The Conception and Factors of Education Quality at Lithuanian Schools of General Education

The school is the organiser of the educational process seeking to satisfy expectations of the society oriented towards the future. The problem of the research is the highly diverse outlook of the school community on factors predetermining education quality. The purpose of the research is to find out what management factors cause processes of changes in the quality of education. The methods of the research are as follows: the expert method; questionnaire-based surveying. 448 school pupils, 448 parents of pupils and 240 teachers participated in surveying during the quantitative research. 21 schoolmasters participated in the research as experts.It was found out that different groups of respondents understand the conception of quality in different ways. The understanding is mostly predetermined by school-related needs and expectations of teachers, pupils and their parents. Pupils and their parents give much importance to the safe environment of children, communication and high assessment. Teachers and schoolmasters pay much attention to issues related to organisation of the education process and methods applied, as well as to educational innovations. The research has disclosed clear directions of seeking quality in school management: team-based development and implementation of a vision, planning of activities, as well as definition of progress indicators.The main conclusion: The conception of quality depends on the expectations of parents, pupils and teachers, whereas the issue of solving questions of education quality is delegated to schoolmasters.