Most education systems are trying to combine external and internal school evaluation as well as school autonomy to foster authentic improvement processes (Eurydice, 2015). Through these instruments, schools are expected to improve and adapt to the learning contexts and needs of students. Following these premises, schools are expected to engage in a virtuous circle of improvement, which should benefit all students, particularly the most disadvantaged. Yet, the meaning and goals of improvement remain obscure and its ways of addressing it in schools are also unexplored. The existing evidence suggests that unexpected effects tend to emerge, often resulting in superfluous school changes (Lubienski, 2009), instrumental behaviors (Au, 2007) and increasing competition between schools (Falabella, 2020). Recent reforms in Catalonia (Spain) follow these trends. Improvement and innovation are core elements of the governance system, characterized by being a low-stakes accountability, where internal and external evaluation―through standardized tests and inspections―coexist. The apparatus, based on a continuous improvement process, should lead to reflexivity and change in professional practices. Improvement discourses from the government push towards a student-centered, competence-based teaching, and are associated with pedagogical and organizational change, and the strengthening of school innovation networks. However, structural conditions seem not supportive of such changes (EU Commission, 2018). The goal of the paper is to analyze how improvement materialize in schools, looking at how schools interpret and interact with the policy expectations according to the local context and school results. How do school actors negotiate between the education mandates? What organizational and educational practices does this translate into? What aspects facilitate or hinder the adoption of such practices? What is the role of school context and performative pressure? We embrace a mixed methods approach that combines in-depth semi-structured interviews with teachers (n=25) and principals (n=8) from 8 schools, with descriptive analysis of survey responses. Preliminary findings show that school actors adopt a range of responses to the improvement mandate. Pressure to perform shapes the adoption of improvements strategies in most schools. In some cases, innovation is sustained by schools’ capacity to use autonomy and is mainly associated with project-based planning and pedagogical changes, but in other occasions is related to 'innovation shopping' or to performance-oriented practice (such as intensive test preparation). Finally, we also find resigned schools in socially segregated contexts, renounce to play the innovation game. Professional, organizational, and material factors emerge as enabling conditions to explain these variegated school responses.

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