In the last ten years, school self evaluations have become a common phenomenon in a large number of educational systems. Although many welcome these school self evaluations, there is considerable doubt regarding their quality (Nevo, 2002; Schildkamp, 2007). The present study focuses on the educational opportunities policy in Flanders and the role of school self evaluations within that policy as a case-study for investigating the quality of school-based evaluations. The educational opportunities policy allocates additional teacher hours to primary and secondary schools that have a sufficiently high percentage of target group pupils. Schools enjoy a large degree of freedom with regard to the development of a school-specific policy. One of the few, externally imposed, directive elements is the obligation upon schools to conduct a self evaluation. This paper reports on the quality of these school self evaluations by looking at both the perception of school principals and the judgment of the Flemish inspectorate on the processes and results of these school self evaluations. It focuses upon two research questions: (1) Did the school self evaluations meet quality indicators and how did schools differ in this regard? (2) How different are the quality judgments of school principals and inspectors?

On the one hand data from the Flemish inspectorate are used. All schools (N = 2294) that took part in the educational opportunities policy were visited by the inspectorate. The inspectors used a framework (developed by the inspectorate) consisting of 4 indicators to determine the quality of the school self evaluations (such as quality of the data gathering, quality of the proposals for school improvement). On the other hand, a representative sample of 598 school principals was questioned on the basis of a written questionnaire. Those principals described and judged the self evaluation in their own school. The results of the self evaluations were questioned by means of a scale which focuses on elements such as the extent in which the results of the self evaluation gave an accurate picture of the problems of the schools’ pupils and provided the school with a basis on which to reformulate the objectives.

The availability of both the principals’ and inspectorates judgments enables us to describe the school self evaluations from two angles. We were also able to compare the quality judgments by principals with the judgments of the inspectorate. We found that there is no statistically significant correlation between both. A discriminant analyses indicates that one cannot predict the judgments of the inspectorate by looking at the judgment of the school principal. This study shows that principals and the inspectorate declare themselves to be satisfied with the quality of the self evaluations. However, their judgments don’t match. This raises questions about the validity and reliability of the evaluation by principals and the inspectorate. This study clearly indicates that we – as researchers - have to bear in mind the limitations of self-reporting by principals. On the other hand the paper deals with the limitations of the inspectorate’s framework and methodology too.