Evaluation can be defined as “the
systematic assessment of worth or merit of an object” (Joint Committee on
Standards for Educational Evaluation, 1994, p.3). This topic refers to the need
for evaluation in organisations primarily for the vitality of the organisation
as the main reason. From this, other sub-reasons such as improving student
outcomes, improving curriculum and programmes, improving staff morale and
performance and so on may be inferred.
In the Higher Education sector in
Singapore, the Ministry of Education takes an important view in assessing
organisations of HE and have set up a Higher Education Division or HED (SMOE,
2014) which:
…oversees the provision of
tertiary and technical education in Singapore as well as registration of
private schools. It oversees nine statutory boards – five Polytechnics, the
Institute of Technical Education (ITE), the Science Centre Singapore (SCS), the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and the Council for Private
Education (CPE). HED also oversees the development of four autonomous
universities (the National University of Singapore, the Nanyang Technological University,
the Singapore Management University and the Singapore University of Technology
and Design). HED also oversees the provision of publicly-subsidised places in
the following institutions: Singapore Institute of Management University,
Singapore Institute of Technology, LASALLE College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy
of Fine Arts. (SMOE, 2014)
HED is sub-divided into 8
branches. The branch directly concerned with the assessment of organisations of
higher education is the Higher Education Quality Assurance Section. Its mission
is two-fold: to oversee quality assurance in post-secondary educational
institutions and to conduct benchmarking with higher education systems in other
countries (SMOE, 2014).
Many institutions use the School
Excellence Model or SEM as part of their assessment processes. SEM contains 9
criteria of scrutiny (Seah & Ow, 2014):
(i) Leadership: How school
leaders and the school’s leadership system address values and focus on student
learning and performance excellence; and how the school addresses its
responsibilities toward society.
(ii) Strategic Planning: How
the school sets clear stakeholder-focused strategic directions towards
realising the Thinking Schools, Learning Nation vision; develops action plans
to support its directions, deploys the plans and tracks performance.
(iii) Staff Management: How
the school develops and utilises the full potential of its staff to create an
excellent school.
(iv) Resources: How the school
manages internal resources and external partnerships effectively and
efficiently in order to support its strategic planning and the operation of its
processes.
(v) Student-Focused Processes:
How the school designs, implements, manages and improves key processes to
provide a holistic education and enhance student well-being.
(vi) Administrative &
Operational Results: What the school is achieving in relation to the efficiency
and effectiveness of its administration and operations.
(vii) Staff Competence and
Morale: What the school is achieving in building staff capacity in relation to
training and development and enhancing staff morale.
(viii) Impact on Partners
and Society: What the school is achieving in relation to its partners and the
community at large.
(ix) Key Performance Results:
What the school is achieving in the holistic development of its students, in
particular, the extent to which the school is able to achieve the Desired
Outcomes of Education.
The RADAR scoring system is part
of SEM and is summarised (Seah & Ow, 2014):
In order for schools to have a
sense of how they are doing in each criterion and their overall achievement,
the SEM criteria are scored using the RADAR logic which assesses the Results, Approach, Deployment, Assessment
and Review.
The logic states that a school
needs to:
- Determine the Results it is aiming for as part of its strategic planning process. These results cover the performance of the school in the key areas, and perceptions of its stakeholders.
- Plan and develop an integrated set of sound Approaches to deliver the required results both now and in the future.
- Deploy the approaches in a systematic way to ensure full implementation.
- Assess and Review the approaches and their deployment, based on monitoring and analysis of the results achieved and on-going learning activities. Based on this identify, prioritise, plan and implement improvement where needed (Seah & Ow, 2014).
Reflection
Specific data on assessment and
evaluation results of my organisation are not published here or critiqued due
to the sensitive nature of the data in a public space. For many, the data or
results are indicative of a perceived value-added dimension to the organisation
and are confidential.
Russel-Eft and Preskill’s (2009)
view that the organisation benefits greatly from a systematic and professional
evaluation is very true because such as exercise is absolutely necessary for
the organisation’s vitality.
In the (high-tech) chart below, I
theorise that all organisations that are doing well will eventually either
stagnate (2) or decline (3) if there are no processes put in place for the organisation
to assess, evaluate and innovate. If corrective measures are taken, then there is a higher chance that the organisation will progress (1).
References
Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation.
(1994). The program evaluation standards:
How to assess evaluations of educational programs (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Russel-Eft, D. & Preskill, H.
(2009). Evaluation in organisations: A
systemic approach to enhancing learning, performance, and change. New York:
Basic books.
Seah, J. C., & Ow, A. (2014).
The
school excellence model. Singapore: Civil Service College. Retrieved from https://www.cscollege.gov.sg/Knowledge/Ethos/Ethos%20June%202003/Pages/The%20School%20Excellence%20Model.aspx#notes
Singapore Ministry of Education.
(2014). Higher education division. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.sg/about/org-structure/hed/
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