Study of School Evaluation System in Japan : Focus on the perception of principals and vice-principals

This study examines the perception of principals and vice-principals in the school evaluation system in Japan. Two hundred and twenty-seven administrators of Primary, Secondary, and High schools in Ishikawa Prefecture were surveyed. The important material for this study was gathered in Prefectural INSET conducted in 2005. The survey was also conducted to explore the principals' perceptions of performance feedback, and utility of the evaluation process. The data used for the study was the principals' perception in the school evaluation questionnaire developed by the researcher to measure the school management skills of Japanese principals. The school evaluation system questionnaire used a 5-point scale for principal competencies by indicating assessment with each of the items on the following: low competency (1+2), moderate competency (3); high competency (4+5) and difficult (1+2); moderate(3); and easy(4+5). The principals were considered to be very high competent in the area of vision for the perception in their knowledge of the tasks, the materials to be learned, and their strategies for learning to influence academic success in schools. With the situation, they can identify and solve study problems and opportunity for self-evaluation. The importance of the study is to determine the roles of the principals on educational quality. The study recommends that skills must be acquired in order to evaluate the outcomes of instruction for the full of purposes. Involving professional responsibilities and leadership, and all other tasks can add to the teaching quality. The results provide important information about the relevance of evaluation system to principals' work, and issues to consider in implementing standard-based school evaluation system.