Improvement of Educational Quality in VET: Who Is Next?

Abstract

Educational quality is a recurrent theme in the Dutch Vocational and Educational Training (VET) sector. Given the major transformations in school governance and the increased autonomy of schools and school boards, it is important to address whether schools and school boards are able to improve educational quality if needed. Policy documents and the working methods of the Inspectorate build upon the assumption that schools with a board that is in control are able to do so. In this chapter we discuss this assumption using literature about intra-organizational management. On the basis of this literature we show that the rational approach and narrow idea about top-down steering and the positive effects of a board that is in control might be too optimistic. Moreover, we discuss the implications of the multi-layered and loosely coupled structure of ROCs for school governance and board control.