Australia has a variety of forms of school evaluation in place, each of which derives from the particular circumstances and traditions of the state, territory and school sector within which it has developed. There are two main forms of evaluation: school self-evaluation and school external performance review. This is represented as a sequence of activities which begins with self-evaluation and proceeds through a planning, reporting and review process which both satisfies external requirements and is an engine of school improvement. External school reviews vary widely across jurisdictions and in government schools work within a clear state or territory policy – typically a School Performance Improvement Framework – and are organised and staffed by relevant state government departments. Particularly positive features of school evaluation include the fact that accountability and transparency are well embedded as national principles guiding school evaluation, the good integration of performance data and survey results into school evaluation processes, the clear rules for school reporting, the recognition of the key role of school self-evaluation, and the existence of well-consolidated external school review processes. Priorities for future policy development include developing a set of national principles and protocols for school evaluation; strengthening the alignment between selfevaluation and external evaluation; defining the nature of externality; ensuring a broad scope for external school evaluation; ensuring a focus on the quality of teaching and learning in both internal and external school evaluation; building expertise among evaluators and improving data handling skills of school agents; and publishing externally validated school evaluation reports to complement the publication of national test data.