The purpose of this research is to evaluate the contributions to schools organization and results of the Quality Management Systems ISO 9001 (QMS). The study has four main objectives:

1. To know the teachers’ assessment on the implementation processes of this QMS in their own educational centre,

2. To analyse the QMS influences on the school improvement through teacher’s opinions and the internal and external audit results,

3. To analyse students’ results in achievements, trough performance indicators as learning results in the final students marks at the end of their compulsory education, throughout several years, and through external evaluation of the school,

4. To analyse the satisfaction with the school through the students’ family opinion and other external indicators.

In this way, this project is focused on the influences of the QMS ISO 9001 through indicators of efficiency, effectiveness, results, and satisfaction.

Since enrolment rates and the resources provided for teaching are more than acceptable in developed countries, the objective of improving the quality of education becomes the priority of school policies and practices in Europe.

In Spain, improving the quality of education, beside the specific effort to improve school organization and teacher training, is associated with the use of systemic models for quality management as the ISO 9001, from the International Organization for Standardization, as well as the European Excellence Model of the European Association for Quality Management (EFQM).

Thus, the QMS, according to ISO 9001, in the context of an educational organization, must be understood in relation to lead an involvement of the educational community in quality educational processes with the aim of improving the centre management, the curriculum design and its implementation, and its results in students’ achievement, providing evidences on the entire educational cycle by means of measurements, from the management, curriculum design, learning results, clients internal and external satisfaction –teachers, students and families- and its impact by external achievement measurements (Arribas Díaz and Martinez-Mediano, in press).

Some international studies conclude that adopting ISO in schools has advantages such as improvement of teaching and learning standards, improvement in processes and documentation, adoption of strategies of continuous improvement, and fault prevention rather than correction, among other things (Supradith Na Ayudhya, 2001).

Sang Hoon Bae (2007) found out how ISO provided a positive influence in school achievements through better organization and functioning of the essential operations thereof. And Aristizabal, Cardenas, Buitrago and Martin (2009) found out how ISO 9001 contributes to get improvements on the formative processes that, in turn, have a positive impact on student learning and teachers’ satisfaction. In addition it improves the image of the centre, while gets better systematization of managerial processes.

In a Spanish educational context, Etxague, Huegun, Lareki, Sola and Aramendi (2009) attributed to the application of a systemic model of quality management, improvements in institutional projects and teacher training, improvements in instructional processes, organization and guidance for diversity as well as increments in the educational community satisfaction.

The implementation over two decades of these quality models, in a voluntary way, in some Spanish educational centres, suggests the necessity of a systematic inquiry to know the real contributions to the improvement of the educational centres, in order to get evidences to demonstrate if QMS, based in ISO, are truly relevant as an effective way to develop quality educational projects and to improve the quality of the educational centres (Pérez Juste, 2005), in order to enhance their implementation together to reduce problems, as bureaucracy, that its application could cause in schools.

- Aristizábal, G.R., Cárdenas, P.R., Buitrago, V.M. and Martín, G. (2009), “Impacto de la certificación ISO 9001:2000 en la Visión y Misión de una institución educativa de educación preescolar, básica y media certificada”, Tesis de Grado. Pontificia Universidad Javierana, Bogotá. - Arribas Díaz, J.A. and Martínez-Mediano, C. (in press), “El programa AUDIT de la ANECA y las normas internacionales ISO 9000. Análisis comparativo”, Educación XX1. - Etxague, X., Huegun, A., Lareki, A., Sola, J.C. and Aramendi, P. (2009), “Diferencias en la percepción de variables educativas antes y después de la implantación de sistemas de acreditación de calidad”, REICE - Revista Electrónica Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación Vol. 7 (3). - ISO 9001:2008. Sistemas de Gestión de la Calidad. Requisitos. International Standard Organization. - ISO 9000:2005. Sistemas de gestión de la calidad. Fundamentos y vocabulario. International Standard Organization. - Pérez Juste, R. (2005), “Calidad de la educación. Calidad en educación. Hacia la necesaria integración”, Educación XX1, 8, 11-33. - Sang Hoon Bae (2007), “The relationship between ISO 9000 participation and educational outcomes of schools”, Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 15 (3), pp. 251 – 270. - Supradith Na Ayudhya, C. (2001), “ISO 9000 in Thai Private Schools: Case Studies”, Improving from a paper presented in a parallel session of the SEAMEO Educational Congress: Challenges in the New Millennium, Sofitel Central Plaza Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. March 27th, 2001. Retrieved 16/07/12 in www.moe.go.th/English/article/iso9000School/iso9000_schools.htm