High cost, low yield and low effectiveness have resulted in a legitimacy crisis for external school evaluation. Not taking school culture into consideration has been seen as a possible cause for this. This contribution addresses the phenomenon of school culture through examining the concepts ‘culture’ and ‘organisational culture’ based on the theoretical discourse and knowledge gained from practical experience. Comprehension-oriented capturing, describing and taking school culture into account seems essential for sustainable school development. School evaluations can increase their legitimacy and effectiveness by deliberately including the specifi c school culture. This paper discusses a possible starting point for adequate operationalisation of and a fruitful approach to school culture in the context of school evaluations and contributes to the debate with practical concretisations from andfor the world of practice.

Keywords
Organisational Culture, School Culture, School Evaluation, School Development