ABSTRACT
School Self-Evaluation (SSE) in Scotland represents the culmination of a long process of policy development aimed at the improvement of school performance. The development of SSE offers a move away from the exclusive focus on technologies of performance measurement to the emerging emphasis on organisational learning through the installation and promotion of self-evaluation, through which organisational knowledge is developed at the level of the school and of the system. Recent political change has underlined difference: the election of the minority Scottish National Party (SNP) government in Scotland in 2007 marked a break from Labour Party policy influence on the Scottish political scene, and brought about considerable change in style of government and a further distance from Westminster agendas. The emergence of SSE thus needs to be set within these developments in the political context, and in relation to data costs and the consequences in terms of erosion of trust following from emphasis on performance management and measurement.
