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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytic hierarchy planning-based framework to establish criteria weights and to develop a school performance system commonly called school inspections. Design/methodology/approach – The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model uses pairwise comparisons and a measurement scale to generate the weights for the criteria. The validity of the approach is confirmed by comparing the outputs of school inspection and the outputs of the model in a sample of schools. Findings – The framework proposed enables school management to address several issues pertaining to its competitive advantage with other schools, the two most important being establishing its performance ranking in the marketplace and identifying the service elements that most require improvement. This study develops a cohesive approach to identify which quality attributes or dimensions require attention. Research limitations/implications – For school inspections, the data collection and computational problems would increase with the increase in the number of criteria and sub-criteria, as well as the number of schools considered in the selection. Although the range of reported AHP applications is extensive in many disciplines, examples in school quality and inspection remain still rare; as a result, this study could not compare its results with other AHP applications in school inspection or assessment. Practical implications – The AHP method has the distinct advantage that it decomposes a decision problem into its constituent parts and builds hierarchies of criteria. AHP enables assessors to capture both subjective and objective evaluation measures of school quality. By providing a useful mechanism for assessing the consistency of the evaluation measures and alternatives, the AHP reduces bias in decision making. Social implications – The AHP model also provides a more systematic evaluation of a given school’s qualitative performance criteria. The proposed AHP model is attractive to assessors and decision makers because its pairwise comparison procedure enables them to offer a relative (rather than absolute) individual criterion assessment on those qualitative factors. Originality/value – The AHP model could become a sustainable component of overall school system quality improvement by maturing over time. The AHP annual scores could be used as realistic and measureable gauges for measuring school improvement.

:Simulator of productivity loss due to erosion for Canada. Can. J. Soil Sci. 88: 365Á376. Robust and practical estimates of the impact of soil erosion on crop productivity are essential for developing and implementing appropriate solutions for soil erosion on agricultural land. The objective of this study was to develop a simple model which captured the most important relationships between topsoil erosion and productivity loss for major agricultural regions of Canada. The model was developed for spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and corn (Zea mays L.). Using annual time steps, maximum crop yields were reduced by soil erosion due to losses in available water-holding capacity, N-mineralization potential and available P. Using minimal input data, the model accounted for 56% of the variation in relative yields (fraction of non-eroded controls) determined in field studies using desurfacing or comparison plot methods.Key words: Available N and P, model, nutrients, productivity loss, simulator, soil erosion, soil properties, yield loss Bremer, E., Greer, K. J., Black, M., Townley-Smith, L., Malhi, S. S., Izaurralde, R. C. et Larney, F. J. 2008. SimPLE.ca: un logiciel simulant la diminution de rendement re´sultant de l'e´rosion au Canada. Can. J. Soil Sci. 88: 365Á376. On a absolument besoin d'estimations robustes et pratiques de l'incidence que l'e´rosion du sol a sur le rendement si l'on veut trouver des solutions convenables a`ce proble`me sur les terres agricoles et les mettre en aeuvre. L'e´tude devait conduire al 'e´laboration d'un mode`le simple qui saisirait les liens les plus importants entre l'e´rosion de la couche superficielle de sol et la diminution du rendement dans les principales zones agricoles du Canada. Le mode`le a e´te´e´labore´pour le ble´de printemps (Triticum aestivum L.) et le maı¨s (Zea mays L.). En recourant a`des intervalles de temps annuels, on se rend compte que l'e´rosion du sol re´duit le rendement maximal des cultures en abaissant la capacite´de re´tention de l'eau existante, le potentiel de mine´ralisation de l'azote et la quantite´de P disponible. Avec la saisie d'un minimum de donne´es, le mode`le re´ussit a`expliquer 56% de la variation du rendement relatif (partie des sites te´moins non e´rode´s) e´tablie lors des e´tudes sur le terrain par des techniques d'enle`vement de la surface et de comparaison des parcelles.

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