Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytic hierarchy planning-based framework to establish criteria weights and to develop a school performance system commonly called school inspections.

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model uses pairwise comparisons and a measurement scale to generate the weights for the criteria. The validity of the approach is confirmed by comparing the outputs of school inspection and the outputs of the model in a sample of schools.

The framework proposed enables school management to address several issues pertaining to its competitive advantage with other schools, the two most important being establishing its performance ranking in the marketplace and identifying the service elements that most require improvement. This study develops a cohesive approach to identify which quality attributes or dimensions require attention.

For school inspections, the data collection and computational problems would increase with the increase in the number of criteria and sub-criteria, as well as the number of schools considered in the selection. Although the range of reported AHP applications is extensive in many disciplines, examples in school quality and inspection remain still rare; as a result, this study could not compare its results with other AHP applications in school inspection or assessment.

The AHP method has the distinct advantage that it decomposes a decision problem into its constituent parts and builds hierarchies of criteria. AHP enables assessors to capture both subjective and objective evaluation measures of school quality. By providing a useful mechanism for assessing the consistency of the evaluation measures and alternatives, the AHP reduces bias in decision making.

The AHP model also provides a more systematic evaluation of a given school’s qualitative performance criteria. The proposed AHP model is attractive to assessors and decision makers because its pairwise comparison procedure enables them to offer a relative (rather than absolute) individual criterion assessment on those qualitative factors.

The AHP model could become a sustainable component of overall school system quality improvement by maturing over time. The AHP annual scores could be used as realistic and measureable gauges for measuring school improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to validate the direction and strength of the relationships between school reputation, parental satisfaction and parental loyalty.

The paper reports the findings of a survey of 806 parents from Schools in Abu Dhabi – the United Arab Emirates. The paper builds mainly on previous work of Skallerud (2011) on measurement of school reputations. Structural equation modelling was used to validate the reputation measure and to test the proposed relationships. The model hypothesised and tested relationships linking school reputation to parental satisfaction and loyalty.

The results show strong support for a satisfaction-reputation-loyalty model and confirmed the four-dimensional scale (parental orientation, learning quality, safe environment and good teachers) for assessment of parent-based school reputation. Evidence was found that parents’ satisfaction significantly affects the four reputation dimensions. However, only three constructs of parent orientation affected parental perception of school loyalty. Additional personal or demographic variables should be included to improve the model.

The study was limited to parents of children attending public and private schools in Abu Dhabi. The model should be validated with other schools and in other Emirates and countries.

Identifying the antecedents of parent-based school reputation might aid school decision makers to better address parental satisfaction and loyalty. A careful examination of the causal relations between the various constructs could aid in crafting and implementing effective programs for increasing parental satisfaction and attracting future students.

The study adds to the limited body of research addressing the appropriate conceptualisation and measurement of school reputation. It also sheds light on a better understanding of the potential relationships among the constructs in the model.