Improving the Quality of Schools-ask the clients?

How can schools measure quality or school effectiveness? Performance indicators such as Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs), the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A level results provide a valuable perspective, as do truancy rates and other factors. This paper suggests that alternative measures of school effectiveness could be considered using total quality management (TQM) concepts such as client or customer satisfaction. The paper describes how two case study schools have gathered the first 3 years of research data on client satisfaction and used it to build a continuous cycle of school improvement as part of their school development planning process.