高等学校の自律的経営と学校評議員・学校評価制度 : 公立高等学校長の意識調査から

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent school reform toward establishing the independence and the autonomy of public senior high schools has been advanced, especially in terms of school evaluation and school councils since the 1998 report by the Central Education Council. A questionnaire regarding school-based management was administered to 524 principals of public senior high schools. Data from the questionnaire provides interesting results. First, the school council system is established in almost all public senior high schools, and is positively evaluated by 70% of the principals for the main reason that it is useful for their school improvement. Second, school evaluation also is done in 90% of the senior high schools, and responses by 60% of principals show that school evaluation is useful for the improvement of their school management and educational activities for the next school year. Both school evaluations and school councils seem to be established as a system in senior high schools, though there are some tasks to be resolved. Third, it is suggested that the independence and autonomy of schools has some positive influence on their management and educational activities, such as new educational practices, in-service teacher training, and the like. More consideration is needed and a more careful examination of how the school reforms toward establishing the independence and autonomy of schools on the part of teachers themselves is advised.