The construction and validation of a school quality management scale for quality improvement in school management

Abstract

This study describes the construction and validation of the School Quality Management Scale (SQMS) which was designed to assess the quality management practices in the Malaysian secondary schools. The development of the SQMS consisted of two phases. In the first phase of the study, groups of items were constructed based on Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Education Criteria for Performance Excellence Framework and were validated using content validity, construct validity, criterion-related validity and reliability analysis. The second phase of the study was the initial application study on the excellence award winning schools using the revised SQMS. Findings of principal component analysis provided further validation for the proposed seven factor structure of the revised scale. The SQMS is characterized mainly by seven constructs of the quality management practices, namely Top Management Support, Strategic Quality Planning, Customer Focus and Satisfaction, Quality Operational Result, Information and Analysis, Continuous Improvement and Staff Total Participation. Pearson correlation and test-retest reliability conducted on the SQMS also revealed significant positive relationship and stability over a period of five months. Findings from the initial application study also indicated that teachers’ rating was positively related to the seven constructs of quality management. Several different tests show the existence of a high degree of reliability and construct validity, which provides initial evidence and justifies its suitability of SQMS, as a potentially useful instrument to evaluate the quality management initiatives in schools.