Perspectives on School Effectiveness and School Improvement: (2 Bedford Way Papers)

This collection of papers presents the debate between supporters and critics of the school effectiveness movement. School effectiveness research explores the different contributions schools make to pupils' learning and the factors that make some schools more successful than others. Politically influential, helping to shape the education policies of the two main parties, it has also been used at a practical level to generate programmes and policies for school improvement. Members of the Institute of Education's School Effectiveness and Improvement Centre (ISEIC), which leads the field in research in this area, contribute papers to this volume that both describe the research and reply to criticisms of it, while other contributors from both within and outside the Institute provide philosophical, sociological and cross-cultural critiques, which are challenged in an Endpiece by Peter Mortimore and Pam Sammons.

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Michael Barber and John White 1. School effectiveness and school improvement by Louise Stoll and Peter Mortimore 2. The rise of the school effectiveness movement by Lynn Davies 3. Philosophical perspectives on school effectiveness and school improvement by John White 4. Accountability, controversy and school effectiveness and school improvement by Christopher Winch 5. Key characteristics of effective schools: a review of school effectiveness research by Pam Sammons, Josh Hillman and Peter Mortimore 6. Peddling feel-good fictions by David Hamilton 7. Key characteristics of effective schools: a response to ‘Peddling feel-good fictions’ by Peter Mortimore, Pam Sammons and Josh Hillman 8. Beyond school effectiveness and school improvement: lighting the slow fuse of possibility by Michael Fielding 9. The missing hermeneutical dimension in mathematical modelling of school effectiveness by David Scott 10. Endpiece: a welcome and a riposte to critics by Peter Mortimore and Pam Sammons

About the Author :
At the time of publication, John White was Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. At the time of publication, Michael Barber was Head of the Standards and Effectiveness Unit at the Department for Education and Employment, and Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. At the time of publication, Lynn Davies was Professor of International Education at the School of Education, University of Birmingham. At the time of publication, Michael Fielding was Lecturer in Education at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education. At the time of publication, David Hamilton was Professor of Education at the University of Liverpool. At the time of publication, Josh Hillman was Research Fellow/Officer at the Institute for Public Policy Research, London. At the time of publication, Peter Mortimore was Director of the Institute of Education, University of London. At the time of publication, Pam Sammons was Associate Director of the International School Effectiveness and Improvement Centre, Institute of Education, University of London. At the time of publication, David Scott was Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. At the time of publication, Louise Stoll was Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. At the time of publication, Christopher Winch was Professor of Philosophy of Education at Nene College, Northampton.