Austria

Austria’s Autonomy of Schools Package aims to strengthen schools’ and school leaders’ decision-making capacity while ensuring quality across the system and strengthening collaboration between schools. Measures give schools greater autonomy over the organisation of school time and learning groups so that these can be better adapted to student needs and the local context. The development of evidence-informed monitoring and quality assurance mechanisms has been a key pillar of the reform. The Federal Ministry of Education, Research, and Science has developed indicators on school quality such as learning outcomes, retention rates, school environment and educational pathways. The Quality of Schools Framework, launched in 2021, has also been important in this regard. Federal states can also bring together clusters of 2–8 schools to promote collaboration, the sharing of resources, and to support the smooth transition of students between schools. As of late 2021, pilot clusters existed in two Austrian provinces.