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.

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.

Im Kontext der Modernisierung des Schulsystems und einer erweiterten Autonomie werden immer hoehere Anforderungen an die Einzelschule bezuglich ihrer Leistungs- und Veranderungsfahigkeit gestellt. Traditionell ist die Einzelschule jedoch als Organisation schwach ausgepragt. Dieser Band der Reihe 'Educational Governance' nimmt dies zum Anlass, zwei Strategien zur Starkung der Veranderungsfahigkeit der Schule - Steuergruppen und Organisationales Lernen - in den Blick zu nehmen. Neben der Integration von Steuergruppen als Change Agent schulischer Entwicklungsprozesse in ein Modell der Kapazitat des Organisationalen Lernens wird anhand von Daten des Modellvorhabens 'Selbststandige Schule NRW' gezeigt, welchen Einfluss die Kapazitat Organisationalen Lernens auf Erfolgsfaktoren des Modellvorhabens (Selbststeuerungsfahigkeit, Unterricht, Nutzung von erweiterter Autonomie) hat und welche Rollen Steuergruppen hierbei spielen.