This open access book discusses challenges in school improvement research and different methodological approaches that have the potential to foster school improvement research. Research on school improvement and accountability analysis places high demands on a study's design and method. The potential of combining the depth of case studies with the breath of quantitative measures and analyses in a mixed-methods design seems very promising. Consequently, the focus of the book lies on innovative methodological approaches. The book chapters address design, measurement, and analysis developments as well as theoretical and conceptual developments. The relevance of the research presented in the chapters for educational accountability is discussed in the book's discussion chapter. More specifically, authors present one specific innovative methodological approach and clarify that approach with a concrete example in the context of school improvement, based on empirical data when possible. In this way, this book helps researchers designing complex useful studies.

Despite the advances in educational effectiveness theory and methodology in the last 20 years, important questions and issues remain unresolved. In particular, existing theoretical frameworks of educational effectiveness are only able to describe the interrelationship among factors at the system, school, classroom, and student levels and their cross-level interdependency in a very general manner. Additionally, although a large number of studies provide empirical evidence of the impact of single factors and factor constellations on student learning, the embedding of the empirically identified results in theoretical models of educational effectiveness has to be carried out more systematically in order to develop more elaborated theories of educational effectiveness. The aim of this book is to contribute to the advancement of educational effectiveness theory by discussing different strategies: including alternative theoretical models to understand educational in/effectiveness, extending the methodology to analyze processes and mechanisms of educational in/effectiveness, analyzing differential effects of processes and instruments on educational in/effectiveness, carrying out complex multivariate analyses considering manifest and latent variables, and combining theory and practice in real school situations. Taken together, the strategies presented in this book make it clear that the advancement of educational effectiveness theory depends on the advancement of educational effectiveness methodology, or in other words: from theory to methodology and from empirical evidence back to theory. This book was originally published as a special issue of School Effectiveness and School Improvement.

Despite the advances in educational effectiveness theory and methodology in the last 20 years, important questions and issues remain unresolved. In particular, existing theoretical frameworks of educational effectiveness are only able to describe the interrelationship among factors at the system, school, classroom, and student levels and their cross-level interdependency in a very general manner. Additionally, although a large number of studies provide empirical evidence of the impact of single factors and factor constellations on student learning, the embedding of the empirically identified results in theoretical models of educational effectiveness has to be carried out more systematically in order to develop more elaborated theories of educational effectiveness. The aim of this book is to contribute to the advancement of educational effectiveness theory by discussing different strategies: including alternative theoretical models to understand educational in/effectiveness, extending the methodology to analyze processes and mechanisms of educational in/effectiveness, analyzing differential effects of processes and instruments on educational in/effectiveness, carrying out complex multivariate analyses considering manifest and latent variables, and combining theory and practice in real school situations. Taken together, the strategies presented in this book make it clear that the advancement of educational effectiveness theory depends on the advancement of educational effectiveness methodology, or in other words: from theory to methodology and from empirical evidence back to theory. This book was originally published as a special issue of School Effectiveness and School Improvement.

This open access book discusses challenges in school improvement research and different methodological approaches that have the potential to foster school improvement research. Research on school improvement and accountability analysis places high demands on a study's design and method. The potential of combining the depth of case studies with the breath of quantitative measures and analyses in a mixed-methods design seems very promising. Consequently, the focus of the book lies on innovative methodological approaches. The book chapters address design, measurement, and analysis developments as well as theoretical and conceptual developments. The relevance of the research presented in the chapters for educational accountability is discussed in the book's discussion chapter. More specifically, authors present one specific innovative methodological approach and clarify that approach with a concrete example in the context of school improvement, based on empirical data when possible. In this way, this book helps researchers designing complex useful studies.

In den deutschsprachigen Schulsystemen werden Elemente eines ,neuen Steuerungsmodells' - beispielsweise Bildungsstandards, Schulinspektionen oder Selbstevaluation - implementiert. Die Innovationen werden in diesem Handbuch einer systematischen theoretischen und empirischen Analyse unterzogen. Damit bietet das Handbuch zum ersten Mal einen differenzierten UEberblick uber Prozesse und Wirkungen einer erneuerten schulischen Governance. Die Zusammenstellung und Verortung dieser Ergebnisse machen unterschiedliche theoretische, forschungsstrategische und methodologische Zugange sichtbar und ermoeglichen die Entwicklung nachster Perspektiven der Systemsteuerung im Schulwesen.

Wahrend sich die Forschungsinhalte des Educational Governance-Ansatzes zunehmend prazisieren lassen, ergibt die Diskussion uber forschungsmethodische Ansatze noch ein unklares Bild. In diesem Band wird untersucht, welche methodischen Ansatze zur Analyse von governance-relevanten Fragestellungen mit welchem Gewinn verwendet werden koennen. Damit lassen sich Herausforderungen verschiedener Forschungsstrategien besser verstehen und Anforderungen an zukunftige Untersuchungen skizzieren.

In den deutschsprachigen Landern ist das Schulwesen gegenwartig durch einen systematischen Umbau der administrativen Steuerungsmechanismen gekennzeichnet. Ein zentrales Motiv ist die Einfuhrung zentraler Abiturprufungen. Die in diesem Band publizierte mehrjahrige Studie untersucht in zwei Bundeslandern in Deutschland erstmals die mit dieser Einfuhrung verbundenen Wirkungen auf Schuler/innen, Lehrpersonen, Unterricht und Schule. Sie stellt eine international einmalige und theoretisch fundierte Untersuchung dar, die uber die beiden sich beteiligenden Bundeslander hinaus wertvolle Erkenntnisse uber die Auswirkungen eines Wechsels im Steuerungssystem auf schulische Prozesse und Ergebnisse gibt. "

Mit dem Ziel, die Vergleichbarkeit der Noten und damit der Abschlusse zu erhoehen und eine Diskussion uber gemeinsame Standards in Schulen anzuregen, wurden in einzelnen Schweizer Gymnasien 'gemeinsame Prufungen' eingefuhrt. Diese werden in Zusammenarbeit mehrerer Lehrpersonen klassen- bzw. schulubergreifend durchgefuhrt. Die hier prasentierte Studie untersucht erstmalig, welche Verfahren des gemeinsamen Prufens in den untersuchten Gymnasien in der Schweiz realisiert wurden und uber welche Veranderungen Lehrende und Lernende in den Schulen berichten. Sie identifiziert Spannungsfelder in der Implementation und Durchfuhrung gemeinsamer Prufungen und zeigt auf, wie gemeinsame Prufungen fur Schul- und Unterrichtsentwicklung nutzbar gemacht werden koennen.