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Traditionally, the discussion of school effectiveness is often based on the simplistic

conception of school functions, particularly on technical and social functions at the individual or
institutional levels only. This sets a great limitation to generate significant implications for
effective school improvement and development. Therefore, we should be more a were of its
multiplicity and complexity in nature. If possible, a wider spectrum of school effectiveness with
both short-term and long-term time frames should be taken into considerations.
In traditional discussion, people usually emphasize mainly the technical/economic or
human/social effectiveness and assume no big difference in expectations of different
constituencies at different levels, such as parents, students, teachers, administrators, community,
economic sector, social service sector, policy-makers, the public, etc. They may ignore the
potential dilemmas from differences in the constituencies expectations on school effectiveness. If
we agree that there are multi-functions of schools and diverse expectations of the constituencies
at different levels, inevitably dilemmas do exits in any management efforts for school
effectiveness. The study and management of these dilemmas should be one of the key focuses in
current movements of school effectiveness.
Based on simplistic conception of school effectiveness, there is a strong traditional belief
that the relationship of school effectiveness between types, between levels, or between
effectiveness and efficiency is often positive and we do not need to study and manage these
between-relationship. As discussed previously, this belief is very problematic. The betweenrelationship may be very complicated, not necessarily positive. The increase in one type of
school effectiveness does not promise the other. Therefore, there is a strong need for us to study
these between-relationship if we want to make sensible effort for school effectiveness.
Traditionally, school effectiveness studies may involve mainly one single discipline, for example,
educational psychology, or depend on separate efforts. Obviously, it is not sufficient for studying
the complexity of school effectiveness. We should encourage inter-disciplinary cooperation, such
as involving educational psychology, economics of educations, sociology education,
anthropology, organizational theories, etc. And efforts to investigate school effectiveness. The
focus should include multi-types of effectiveness at multi-levels, relationship between types,
relationship between levels, and relationship between effectiveness and efficiency. Also, there is

urgent need to develop a comprehensive theory to explain these between-relationship and direct
actions for enhancement of school effectiveness.
Traditionally, people often focus on maximizing school effectiveness or efficiency of
separate types at one or two levels without considering the other categories of effectiveness and
efficiency. No measure is implemented to ensure the congruence between types of school
function or effectiveness, between levels, and between effectiveness and efficiency. It is not
surprising that most the policy effort or management initiatives may not be so successful for a
wide spectrum of effectiveness and efficiency in schools, if not resulting in failure. Taking the
multiplicity of school effectiveness into consideration, the future direction for policy and
management should aim to maximize school effectiveness and efficiency in multi-types at multilevels. Of course, how to ensure congruence between types, between levels, and between
effectiveness and efficiency, how to enhance not only one but all the five types of school
effectiveness at the five levels, and how to solve the dilemmas from the different expectations of
various constituencies should be critical questions to be considered in the current movements of
educational reforms.

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