Improving School Leadership - Belgium: The Flemish approach to School Leadership for systemic improvement
This report is part of a larger OECD study exploring school leadership policy issues (Box 1). It aims to provide information and analysis on the Flemish “communities of schools” a particular Flemish approach to school leadership for systemic improvement. School communities are voluntary collaborative partnerships between schools, introduced by the Flemish Ministry of Education for secondary education in 1981 (updated in the 1999-2000 academic years) and for elementary education in the 2003-2004 academic year. A school community can have decision-making powers for matters or organisation of rational education provision, pupil orientation and staffing policy among others. The Ministry has provided incentives to promote school communities by way of additional staff (teacher or support staff) and other incentives. In the 2006-2007 academic year, there were 367 school communities within elementary education, covering 97% of schools and 118 communities in secondary education, covering 95%.
The “communities of schools” were selected by the OECD as an example of a model of school leadership cooperation for the benefit of students and improved schooling outcomes. This report is based on a study visit to Flemish Belgium, organised by the Flemish Ministry of Education upon request by the OECD, which included meetings with a range of stakeholders in Brussels and two site visits (Annex 1). This report provides an overview of the reason for exploring this approach of school leadership, sets the Flemish context within which these communities operate, defines the communities of schools as a systems innovation and provides examples, analyses the practice in terms of constructs and impact, and ends with some recommendations as to how they can be made sustainable.
Long abstract
