Saxony is the most Eastern "Land" of the sixteen "Bundesländer", that together form the Federal Republic of Germany. Recently it introduced a form of external evaluation of schools – like most other Bundesländer. This new function is fulfilled by a department of the relatively young Sächsisches Bildungsinstitut, SBI , that is relatively independent from the Ministry of Education, but legally falls within its structure. Like in all German Bundesländer, the relation with the traditional governance of schools and staff and curricula etc.,- done by the so – called Schulaufsicht – had to be redefined. The solution is that the SBI does – in relative autonomy – an independent external evaluation of all schools in a well – developed form of full inspection of schools. Then the staff of the former Schulaufsicht – now brought into a relatively independent Sächsische Bildungsagentur, SBA – discusses with the school the outcomes of the evaluation and comes to an agreement with the school about what to do in terms of quality improvement and when and how. Then the SBA is also responsible for giving support and guidance to the school in this further quality development. 

All details are given in the following link and in the sources given there.

Saxony Profile, published 28 January (pdf 191kb)