School Effectiveness Findings 1979–2002
Section snippets
IMMEDIATE CHALLENGES IN THE 1980s
Given the skepticism from academic educationalists with which our findings on school effectiveness were met, four key challenges were presented. Could the basic findings be replicated by other investigators? Would the results hold up when subjected to the more sophisticated statistical techniques (hierarchical multilevel modeling, taking account of the nested structure of schools, subject departments, classrooms and individual pupils) that became available after we completed our research? Would
LATER CHALLENGES IN THE 1980s AND 1990s
In addition to these challenges arising within the field of school effectiveness research, the 1980s and 1990s saw wider challenges to all concepts and claims concerning psychosocial influences on children's psychological development and functioning (Rutter, Pickles, Murray, & Eaves, 2001). The first came from the genetic revolution. This showed the importance of genetic influences on all aspects of human behavior (Plomin, DeFries, McClearn, & McGuffin, 2001), but more specifically provided
Behavioral Outcomes
By contrast with the large volume of studies examining school influences on attainment, the role of schooling in relation to behavioral development remains much less fully explored. The London study of primary schools is one of the few investigations of school effectiveness to have included systematic measurement of noncognitive outcomes, such as behavior in the classroom Mortimore, 1998, Mortimore et al., 1988. Substantial school effects were found—though less marked than for attainment
SOME LARGELY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
It may be reasonably claimed that considerable useful knowledge has accrued through school effectiveness studies. Nevertheless, it is obvious that huge challenges remain. In conclusion, we pick out 10 questions that remain largely unanswered. First, as just noted, hard evidence is lacking on what needs to be done to bring about change in schools that are manifestly failing in one way or another. It is unlikely that there will be a single generally applicable answer to that crucial question, but
CONCLUSIONS
For understandable reasons, psychological services in schools tend to be focused on children with some kind of special need. Individually based diagnosis and treatment are, of course, necessary. Alongside this, however, the school effectiveness findings indicate that pupil achievements and behavior can be influenced (for the better or worse) by the overall characteristics of the school environment. From a practice perspective, this suggests that attention to these characteristics is also
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