In recent decades, self-evaluation has become a key mechanism for school improvement. Countries that have introduced school self-evaluation (SSE) generally provide a range of support measures in order to encourage school engagement in the process (European Commission 2015, OECD 2013). Such measures include: “specialist training in internal evaluation, use of external evaluation frameworks, indicators enabling schools to compare with other schools, specific guidelines and manuals, online forums, as well as advice from external specialists, and financial support.” (European Commission 2015 p.11). Despite the provision of such supports, many countries continue to experience capacity and implementation issues(OECD 2009,OECD 2013, Ryan, Chandler, & Samuels 2007, Schildkamp & Visscher 2009,  Vanhoof, Van Petegem, and De Maeyer 2009.

 This paper explores the provision of external specialist support for schools engaging in SSE, in an attempt to address implementation issues. The European Commission (2015) identify 23 countries or jurisdictions where external specialists provide support for SSE and describe external specialists as “persons not directly involved in the activities of the school carrying out internal evaluation and who support the evaluation process in various possible ways. Resource persons have expertise in the field of education or evaluation and can be from a variety of professional backgrounds (academic experts working in the areas relevant to the evaluation of schools, private consultants, teacher trainers, experts from public sector institutions” (p 54).

A model of external support was developed by the Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection based in Dublin City University (DCU), Institute of Education. The model is based on previous research carried out by O’Brien (2011) which was redeveloped and updated for application in post-primary schools and involves the provision of external support in the form of a critical facilitator (O’Brien, McNamara & O’Hara 2014, 2015). This model of support was tested in five post-primary schools in Ireland over a one- year period. The research explores the previous levels of engagement by the schools in self-evaluation and then documents their engagement in the DCU facilitated process. The outputs of the SSE processes in each school are outlined as are the views of school management and participating teachers in relation to the model of support being tested.

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