • The objective of our school education programme is to transmit values that have a positive effect on students’ personality, school result, future, family and the social environment. • Transmitting the above mentioned values are realised through the curriculum, personal guide and the school itself.

The general objectives of the Quality Assurance Programme of our school : • strengthen functions of public education in a wider circle of staff • develop a quality centered view and make it work as widely as possible • create actual demands for quality • define sources necessary for realising different processes and methods used for testing, measuring and checking adequacy • improve quality of education, which should be the responsibility of each member of staff

The specific objectives of the Quality Assurance Programme of our school : • double the number of students over college quota enrolling in the ninth grade for the first time on the basis of the standard of our work in education and training, the reputation and the process of enrollment in our school • enable students to acquire their ECDL certificate by the end of the twelfth grade • all our graduates should go on with their studies either in higher education or in vocational training programmes • at least 40 percent of our graduates should apply for higher education institutions • at least 30 percent of the students in the twelfth grade should acquire language proficiency certificate at intermediate level • the average of the measurement of student satisfaction should get to 70 percent at the next measurement • the average of the measurement of support worker satisfaction at school should get to 70 percent at the next measurement • public awareness of the quality assurance system should reach 100 percent, its acceptance should be 80 percent • with guided self-evaluation we should attain 450 points at the next measurement

The quality assessment flow chart of the institution Management responsibility Resource management Partners’ demands Education Partners’ satisfaction Measurement, analysis, assessment, development The chart above shows the relations of institutional processes of quality assurance. Four key processes are identified in the area of quality improvement: education, resource management, management responsibility, measurement, analysis and development. Education takes central part in the key processes according to the foundation letter of the institution.

„The key of constant improvement of institutions is the maintenance of prosperity that is making constant mistakes and the correction of these mistakes„ Keyns • The institution, in order to be able to adapt successfully to the constantly changing internal and external requirements, needs continuous improvement and for this purpose it relies on the following: • • • Partners' feedback The data of the indicator system Consistent organisational and quality improvement work The involvement of colleagues Constant improvement is a planned activity based on systematic data collection.

Institution management Feedback of employees and students Guided self-evaluation Indicators Qulality controll manager Surveying of partners’ needs Action plan Developing activity Preventive analysis

Quality assurance 2010 -2011 Academic Year Survey of partners’ demands and partners’ satisfaction in our school

5 members of the circle of partners

The percentage value of 294 questionnaires in the circle of the five partners

The number of respondents in a diagram 61% 76% 18% 73% 56%

Categories The points of the questionnaire are divided into 3 categories according to their average: • Most satisfied • Does not cause a problem • Fields to be improved

Signs • In order to show the changes in categories we have put the following signs to the certain points of the questionnaire. Has raised one category compared to last year Category has not changed Has fallen one category

Students Most satisfied with … (over an average of 4) • The managing of the school is appropriate • Information flow from the side of Students’ Government • Tools for studying • Consequent checking of homework • Teachers listen to their opinion • Contact with the school management

Teachers Most satisfied with… (over the average of 4, 35 ) • With the appropriate tools ensured for the teaching • With the technical backround for the teaching • With the opportunities of parents to be involved in the decision making processes

Other external partners Satisfied with the quality of work in our school, they say: • The achievements of the school (maturity exams, competency) show quality educational work • The former elementary school students have positive comments, satisfied with the work at school • The management is a guarantee of the quality of the handling of the students • High number of various school programmes

Our external partners about our former students • Well-behaved, polite, helpful, good-mannered • Those who go on to further education institutions perform well • Those who start work after the maturity exam also have appropriate knowledge • Determined • Hard-working

Our graduate students should have the following qualities: • • Strong professional knowledge Creativity Flexibility Proper language knowledge IT skills Good communication ability General knowledge Good behaviour

Satisfaction indicator I. III. IV. V.

Recognition In December 2011 our school’s Head teacher, Mrs Bédi Zsuzsanna Dancs, received a letter from Mr. Miklós Csomós, Deputy Mayor of Budapest for Education and Culture, in which she was informed that our school received the „EXCELLENT” merit rating in the ‘average point category’ for the performance in the 2011 -year national intermediate level maturity exam. Mr Csomós expressed in his letter that in the background of this achievement there is a committed staff with harmonised teaching practice, and also with public spirit and a mutually created professional view.

Thank you for your kind attention!

This power point presentation was made by Vivien Novotny and Andrea Szobotin Special thanks to Gabriella Mórocz and Szvobodáné Pataki Zsuzsanna Vásárhelyi Pál Secondary Vocational Trade School Budapest, Hungary MMXII