School Management in The First Year of The School Reform

In June 2013, a broad majority of the Danish Parliament (the Folketing) agreed on a school reform, which was to be launched at the beginning of the school year 2014/15. In addition to new teaching requirements, the reform included several ambitions regarding school management. School managers have a management responsibility with regard to implementing the school reform into the school’s lesson plans. Moreover, they also have a responsibility to ensure more general day-to-day management of the schools as well of the teachers. The objective of this report is to map the role of the school management with regard to implementation of the Danish school reform in its first year. The report examines the significance of the reform for school management in light of the intentions of the reform. Moreover it examines how school management has applied change management in its efforts to achieve a united approach among staff with regard to implementing the reform. The analyses are based on a number of questionnaire surveys from 2011 to 2015. The report is part of an assessment and monitoring-research programme, the aim of which is to monitor how the school reform has been implemented and to assess the effects of the reform.