Can School Improvement Overcome the Effects of Disadvantage?

Can School Improvement Overcome the Effects of Disadvantage? PDF Author: Peter Mortimore
Publisher: Inst of Education
ISBN: 9780854736256
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
When this book was first published in 1997 the relationship between pupils' backgrounds and their school achievement has received little attention in education discussions. Although there has been more recognition of the problem, the correlation between disadvantaged family background and low achievement persists. The authors have revised and updated their discussion of what disadvantage can mean for pupils, the strategies that have been adopted to combat it and the efficacy of these programmes. The authors argue that efforts to compensate at school for disadvantage at home have been too limited in scope. They endorse school improvement work, which has established mechanisms for whole-school change, but fear that claims for its significance may have been exaggerated. They consider that, if the achievement gap between the advantaged and their disadvantaged peers is to be closed, the present government must go beyond its work on school improvement. It should better co-ordinate initiatives that seek more directly to help the disadvantaged, maintain those interventions which have proved to have positive effects and extend the opportunities for post-school learning.

Can School Improvement Overcome the Effects of Disadvantage?

Can School Improvement Overcome the Effects of Disadvantage? PDF Author: Peter Mortimore
Publisher: Inst of Education
ISBN: 9780854736256
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
When this book was first published in 1997 the relationship between pupils' backgrounds and their school achievement has received little attention in education discussions. Although there has been more recognition of the problem, the correlation between disadvantaged family background and low achievement persists. The authors have revised and updated their discussion of what disadvantage can mean for pupils, the strategies that have been adopted to combat it and the efficacy of these programmes. The authors argue that efforts to compensate at school for disadvantage at home have been too limited in scope. They endorse school improvement work, which has established mechanisms for whole-school change, but fear that claims for its significance may have been exaggerated. They consider that, if the achievement gap between the advantaged and their disadvantaged peers is to be closed, the present government must go beyond its work on school improvement. It should better co-ordinate initiatives that seek more directly to help the disadvantaged, maintain those interventions which have proved to have positive effects and extend the opportunities for post-school learning.

The Road to Improvement

The Road to Improvement PDF Author: Peter Mortimore
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113438033X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
This is a collection of 19 articles charting developments in school effectiveness research, both on the evaluative and reflective side, and the emergence from it of pro-active school improvement ideas and initiatives.

International Handbook of School Effectiveness and Improvement

International Handbook of School Effectiveness and Improvement PDF Author: Tony Townsend
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402057474
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1017

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Book Description
This book reviews of the development, implementation and practice of the disciplines of school effectiveness and school improvement. Seven main topics are addressed: History of the school effectiveness movement over the last 25 years; Changes in accountability and standards; Leadership in school effectiveness; Changes in teacher education; Impact of Diverse Populations; Education Funding and its Impact; and Best Practice Case Studies. The contributors are active in school effectiveness research worldwide.

Combating Educational Disadvantage

Combating Educational Disadvantage PDF Author: Dr Theo Cox
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135707081
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The New Labour Government puts Education, Education, Education at the heart of its agenda but is it doing enough to combat educational disadvantage? Combating Educational Disadvantage sets the discussion of educational disadvantage within the socio-political context of the 1980s and 1990s, with its market philosophy in education and brings together the contributions of leading writers and researchers of international standing.

School Improvement

School Improvement PDF Author: Zijian Li
Publisher: Nova Publishers
ISBN: 9781594549441
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
School improvement is at the centre of educational reform and is perceived by many as a key to social and economic advance. It contributes to determining the personal fulfilment and career paths of individual students and consequently engages the interest of parents and community members. It is an ever-present commitment of teachers and managers in schools. Policy makers and politicians at international, national and local levels devote much time and effort to their search for better schools. School improvement has also attracted the attention of researchers and scholars in many countries. They have been drawn from various disciplines and fields within the educational studies community, including psychology, sociology, history, evaluation, and studies in curriculum and assessment. There is now an established body of findings from studies conducted in many contexts. This book brings together leading experts drawn from many countries and several continents, reflecting diverse approaches to educational policy and practice, evaluation and research. Variations between countries and between local communities within countries are highlighted. The possibilities and difficulties inherent in transferring evidence from one educational system, at a number of levels, to another are clearly discussed. What emerges from the cross-national and cross-cultural evidence are several significant threads, currently under active investigation, including: school structure and management, classroom organisation, school leadership, teacher training and staff development, curriculum and assessment, community involvement, lifelong learning and special provision for students with special educational needs. "School Improvement: International Perspectives" is written for national educational policy makers, teachers and student teachers, governing bodies and parents from various levels of schooling, and university researchers and scholars.

EBOOK: Educational Management in Managerialist Times

EBOOK: Educational Management in Managerialist Times PDF Author: Martin Thrupp
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
ISBN: 0335228070
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
“This closely argued and lively polemic is recommended for all policymakers and practitioners concerned with educational leadership and change” BJET “Thrupp and Willmott have produced a very important book regarding knowledge claims around issues of policy and practice…. I will be recommending my masters and doctoral students to read the book so that as practitioners they may relish the opportunity to engage with issues of knowledge production. Thrupp and Willmott’s book is directly relevant to every day practice in teaching and learning across the educational system, and it should be required reading for all training programmes because it enables trainees to know and understand the knowledge structures that are being used to control their work and identities.”BJES "... will stir a lot of debate and be seminal to debates about the direction of education management for some time to come." Mike Bottery, Hull University "...a genuinely readable and accessible book that critically engages with school management literature." InService Education Journal This important and provocative book is not another 'how to' educational management text. Instead it offers a critical review of the extensive educational management literature itself. The main concern of the authors is that educational management texts do not do enough to encourage school leaders and teachers to challenge social inequality or the market and managerial reforms of the last decade. They demonstrate this problem through detailed analyses of texts in the areas of educational marketing, school improvement, development planning and strategic human resource management, school leadership and school change. For academics and students, Education Management in Managerialist Times offers a critical guide to existing educational management texts and makes a strong case for redefining educational management along more socially and politically informed lines. The book also offers practitioners alternative management strategies intended to contest, rather than support, managerialism, while being realistic about the context within which those who lead and manage schools currently have to work. This controversial new title brings a new insight to the educational management debate.

School Improvement for Real

School Improvement for Real PDF Author: David Hopkins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134580681
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
As societies continue to set educational goals that are, on current performance, beyond the capacity of the system to deliver, strategies for enhancing student learning through school and classroom intervention have become increasingly important. Yet, as David Hopkins argues in his book, many of the educational initiatives recently developed under the umbrella of school improvement are inadequate or unhelpful. Simply blaming teachers and delegating financial responsibility, he maintains, has little positive impact on classroom practice. This is the bleak context within which school improvement has to operate today. School Improvement for Real offers a genuine alternative: a strategy for educational change that focuses on student achievement by modifying classroom practice and adapting the management arrangements within the school to support teaching and learning. It outlines an approach to school improvement that has a medium term, systemic orientation, providing both principles and suggestions for better practice. The author's experience in the field of school improvement ensures that the text is informed by a practical wisdom that is so often lacking from the more typical managerial texts on improvement and effectiveness.

Improving School Effectiveness

Improving School Effectiveness PDF Author: John MacBeath
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
ISBN: 0335232183
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
* What have we learned after three decades of research into school effectiveness? * What are the messages for policy-makers, for schools, for classroom teachers, for parents and their children? * What can we say with confidence about how schools improve? * What do we want from our schools in the future and how can we achieve it? This book sets out to answer these questions, reviewing findings from seminal international work and from a major study conducted recently in Scotland, the Improving School Effectiveness Project. It builds up a fascinating picture of what effectiveness is, how it can be measured, and what it means for teachers, parents and pupils. It provides key quantitative data that shows just how schools can and do make a difference (but that their effects tend to be more powerful at different stages in a child's school career, and with differing effects for girls and boys, and for different school subjects). From in-depth work with twenty-four 'case study' schools we are also given much rich qualitative evidence about, for instance, the links between attitudes and attainment within a school, about the ethos of a school and its capacity for change, about the significance of a school development plan in bringing about changes, and about the role and impact of 'critical friends' in pursuing improvement in schools. Improving School Effectiveness is an important book for everyone who is interested in valuing the effectiveness of and securing improvement in schools: for teachers, heads, inspectors, policy-makers, and students and scholars of school effectiveness and improvement.

Effective Schools

Effective Schools PDF Author: Dennis M. McInerney
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1607525364
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Students arrive in our classrooms with complex sociocultural histories that include family, cultural, physical, social, emotional, and prior learning experiences. In order to be effective, schools must directly address these complex histories in meaningful, relevant and creative ways. The aim of this volume is to examine research on effective schooling from a sociocultural perspective - with a focus on developing the capacities of diverse students in diverse educational contexts. The chapters in this volume cover a wide range of important topics as listed below:

Improving Schools in Difficulty

Improving Schools in Difficulty PDF Author: Paul Clarke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441164065
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
For the last few years there has been wave after wave of reform aimed at improving a lot of the schools struggling at the bottom of the ladder of performance, and despite what can be interpreted as best intentions, the problem persists. As a social problem it draws down significant sums of public money, it exercises many talented people, and yet, time after time we find that three, four, maybe five years down the road after extended efforts the impact of the work diffuses and the challenges remain, doggedly evident in people's daily lives. It suggests that perhaps something is wrong in our interpretation, in our analysis, in our approach and our consequent measure of effect of our activity with difficult schools. Improving Schools in Difficulty is structured around two parts, part one examines the principles of engagement with schools in difficulty and part two looks at ways of improving the process of supporting schools in difficulty.