Abstract:

School improvement (SI) is the field of study focusing on how schools can be improved by implementing planned change of the key areas of school system. The question of how schools are changing and improving becomes an important issue for all educational stakeholders from parents, community, policy makers to professionals in schools, and also for independent organizations. There are eleven focus areas of school improvement employed in this study; leadership, quality of teacher, teachers’ professional development, assessment, curriculum relevancy, school facility, school climate, support for learning, instruction, educational technology and community involvement. This study will investigate the areas of SI in Malaysian education system based on the perspective of the members of the education non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In other words, the researcher will identify the key areas that contribute to school in order to be improved in Malaysian education context, as reflected in the view of the members of education NGOs. Perspective from members of education NGOs will validate the priority of the school improvement areas in Malaysian schools. Hence, this study intends to develop reliable questionnaire to investigate NGOs perspectives towards school improvement areas. The questionnaire is anonymous and all the sample will be asked not to state any information that might reveal their identity. School improvement in Malaysian education system has becomes an important issue to the external stakeholders namely education NGOs. The existence of NGOs can be identified within the framework of civil society.They are key actors to create a transparency communication space between the general public and the government. This communication space is mainly about societal issues such as education, environment and human rights which are made freely and independently without any constraints from the government. In many countries, governments have started to reach out to NGOs, viewing them as valuable partners that can offer unique expertise, perspectives, and resource (Yamamoto, 1999). NGOs are a medium for social and political participation of citizens in order to create a more effective relationship with the government. Many NGOs are set up to assist the implementation of government policies. There are also NGO founded on the objective to challenge the government's shortcomings or offer alternative ideologies (Saliha, 2000). The study about school improvement and education NGOs in Malaysian context are practically rare. This study will utilize Delphi method to fulfill the objective. In the first part of the study, 5 experts will be involved in the development of the questionnaire. The Delphi experts consist of experienced staff in the field of teacher’s education, school leader’s training, school leadership and management, university’s education lecturer and member of education NGOs. They are responsible to validate the questionnaire to be used in this research in terms of content and language. The data will be collected using the approved questionnaires and 40 members of education NGOs will be the sample for this study. The study's findings explore implications for school improvement and development as well as for policy issue.

Keywords:

School improvement, NGO, educational stakeholder, Delphi method.