The paper introduces a new research project called SchoolPulse that has been developed for grades 6-10 in primary and secondary schools in Iceland. The SchoolPulse is a web-based student survey system that provides school authorities with access to continuously updated information on month to month basis on student engagement, wellbeing at school and school climate. The idea is based on a similar system created by Willms and Flanagan (Willms and Flanagan, 2008). Scale results for schools are compared to previous months in the school and a national average to give indications of change within the school through time and the status in the school compared to other schools. The system is an innovative approach to evidence based practice and comparative evaluation. The SchoolPulse questionnaire contains 21 separate psychometric scales with each scale comprising 3-9 questions. The approach uses traditional psychometric test design, a 4 point Likert scale, to produce quantitative results on scales to indicate the status of these non-academic factors within schools (Halldórsson and Stefánsson, 2008). Many of the scales used in the project were developed as part of the international OECD survey PISA (OECD, 2006) and also from national evaluations of both the Educational Testing Institute and the Public Health Institute of Iceland. This paper describes a case study where one of the thirty participating schools in the SchoolPulse was studied to get insights into how schools utilise the results from the SchoolPulse. The teachers in the school (N=56) answered two questionnaires, one aimed at identifying the status of the learning community (Stoll et al, 2006) and the other examining the teachers attitudes towards the SchoolPulse. Interviews with teachers and the principal together with data from the questionnaires revealed potential side-effects of the continuous evaluation system connected to staff attitudes. The data also revealed ways in which school policy and practice interact to improve student engagement, wellbeing and school climate. The results show how schools can utilize results for school development using benchmarking techniques and “best practice” approaches in implementing change based on objective comparative evidence from continuous evaluation for improvements in schools.

The system generates random samples for each month of testing for schools and the contact within the school proceeds with assisting students with logging on to the system via the Internet, where they complete the survey. Average time for completing it is 18 minutes and very few students need more than 25 minutes. Feedback to schools is in the form of time graphs for each scale on a secure website with information on statistically significant difference. The staff questionnaire was answered online after a staff meeting at the school. Qualitative data was gathered using semi-structured individual and group interviews.

The presentation first describes the main features of the SchoolPulse project, including scale selection procedures, pilot studies, response style screening, multiple comparison groups, significance statistics, graphic representation and future development of the system including possibilities for application in other language regions. The second half focuses on modes of application of a continuous evaluation system for monitoring non-academic factors within the case school and how the information has presently been used for proposing, implementing and evaluating the outcomes of intervention designed to improve student engagement. The strong relationship observed between staff attitudes towards the SchoolPulse and the willingness to use data from the SchoolPulse to evaluate their work highlight the importance of working with staff attitudes in the attempt of establishing a professional learning community within schools .