Strengthen inspection and evaluation, effectively improve the level of after-school services

Author: Zhao Decheng (Professor, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University)

Evaluation is an important part of the public policy process. The Opinions on Further Reducing the Homework Burden and Off-campus Training Burden of Students in the Compulsory Education Stage (hereinafter referred to as the "Double Reduction" Policy) puts forward specific requirements for improving the quality of after-school services. However, in order to ensure that the after-school service policy is implemented in place, it is necessary to strengthen inspection and evaluation to promote reform.

Strengthen process evaluation and pay attention to the developmental function of evaluation

After-school service evaluation should follow the concept of developmental evaluation. The reason for this is mainly because the mainland's after-school service policy started late and is still in the period of exploration and observation. In 2017, the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Guiding Opinions on Doing a Good Job in After-School Services for Primary and Secondary School Students, which identified after-school services as people's livelihood projects to enhance education supply and make the people have more sense of gain, and proposed to give full play to the role of primary and secondary school after-school services as the main channel. The "double reduction" policy and the supporting documents of various cities also have their own emphases. However, it must be acknowledged that there are still some issues in the field of after-school services that need to be clarified. For example, whether after-school services belong to the category of compulsory education in terms of attributes; for example, how to divide the rights and responsibilities of relevant subjects is more reasonable. In this context, after-school service evaluation should not only emphasize identification and accountability, but should focus on diagnosis and improvement.

Strengthening process evaluation is the primary principle of after-school service policy evaluation. As an important responsible subject for the provision of after-school services, how primary and secondary schools provide after-school services, whether they strictly implement the "double reduction" policy, and where are the difficulties in promoting work; whether the education administrative departments with overall planning responsibilities have played a guiding role, whether they have actively coordinated various available resources in the region; whether the human resources and social security departments have improved the teacher performance pay system and whether they have provided necessary policy support, which should become an important part of the evaluation of after-school services.

Improve the evaluation of results and accurately evaluate the effectiveness of after-school services

Without a good process, there will be no good results, but if the process is one-sidedly emphasized, it may encounter the embarrassing situation of "the process is in place, the result is not good". We note that individual municipalities and schools have initiated surveys or evaluations of the effectiveness of after-school services, but the content and methodology of outcome evaluation need to be improved. Some cities are limited to whether schools and teachers use after-school service time to make up for classes or take new classes in terms of evaluation content, and some cities rely too much on school self-evaluation in evaluation methods. Evaluators must consciously improve outcome evaluations so that they are comprehensive and accurate.

Comprehensive, because the goal of the after-school service policy is diverse and balanced, not only to ensure students' academic learning, but also to promote the overall development of students. Accuracy is the basic requirement of various evaluations. Evaluators must ensure that the evaluation is scientifically valid and that the conclusions reached are supported by evidence.

Listen to stakeholders and promote after-school services to benefit people's livelihoods

Traditional evaluation usually has a clear management tendency, which is reflected in the evaluation of after-school services, that is, to let the higher authorities lead the implementation of the evaluation. In the after-school service evaluation plan for primary and secondary schools being implemented in a certain local city, the evaluation subject arrangement has the evaluation of the competent department, the self-evaluation of the school, and the questionnaire survey for students and parents, which seems to reflect the constructivist evaluation concept of multi-subject participation. However, in-depth analysis found that in this program, the average score of the school district evaluation, the evaluation of the relevant departments of the Education Commission and the school's self-evaluation occupies 90% of the weight, and the evaluation of the higher authorities still occupies an absolute dominant position, while the score of the questionnaire survey part only accounts for 10%, and the number of school scores in this 10% score mainly depends on whether the school seriously assists the superior to carry out the questionnaire survey, rather than the evaluation opinions of students and parents in the survey. Such an evaluation can urge schools to strengthen the implementation of policies to a certain extent, but it is not known whether students and parents can ensure that they have a practical sense of gain and happiness.

The "double reduction" policy is a people's livelihood project, which not only involves the healthy growth and all-round development of students, but also relates to the happy experience of tens of millions of families behind students. For the long term, after-school service evaluation must adhere to the development of students, listen to the voices of students, parents and other service recipients in the evaluation, and let their evaluation opinions play a leading role in the entire evaluation program. Only when the people enhance their sense of gain and happiness in after-school services can we truly achieve education that the people are satisfied with.

Guangming Daily (2022.01.18. 14th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily