ABSTRACT
The previous chapters reported on projects which followed an experimental approach, including a large number of schools in their samples. These projects demonstrated the impact of DASI on the improvement of the effectiveness status of schools. Chapter 4 was concerned with the impact of using DASI to develop SSE mechanisms for improvement, and their effect upon student achievement gains in mathematics. Chapter 5, on the other hand, refers to the impact of DASI on the reduction of bullying. These projects were conducted in different educational settings, and it was shown that schools in different countries were generally able to implement DASI and achieve their improvement aims. However, there was also variation in the impact of DASI upon the improvement in effectiveness status of schools participating in these two projects. This implies that different study designs, not only experimental but also case studies and mixed methods studies (Kington, Sammons, Day, & Regan, 2011), are required to identify the extent to which schools can use DASI to establish their school improvement strategies and action plans. This chapter refers to two case studies conducted in Slovenia, investigating the difficulties which schools face when attempting to use the DASI framework to establish SSE mechanisms for improvement. The methodology of these two case studies and their main results are presented in the proceeding section. Although schools in Slovenia are expected to develop SSE mechanisms, the relationship between this national policy and school improvement is not evident. Therefore the extent to which these two schools can make use of a theoretical framework to establish SSE for improvement purposes is examined. This helps to ascertain whether individual schools, largely independent of the system, can improve their effectiveness status when they use the proposed approach to design their improvement strategies and action plans. Readers can also see how DASI can be implemented in small scale projects, and adapted to the context of individual schools in order to develop strategies and action plans for improvement purposes.
