THE REALITY OF STRATEGIC PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION IN ACCORDANCE TO THE SCHOOL ACCREDITATION STANDARDS: AN EVALUATION STUDY OF PUBLICSCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN JEDDAH

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the reality of applying the school strategic planning according to the basic stages, and the challenges of applying it from the point of view of school female principals. The researcher adopted the mixed approach. She used the questionnaire and interview tools to collect data from her community, who are the female principals of public schools in Jeddah with (658) school female principals during the academic year 2023 which was represented by a sample of (242) school female principals. The following findings showed: The level of applying the strategic planning from the point of view of school female principals according to the strategic planning stages was low in general, at the forefront is the future vision stage, while the level of challenges was moderate in general, at the forefront are the challenges related to school evaluation and accreditation firstly, followed by those related to strategic planning secondly. It was also shown that there is statistical significance at the significance level (a ≤ 0.05) between the average responses attributed to the variable of training courses and experience years when applying the strategic planning, and differences in favor of the academic qualification, training courses and experience years for the challenges they face. The study presented a proposed model for developing and improving the level of applying the school strategic planning according to school evaluation and accreditation standards, the basis of which is self-management of change based on analysis and explanation of school evaluation and accreditation results. The most prominent recommendations: It is necessary that the educational supervisors and specialists in the field of strategic planning shall participate in developing the school strategic plan, the school employees shall participate in the process of preparing it, and spreading the culture of strategic planning and adopting scientific methodology. Among the proposals: To do more evaluation studies about the reality of schools’ application of school evaluation and accreditation, to create expert teams in the field of school evaluation and accreditation, and to develop the evaluation platform to include a strategic plan to improve institutional performance. Keywords: Strategic Planning, Evaluation, Standards, School Accreditation.