The concept, the domains, and what each domain asks — in Farqad's words
Self-Evaluation Course: Unit One
8 lessons
45 minutes
Eight short lessons that take a school from the question "what is self-evaluation" to knowing its place on the programme's whole loop. One idea per lesson, one check question, and one screen in "Farqad" where the idea is practised with confidence and clarity.
By the end of this track you will be able to…
State what self-evaluation is and what a school commits to when it starts
Name the four domains, what each measures, and with which instrument
Read a performance level and know the response it calls for
Place your school on the programme's loop and know who carries each station
1
Lesson 1
What Self-Evaluation Is
Self-evaluation is the organised work by which a school watches its own performance, on the Commission's standards and instruments, to know its position precisely and improve it steadily. "Farqad" lays that work out on successive screens, so evidence is gathered easily and results are read with confidence.
A habit of looking inward: teachers see how they teach and how their learners learn
A method of data: reliable figures, read to surface what needs a decision
A commitment: the school measures itself on the Commission's standards, not on its own
An outcome: proposals for improvement, not a grade posted or a verdict issued
Aim
What it means in practice
A culture of self-evaluation
Evaluation becomes a habit of the school, not a campaign before the visit
Continuous improvement
Each round's results set the next round's work
Best use of resources
People and means go where the evidence points
Stakeholder participation
Families, learners and staff take part in evaluating and developing
Creative solutions
The school finds its own answers to its needs and problems
Readiness for external evaluation
The external visit finds a school that knows itself and keeps its excellence
The six aims of self-evaluation, and what each means on the school's ground
Check: what sets self-evaluation apart from external evaluation?
The school carries it out on itself, with the Commission's own standards and instruments. It precedes external evaluation and prepares for it; it does not replace it.
Starting self-evaluation is a set of seven commitments, not a single step. They protect the parties' rights and make the result one that can be trusted. "Farqad" records each commitment in its place, so none is lost between screens.
Work within the Commission's regulations, bylaws and instructions
Measure against the approved standards and indicators and no others
Train the team before it measures anything
Keep every datum confidential and disclose no result
Upload the data to the digital platform on the approved schedule
Build an improvement plan from the results, then run it and follow it up
Hold to evaluation ethics and academic honesty at every step
Each commitment has a screen in "Farqad": the team and its training on the team page, confidentiality in access control, the upload in the closing phase, and the plan in the improvement plan.
Check: which commitment comes before the first instrument is run?
Training the team. A team that measures before it is trained gathers evidence it cannot weigh, and the result loses its credibility from day one.
A school's performance is read in four domains, each with clear edges and standards that cover it. Knowing the edges saves effort: evidence filed in its right domain is read once and counted accurately.
Domain
What it measures
School management
How leadership moves the school: planning, a culture that backs staff, partnership with families, and regular professional growth
Teaching and learning
How learning is built around the learner: modern strategies, design for every group, and assessment tied to outcomes
Learning outcomes
What learners attain and who they become: attainment measured on national indicators, and personal, health and social growth
School environment
Whether the building and its facilities serve the school's mission: basic requirements in place, and safety, security and periodic maintenance
The four domains and what each measures
Check: a school wants to record evidence that its learners learn independently. Which domain?
Learning outcomes. The domain asks what the learner has become, and independence is a result, not a teaching process.
Every domain asks the team for three things: knowledge of its standards, evaluation skills that are the same for all domains, and specific instruments that measure it. "Farqad" lets the team pick its training need from that same skill list, so training is built on a measured need, easily and precisely.
Thinking that weighs evidence before it judges, and reviews the judgment after
Observing and interviewing without leading the respondent to the answer
Turning data into a report that can be read and decided on
Writing an improvement plan from what the instruments revealed, not from what was expected
Domain
What the team knows
Instruments that measure it
School management
The five leadership standards, from planning to learner rights
The surveys, the documents, and the principal and counsellor interviews
Teaching and learning
How learning experiences are built and how learning is assessed
The surveys, the documents, the classroom visit, and the counsellor interview
Learning outcomes
Attainment, and the learner's personal, health and social growth
The surveys, the documents, and the counsellor interview
School environment
The building's specifications and the safety and security requirements
The surveys, the documents, the environment walk, and the teachers' group interviews
What the team knows for each domain, and which instruments measure it
Check: which instruments do all four domains share?
The three surveys and document analysis. Beyond them comes the domain's own instrument: a classroom visit, an environment walk, or a particular interview.
The framework is four nested layers: a domain, then a standard, then an indicator, then a rating scale. Evidence is gathered for the indicator alone; whoever gathers it for the domain fills a file that serves nothing in particular. "Farqad" shows the four layers in the reference framework, so the team reaches the indicator directly and precisely.
The domain is the field; the standard is what must and can be achieved in it
The indicator is the measurable sentence, and evidence is gathered for it
The rating scale turns evidence into a grade on a fixed ladder
The average of the grades lands in one of four levels
Level
Band
Response it calls for
Excellence
90% and above
Sustain the excellence and keep innovating
Progress
75% to under 90%
Keep the improvement moving and follow it up
Launch
50% to under 75%
Substantial improvement in some domains
Preparation
Under 50%
Fundamental intervention across most domains
The four performance levels, their bands, and the response each calls for
Check: a school averages 74%. What is its level, and what does it ask of the school?
Launch. The band runs from 50% to under 75%, and it asks for substantial improvement in some domains, not in all of them.
The domains are read together: achieving an indicator in one domain shows in an indicator of another. A team that keeps the connection in view gathers one piece of evidence for two indicators, and reads a weakness in one domain from its root in another.
Values the administration promotes (1-2-1-1) show as learners' pride in them (3-2-1-1)
Enrichment programmes the administration runs (1-2-1-5) support delivering the curriculum (2-1-1-2)
Delivering the curriculum (2-1-1-2) needs fit classrooms and laboratories (4-1-1-3)
Digital technology in teaching (2-1-1-4) shows as the ability to learn independently (3-2-1-6)
Every indicator page in the reference framework shows the indicators linked to it in other domains, so the team need not memorise the pairs.
Check: the classrooms are not enough to deliver the curriculum. Which domain is affected besides the school environment?
Teaching and learning, through indicator 2-1-1-2. A shortfall in the environment is read in curriculum delivery, not in the building alone.
Self-evaluation succeeds or stalls on three factors, and three families of obstacle stand in its way. The most controllable are those inside the school. "Farqad" limits the organisational obstacles by giving every task a name, an owner and a date.
People: a qualified, trained team with experience of evaluation
Organisation: a leadership that backs the work, a motivating climate, and enough time and resources
Tools: easy reach to beneficiaries, a reporting programme, and training and technical support
Obstacle
What it looks like
Administrative
Blurred, overlapping tasks, too many bylaws, and a leadership style that does not back institutional evaluation
Educational and cognitive
A weak academic climate, uneven teaching competence, and assessment that is not mastered
Organisational
A culture wary of change and of collaborative work, and unclear measures of performance
The three families of obstacle and what they look like in the school
Check: forming a named team by appointment decision addresses which family of obstacle first?
The administrative one. A named team with distributed tasks removes the blur and overlap of duties, which are the first things to stall the work.
The programme runs as one loop of eleven stations, from forming the team to following up the improvement plan, then back to its start in the next cycle. Three stations involve a party from outside the school. "Farqad" shows the school's journey on those same stations, so the team knows its position in real time.
Station
Who carries it
Forming the self-evaluation team inside the school
The principal
Training the team on running the self-evaluation processes and instruments
The Commission's self-evaluation team and the education office coordinators
Reviewing the results of the first school-evaluation cycle and the improvement plan
The principal and the school's self-evaluation team
Building the self-evaluation plan and setting its requirements
The principal and the school's self-evaluation team
Raising awareness and spreading the culture of self-evaluation inside the school
The principal and the school's self-evaluation team
Registering the school's data on the Tamayuz digital platform
The principal
Filling in the readiness form and uploading it to the Tamayuz digital platform
The principal and the school's self-evaluation team
Running the processes and instruments, gathering the data and uploading it to the platform
The principal and the school's self-evaluation team
Closing the self-evaluation instruments and recording the results
The Commission's quality-control team, the principal and the school's team
Studying and analysing the results, the feedback, and reviewing the self-evaluation report
The principal and the school's self-evaluation team
Preparing an improvement plan and setting the priorities in light of the results
The principal, the school's team and the education office coordinators
Following up the improvement plan
The principal, the school's team and the education office coordinators
The twelve stations and who carries each
One gate sits in the loop: the instruments are not closed and the results not recorded before the data is complete and uploaded. Whatever is incomplete goes back to the running station. The closing phase in "Farqad" checks exactly this gate.
Check: who closes the instruments and records the results?
The Commission's quality-control team, with the principal and the school's team. It is the only station inside the loop that the Commission enters itself.