School autonomy as a basis for improved student performance School autonomy as a basis for reforming internal and external school matters

Process quality is crucial for good learning conditions

According to the Cornelsen School Leadership Study 2023, more than 80% of school principals would like to see more autonomy, particularly with regard to personnel and financial matters, but also in the development of schools and teaching. FiBS Policy Paper No. 5 ‘School Autonomy as the Basis for New Governance’ examines how this demand for greater school autonomy can be implemented and what structural and legal framework is needed to do so.

Every child learns differently

The starting point of the policy paper is that every child and young person has different prerequisites, different family and other circumstances, interests and motivations. It follows directly from these individual differences that good learning conditions and good learning processes can only be determined through direct interaction between students and teachers, in the classroom or at the individual school. ‘Process quality is the decisive factor for good and successful learning,’ states Dr Dieter Dohmen. ’The decision on good process quality can and must therefore be made primarily at the school level. School management therefore needs more autonomy.’

Schools and school management have different decision-making criteria

Pedagogical criteria should define pedagogical action in schools, while school administration inevitably decides according to administrative and legal aspects, and school policy according to political aspects. But if the last two levels have the central decision-making authority and regard the school as a subordinate authority, this rarely leads to pedagogically sensible decisions. ‘To untie this knot, the federal states should enact school freedom laws and give schools and school management the greatest possible leeway for decision-making,’ says Dohmen. ‘This does not rule out the existence of certain framework requirements. Some requirements are even imperative.’

Reorganising internal and external school matters

The core tasks of the state and local authorities include the learning standards to be achieved at school, the design of the local school landscape by the municipality, and the decision on school budgets by the state and municipality. ‘Schools should be able to decide more independently and, as far as possible, freely on the use of these funds, and above all, based on pedagogical aspects,’ suggests the education economist. ‘The technical keyword here is ‘mutual cover ability’. This means that there is no earmarking of funds, but that personnel funds can be spent on equipment such as laptops and digital teaching and learning materials.’

Practice-oriented preparation and support for school management

The proposed school autonomy transfers many competencies to school management teams that have not previously needed them. They must be prepared for the high demands in practice-oriented and job-related training and must be continuously and sympathetically supported by the school supervisory authorities. One task of the school supervisory authorities could be to initiate local school management networks or to advise school management on how to implement something. There is also a need for more staff at the school management level, e.g. in the form of administrative management.

Individualisation instead of standardisation

‘Instead of the prevailing standardisation and homogenisation of requirements, we need more school autonomy and individualisation of the learning process,’ says Dr. Dieter Dohmen, FiBS Director and author of the policy paper. ’If a quarter of the students are poor at German, it is not effective to give everyone an extra hour of reading instruction. But that is usually the practice.’

Download des FiBS Policy-Papers Nr. 5 hier