This article reports on the recent introduction of school development planning and whole-school evaluation in the Republic of Ireland. Although relatively common in other education systems, their introduction marked a significant shift in the culture of Irish education. The article seeks to provide an insight into the structures of both processes and into the context which shaped their development. The article concludes that the approach taken to the introduction of both processes has been surprisingly successful given the lack of a tradition of collaborative planning and evaluation that characterizes the Irish education system. Nonetheless significant problems, particularly concerning the credibility of the type of evaluation introduced, remain unresolved.
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