Aspects of Good Schools in Hesse — Klaus Heiner Weber to Speak at Steinmühle on November 24

On November 24, 2015, Mr. Klaus Heiner Weber was a guest at an expanded school administration meeting. The school administration had two expectations of Mr. Weber, who had served as a school inspector in Hesse for many years: first, he was to help place Steinmühle in the context of high-performing schools in Hesse and provide criteria for doing so; second, as an experienced school inspector, he was expected to highlight evaluation options. The school administration was interested in hearing from him, based on his experience, about where schools’ instructional qualities are particularly recognized and where they are still needed to a greater extent—as well as where the possibilities and limitations of internal and external evaluation lie.

To get right to the point: Mr. Weber’s remarks were quite helpful for the school, and it was certainly an advantage that the Steinmühle was not unfamiliar territory to him, since his wife, Prof. Dr. Karin Bräu, had worked there as a biology and art teacher in the 1990s.

In his remarks, Mr. Weber repeatedly referred to three criteria for good schools that he has come to regard as indispensable over the years: the quality of school leadership, the commitment to following through on agreements within the school, and how the school handles diversity.