This paper reports some preliminary findings of a needs assessment exercise conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Education for thirteen Hong Kong primary schools towards the end of the British rule. The thirteen schools are members of a school-institute collaborative project and the needs assessment results are used as the basis for follow-up development programmes. The findings indicate that there are challenges faced by schools and that school heads and teachers perceive diverse and common needs for school development. This study provides empirical evidence for school-institute collaboration in school development and research activities.
本文報導在香港回歸前一份有關十三所小學發展需求的初步分析報告。該十三所學校屬教院「院校合作計劃」成員，調查由香港教育學院請師主持，而調查的目的，在方便成員學校作個別學校發展的根據。調查發現：個別學校固然面對不同的發展需要，而校長和老師，對學校發展的看法，亦有差異。調查也顯示了教院和學校在學校發展和學術研究方面合作的可能性。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

The "Hong Kong Accelerated Schools Projec" has been initiated with the support from the Quality Education Fund since 1998. Whether it could be successfully implemented might be too early to be criticized. But before evaluating its effectiveness as a borrowing concept from the west, it is necessary to investigate how far this original school design approach has been initiated in the States and what we could perceive about the new idea from both a leadership and cultural perspectives with reference to some relevant literatures. This essay briefly describes the main tenets of the American school design of "Accelerated Schools". Then the approach is critically discussed from both a leadership and cultural perspectives to see if the approach can work in Hong Kong schools. A short conclusion is drawn to sum up the analysis.
自一九九八年始 , 香港躍進學校計劃在優質教育基金的贊助下首次在港推行 , 這個由西方借用的學校改革概念推行至今約有三年 , 但究竟是否能夠在香港學校有效實踐 , 直至目前為止還是未知之數。不過 , 其在美國推行多年的一些寶貴經驗 , 實在亦頗值得我們從不同的角度 , 包括領導和文化等觀點 , 去了解該概念在西方國家的實施現況 , 作為探討其在港能否有效推行的一點借鏡。本文略述躍進學校設計模式的基本理念 , 並嘗試從領導和文化兩個觀點去簡評其現有成效及提出一些在港實踐該改革概念的啟示。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Research Findings: This article describes research into leadership practice for school improvement in Hong Kong preschools at a time when there was a move toward increased accountability. Two schools were selected for study, both of which were rated as excellent in the quality assurance inspections of the Education Bureau. Leadership practice for school improvement and related factors were investigated from the perspectives of various school stakeholders.
Practice or Policy: The findings indicate that the 2 case study schools adopted different approaches to the process of change. One school principal delegated more to her subordinates and sought a radical change in the curriculum. In contrast, the other school principal imposed more restrictions on the exercise of authority in decision making and delegation and tended to follow the logic of a quick-fix approach. Overall, though the 2 schools adopted different approaches to curriculum change, the exercise of leadership in both schools was still highly centralized. The characteristics of leadership practice as perceived by various school stakeholders were different from the concepts of distributed leadership documented in the Western literature.
[Copyright of Early Education & Development is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10409280903582835]

Research Findings: Hong Kong launched the new mechanism of the Quality Assurance Inspection (QAI) in 2000 to enforce accountability and school improvement in the sector of early childhood education. The QAI comprises 3 stages: school self-evaluation, external inspection, and release of the QAI report to the public. To understand the roles of self-evaluation and external inspection and their interactions, we analyzed all 80 QAI reports released by the government from 2004 to 2007 and interviewed the principals and teachers of 3 kindergartens that had been ranked excellent, good, and satisfactory on Learning and Teaching performance in the QAI. The results indicated that (a) school performance on self-evaluation was significantly and positively correlated with Learning and Teaching performance but negatively correlated with the number of problems found in the QAI, (b) all kindergartens reported 4 types of challenges brought about by the external inspection (i.e., uncertainty, personnel, workload, and psychological burdens), and (c) the QAI was a facilitative and productive process for school self-evaluation and quality improvement. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that an effective quality assurance mechanism should maintain a balance between external and internal evaluations and should work toward school empowerment and improvement.
[Copyright of Early Education & Development is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10409281003638725]