The Inspectorates of Education in the Netherlands, England and the Czech Republic
use a threshold, including a minimum score on the inspection standards, to
award grades to schools that often range from “failing” to “well developed”. Ofsted,
for example, grades schools as “outstanding”, “good”, “satisfactory” or “inadequate”.
The Swedish, Irish and Styrian Inspectorates of Education on the other hand do not
grade school as failing or satisfactory; they only identify how schools are functioning
on all the inspection standards. A Styrian school inspector explains the lack of
threshold by stating that it is impossible to clearly identify weak schools; there are
schools which are excellent in some areas but which are deficient in other areas.