Country reports and their synthesis report on the existence and the state of school leadership that supports the improvement of learning effectiveness, in five Central-European countries.

“The quality of school leadership and the question of how to improve it have become key policy issues in most developed countries. This is due partly to the new regulatory and accountability environment in which schools operate today: in most countries they are more autonomous, they have a larger responsibility and they are more accountable today than they were in the past. This makes it necessary for schools to have better leaders who are capable of setting relevant strategic goals, translating these goals into daily practice and of providing high-quality operational management. This is also related to the fact, based on an increasing body of research evidence, that the quality of learning is strongly determined by the quality of the environment in which it takes place, i.e. by the schools as organisational entities. Also, another factor with the largest impact on the quality of an organisation is leadership.”

The Role of School Leadership in Creating a Learning Environment that is Conductive to Effective Learning with Special Regard to the Improvement of the Quality of Teacher Activity project was carried out in 2008-2009 by the Tempus Public Foundation, supported by the Hungarian Ministry of Education and the European Commission. The international initiative, based on the results of the OECD report on the effect of school leadership on the efficiency of learning, was implemented with the participation of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, within the framework of the ministerial Central European Cooperation for Education (CECE).

The publication includes all 5 country reports, 2 case studies from each country and the final synthesis report, identifying regional outcomes, conclusions and policy recommendations. Its aim is promoting educational reforms in the region that seek to enhance the quality and efficiency of learning and  also sharing best practices.

The publication is available also in pdf format here