Accountability
Education Development Trust is a world authority on school inspection and evaluation having inspected schools around the world for more than 20 years. We work with governments to raise standards in schools through accountability: we support better education metrics, inspection and quality assurance systems and help policymakers and practitioners use data for decision-making and accountability at all levels.
We work hand in hand with governments to design and implement effective inspections frameworks that work with the local context and demands. Having collaborated with Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills in England, since its establishment in 1993, our world-leading expertise has solid foundations and now extends globally and to our own international school inspection framework, the International Schools Quality Mark.
Inspections around the world
Our international footprint extends to working in partnership with government agencies in countries as diverse as India, Thailand and Jamaica and we have a special history of improving school standards through inspection in the Middle East. From setting up Dubai’s very first inspections framework with the Knowledge and Human Development Authority to reviewing school quality in both private and government schools on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), we are an established authority in the region.
Providing a lasting legacy
As a world leader in accountability, we continue to develop evidence-informed accountability and school evaluation methodologies specifically to meet the needs of middle- and low-income countries; equally, our distinctive collective accountability models are breaking new ground in countries wanting to develop their existing structures. Our R&D team have been working with the national inspections bureau in Ghana on a pioneering inspections model suitable for low-income contexts with exceptionally promising results.
Schools Partnership Programme: collective accountability
Our trailblazing peer review model, the Schools Partnership Programme, is the largest programme of its kind in England. It builds capacity and capability across clusters or partnerships of schools so they can gradually take more responsibility for their own development and maturity and lead their own improvement. Drawing on our international expertise in school improvement and our knowledge of what inspirational schools do, the programme trains schools in rigorous self-evaluation, peer scrutiny and school-led support and challenge. Through their affiliation to Education Development Trust, leaders can also connect with our national network of schools and engage with influential educationalists from around the world.
International Schools Quality Mark
As an international authority on school inspection, we have developed our own inspection framework for international schools. Our International Schools Quality Mark (ISQM) provides a rigorous inspections model and quality standard to help schools deliver the best for their students and the wider school community.
Inspecting British schools overseas
Education Development Trust is authorised by the Department for Education in England to inspect British schools overseas - international schools that offer a UK curriculum.
Internationals schools offering a UK curriculum, such as the English National Curriculum, can seek recognition of the quality of their provision through the Inspection of British Schools Overseas (IBSO) process. With endorsement from the Department for Education (DfE) in London and using a transparent framework of quality expectations, inspection under this system is benchmarked against the standards expected of effective independent schools in England. Education Development Trust is one of the inspection providers authorised by the UK government to provide IBSO. The IBSO process is monitored and quality-assured by the government school inspection agency for England, Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education).