Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to 1) study the state and problems of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations, 2) study the factors affecting the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations, 3) develop a model of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations, and 4) evaluate the opinions of teachers about the model of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations. The research consisted of four stages as follows: Stage 1: study the state and problems of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations. The sample used consisted of 380 administrators and teachers in schools under Local Administrative Organizations selected using Multi-stage Random Sampling. The research instrument for this study was a 5-rating scale questionnaire with a 0.96 level of reliability. The data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. Stage 2: study and synthesize the concepts, theories and related research and documents about factors affecting the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations. The tools used in this research were based on data records and on interviews with 5 key informants selected by Purposive Random Sampling. The data from the semi-structured interviews were analyzed by content analysis. Stage 3: develop a model of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations using the data obtained from stage 1 and 2, and examine the model using focus group discussions with 9 specialists. The data were analyzed by content analysis. Stage 4: evaluate the opinions of the teachers concerning the model of the internal quality assurance operations of schools under Local Administrative Organizations. The sample used in this part of the study consisted of 310 teachers from schools under Local Administrative Organizations selected by Multi-stage Random Sampling. The tool used was a 5-rating scale questionnaire. The statistics used for data analysis were mean and standard deviation. The research findings were as follows: 1. The condition and problems of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations. 1) the condition and problems of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations as pertaining to a quality cycle revealed that, 1.1) the state of school quality assurance operations were overall, at a high level ( = 3.73). The opinions of the respondents when considering each individual aspect revealed that the highest mean was for the state of operations according to plans ( = 3.77), and the least was for the state of refinement and development ( = 3.71). 1.2) the school quality assurance operation problems were, overall, at a low level ( = 2.35). Again, when considering each aspect individually the highest mean was for the state of operational planning ( = 2.39), and the least was for the state of refinement and development ( = 2.29) and, 2) the condition and problems of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations as pertaining to procedures revealed that, 2.1) the state of school quality assurance operations were, overall, at a high level ( = 3.68). Considering each aspect individually, the opinions of the respondents showed that the highest mean was for the state of assessment of school quality assurance ( = 3.79), and the least was for the state of follow ups ( = 3.60). 2.2) the school quality assurance operation problems were, overall, at a low level ( = 2.26). Considering each individual aspect, the highest mean was for the state of school plan formulation ( = 2.30), and the least was for the state of reporting the annual plan ( = 2.21). 2. The factors affecting the internal quality assurance operation of school under Local Administrative Organizations consisted of 1) policy and strategy, emphasized the educational quality development following the outcomes of the learners, 2) leadership, emphasized good governance principles in management 3) management of people in organizations, emphasized the alignment of putting the right person in the right job, 4) work flow, emphasized participative planning and operations, 5) resources used in operations, emphasized the efficient management of resources and, 6) working environment, emphasized creating positive attitudes and awareness in operations, and 7) diversity of communication channels. 3. The model of the internal quality assurance operations of schools under Local Administrative Organizations comprised of two main components: the complex quality cycle and conditions for success. The complex quality cycle comprised of two sub-components: the quality cycle which was composed of, 1) planning, 2) implementating, 3) checking and evaluating and, 4) action for improvement, and the schools internal quality assurance operation procedures, which were composed of 1) setting educational standards, 2) formulating an educational development plan, 3) setting a management and information system, 4) implementing a school development educational plan, 5) monitoring and reviewing the quality of the education, 6) evaluating the quality of the education within the education standards 7) publishing annual reports on the internal quality assessments, and 8) continuously developing the education quality. The conditions for success had 7 sub-components namely policy and strategy, leadership, managing people in organizations, work, resources used in operations, working environment and communication. 4. The opinion of the teachers about the model of the internal quality assurance operation of schools under Local Administrative Organizations was, overall, at a high level ( = 4.03) and the utilization of it was also at a high level also ( = 4.12).