School Matters

Do schools vary in their outcome? Are some schools better than others? Can such schools improve the life-chances of children from disadvantaged circumstances? Is it possible to explain how different results arise? School Matters addresses these and other questions and provides unambiguous answers. Schools do vary and they can have powerful effects for the good. In addition it is shown exactly how it is that schools achieve their results. This book is probably the most detailed account of the primary school milieu ever undertaken. The authors traced the fortunes, over a period of four years, of 2000 pupils in 50 randomly selected London primary schools. They examined precisely what went on in these schools and measured the varying effects on the pupils′ progress. Each child′s progress was monitored repeatedly for both academic and social skills. The resulting wealth of detail gives the clearest possible picture of the factors that make for success in schools. The authors spell out these measures of effectiveness - all within the control of the school - and show the bearing they have on children′s progress.