ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the significant and coordinated efforts for the development of school inspection policy links in Europe. Standing International Conference of Inspectorates (SICI) serves as a forum for exchanging experience in relation to inspection systems and wider education issues across Europe. SICI stated the following aims: sharing experience; updating developments regarding education systems; finding ways to improve working methods; and establishing a basis for cooperation between the various school authorities. Inspectorates are today only one among many institutions and organisations that produce evaluative material on schools, teaching and learning. SICI is also an interesting example of the ways that European professional networks work, based on the one hand on policy teaching and learning, whilst on the other retaining some of the characteristics of elite grouping and exclusivity of their professional status. The Effective School Self-Evaluation project (ESSE) has been one of the most significant projects SICI has undertaken.
