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The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare how school heads and teachers perceived the impact of implementing ISO 9001 Standards on the dimensions management and planning and support and recognition.

The study included 2,192 subjects (86.2% teachers and 13.8% heads) belonging to 85 schools in four Spanish autonomous communities (Castilla y León, Community of Madrid, Andalusia and Community of Valencia). We used an instrument made up of 25 items evaluating both dimensions (Cronbach's α = 0.961). We conducted descriptive and differential analyses (applying ANOVA and calculating the effect size) overall and for the assessments by heads and teachers.

Results show a higher impact in small private schools with state subsidies, with 9–11 years of ISO implementation and receiving internal aid or none at all. The impact was medium–high on the management and planning system and medium–low on support and recognition, with heads evaluating at a significantly higher level the impact of ISO 9001 standards on improvement of preparation of classroom timetables, meetings, analysis of staff expectations and recognition of staff achievements.

Implementation of quality management systems in education has increased significantly in the last decades, and it is thus necessary to find evidence on how the resulting improvements are generated in schools. This study provides conclusions to the scientific and professional community about how school heads and teachers perceived the impact of implementing ISO 9001 standards on the dimensions management and planning and support and recognition.

Recently, the application of quality management systems (QMS) in educational institutions has become widespread, in an effort to improve diverse processes and results in schools. However, there are very few studies that enable us to confirm whether these QMS bring true changes that are sustainable over time and lead to improvements in these institutions.

This study thus aims to assess the impact of the implementation of ISO:9001 standards on school climate and on the satisfaction of the members of the educational community at 80 Spanish preschools, primary and secondary schools in different autonomous communities.

The analyses performed show conclusive results regarding the impact of ISO:9001 standards on teachers' involvement in improving the school's climate, conflict resolution by the management team and in families' involvement and satisfaction with the school. However, no apparent evidence was found of the impact on relations among teachers, conflict resolution among staff members and the perception of satisfaction by the teachers themselves.

We must bear in mind that the results and conclusions obtained are based on the instrument developed for this study, where it has been the members of the schools themselves who have assessed the changes they have perceived or that have taken place. However, due to the limitation of the instrument, it could be complemented in future research with external evaluations that could complement the results obtained in the present study.

Furthermore, greater impact of the ISO standards was identified in schools from certain regions (Valencia and Andalusia), in state-assisted private schools, in smaller schools and in institutions which have been implementing the QMS for longer periods of time. The management team also perceived a greater improvement in climate than did teachers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and compare the impact of implementation of ISO 9001:2008 Standards perceived by Management Teams and Teachers in schools in four autonomous communities in Spain.

To assess this impact, the authors used an evaluation instrument made up of 93 items assessing seven major dimensions, whose reliability has been excellent for the full scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.987) and dimensions (α > 0.93). The authors conducted descriptive and differential analyses (ANOVA and t-test for independent samples) of the assessments by professional position (managers and teachers) and other variables (size and type of school, years of implantation, etc.). A factorial analysis of variance was conducted to analyse the interaction effect between these variables in each of the evaluated dimensions.

The most significant results show a high impact on the dimension management, medium on communication, learning process and external relations and low impact on climate, support and recognition and satisfaction. Likewise, the authors found that members of the Management Teams valued the impact that ISO 9001:2008 Standards have had on all dimensions at a higher level, except for external relations, where no significant differences between Teachers and Management Team members were found.

The study makes it possible to conclude that in general terms, the members of the Management Team of the schools perceive a higher impact of the implementation of ISO 9001:2008 Standards than teacher do in the different dimensions evaluated.

The specialised literature shows the lack of studies related to the impact that the implementation of quality management systems has on organisations. Specifically, this study provides conclusions to the scientific and professional community with objective evidence of the impact ISO 9001:2008 implementation has had on schools, through an indirect system of perceptions of the education community of the changes, which according to them had taken place as a result of implementation. Thus, this study contributes to the development of a new body of knowledge by evaluating this impact.

A growing number of schools are now implementing quality management systems (QMS). As a result, studies are being conducted to assess the educational benefits of these systems and their capacity to identify areas for improvement in school processes and performance. The purpose the present study is to assess the impact of ISO:9001 implementation on teaching-learning processes in the classroom, and in schools with at least three years’ experience of applying this standard.

To this end, a questionnaire was administered to a final sample of 2,185 subjects from 80 pre-school, primary and secondary education schools in the regions of Madrid, Castile and León, Andalusia and Valencia (Spain).

The results show that ISO:9001 implementation yielded a higher than average impact on teaching-learning processes. Specifically, improvements were observed in the subdomains of tutorials, evaluation and classroom teaching methodologies as a result of implementing this QMS.

This impact was higher in state-subsidized private schools in Valencia and Andalusia with over nine years’ experience of ISO:9001 in schools with internal funding plans and in those with fewer than 29 teachers on the staff.