Reviews of research on rural schools and their communities in British and Nordic countries: Analytical perspectives and cultural meaning

This introduction presents the case, and sets the scene, for five reviews of research on rural schools and their communities, arguing that educational research in this field is relatively rare, and decreasingly visible despite the significant population of the world's children who live in rural communities and attend rural schools. After considering various interpretations of ‘rural’, of the purpose and function of rural schooling, and of the relationship between school and community, we present three basic research questions with relevance for researchers of schools and communities, rural and urban, the world over, and raise more specific questions which are addressed in the reviews themselves and pursued in the closing chapter. Finally we introduce the research reviews and justify our selection of British and Nordic countries, where, despite geographical proximity, there are wide thematic and methodological disparities in rural schools’ research.     

Sometimes less is more: educational effectiveness of English as a foreign language instruction in German classrooms

This article challenges one of the central orthodoxies of much school effectiveness and school improvement work – namely that schools should strive to become more consistent environments for pupils and teachers. It reviews the arguments for consistency; the success of centralised systems, and the 'mirroring' of factors of effectiveness at the different levels of organisation but also examines the evidence which seems inconsistent with this thesis. For example, the differential performance of boys and girls in some schools and of certain ethnic groups in some school environments. Whilst not suggesting that 'consistency' theories should be rejected in all circumstances the article argues that the motivation of students is the key factor which needs to link school organisation and school context. Drawing on organisational literature the analysis concludes that effective schools are most likely to be those which are able to differentiate their structures, strategies and policies for different groups of pupils and different learning tasks.     

The role played by grandparents in family support and learning: considerations for mainstream and special schools

The twenty‐first century family faces many demographic changes. Despite this, the importance of intergenerational relationships remains. This article initially reviews the literature surrounding the role that grandparents play in their children's families, highlighting a growing body of research demonstrating the important support role that grandparents play in the lives of families with non‐disabled children. In contrast, there is limited research on the role played by and support needs of grandparents to families with disabled children. Recognising the significance of ‘family’ rather than purely ‘parent’‐based partnerships in UK schools, this article considers the role and importance of grandparents in schools; in particular, intergenerational learning, and how schools can begin to include grandparents and also provide support to meet grandparents' own support needs. Despite a limited literature on schools working specifically with grandparents of children with SEN, some policy and practice issues are discussed and areas for future consideration suggested.     

Responses of schools to accountability systems using multiple measures: the case of New York City elementary schools

Many studies point to potential unintended consequences of accountability systems such as when schools narrow their teaching to fixate on tested subjects. As a result, some states and districts in the USA have complemented the federal test-based accountability system with additional measures of educational practices to hold schools accountable on multiple measures. To explore the consequences of such systems, this study focuses on the responses of nine elementary schools to a multiple-measure accountability system in New York City, including high-stakes tests and quality reviews. While some schools showed broader improvement efforts, results suggest the state test remains the dominant measure in driving responses of schools, and in some cases, the quality review further reinforces the schools' focus on the test.     

Teachers or learning leaders?: where have all the teachers gone? gone to be leaders,everyone

This paper traces the dramatic proliferation of leadership roles in English primary and secondar schools, due mainly to central government education policy of the past two decades. This has transformed schools from relatively simple to highly complex organizations and has impacted on the working conditions of, and demands on, teachers, together with many aspects of schooling. These changes are illustrated with typical examples of schools' leadership structures and their functioning. Interview data provide teachers' views on, and reactions to, the changes in school leadership. The paper also reviews the ways in which teacher education institutions have responded in terms of providing initial and in‐service education and training to equip the profession for this new and developing challenge. It examines the reception of such programmes by teachers and the reported impact on schools' management and the role of leadership within it.     

International Evidence on School Competition,Autonomy, and Accountability: A Review

This article reviews evidence from four international student achievement tests on the effects on student performance of competition from privately managed schools, schools' freedom to make autonomous decisions, and accountability introduced by external exit exams. The multivariate cross-country regressions are performed at the level of individual students and control for extensive family and school background information. The results reveal that students perform better in countries with more competition from privately managed schools, in countries where public funding ensures that all families can make choices, in schools that have freedom to make autonomous process and personnel decisions, where teachers have both freedom and incentives to select appropriate teaching methods, where parents take interest in teaching matters, and where school autonomy is combined with external exams that provide an information basis allowing for well-informed choices and holding schools accountable for their autonomous decisions.     

Farewell to Grant Maintained Status: the future of self-governing schools

Within 15 months of New Labour being elected to Government in May 1997, a new framework for the organisation of schools in England and Wales was on the statute books. In September 1999 the legislation was implemented and three new categories of schools: foundation, voluntary and community, replaced all previous classifications. Thus, the opportunity for state schools to 'opt out' and become self-governing, grant maintained (GM) schools was abolished. Indeed, all schools, regardless of their category, are now required to have local education authority representatives on their governing bodies. This article reports on empirical research carried out between September 1997 and the end of 1998-the period when the new framework was being shaped. The research is concerned with GM schools' headteachers' and chairs of governors' views and interpretations about the future governance of their schools.     

Assistance and Accountability in Externally Managed Schools: The Case of Edison Schools,Inc.

Edison Schools, Inc., is the largest and most visible among a growing number of Education Management Organizations that have entered into contracts to manage public schools, including both conventional and charter schools. Edison's approach to managing schools is comprehensive, and it distinguishes itself from most other school improvement strategies by simultaneously addressing both the resources and assistance provided to schools and the accountability systems under which school staff operate. In this article we explore the ways in which the assistance and resources provided by Edison (including diverse professional development opportunities, materials, technology, and other tools), as well as accountability mechanisms (such as monitoring and rewards), have translated into principal and teacher actions, and the factors that facilitated or constrained educators' efforts to implement the Edison design and improve teaching and learning. Drawing on data gathered from extensive interviews, observations, and document reviews collected during a four-year comprehensive study of Edison schools, we demonstrate how Edison intends to promote not only educators' capacity but also their motivation and opportunity to deliver high-quality instruction. We examine variation that occurs across schools as teachers and principals respond to these system-level efforts. In addition, we identify several important predictors of variation in implementation, including the strength of instructional leadership provided by the principal and the presence or absence of district-imposed constraints such as union contract rules.     

A review of pedagogy related to information and communications technology

Abstract

This article reviews research on pedagogies associated with the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in primary and secondary schools. We propose a framework for examining pedagogical practices based on an analysis of the nature of pedagogy as revealed in the literature. In the light of this framework we discuss empirical evidence of the use of different types of ICT in different subjects and phases of education. We identify pedagogical issues associated with ICT use and their implications for teachers' pedagogical reasoning and practices. The evidence suggests that new affordances provided by ICT-based learning environments require teachers to undertake more complex pedagogical reasoning than before in their planning and teaching that incorporates knowledge of specific affordances and how these relate to their subject-based teaching objectives as well as the knowledge they have always needed to plan for their students' learning. In addition the research shows that teachers' beliefs about the value of ICT for learning and the nature of successful learning environments are important in teachers' pedagogical reasoning     

Teacher Absenteeism and Ill Health Retirement: A review

Teachers who take time away from work through sickness present problems for school principals in covering their work. Their absence will have an impact on students and other teachers, as well as on the money available to schools. When teachers become too ill to teach again, their absence before retirement may affect the organisation of the school, while their premature retirement due to disability can have adverse consequences both for the individual and the education system as a whole. This paper reviews research into teacher illness and absenteeism. Drawing on data from Europe and North America, it examines a number of issues, including the definition and measurement of absenteeism, its cost, and the relationship between absenteeism and student attendance and school performance. Research comparing teacher absenteeism data with figures for other public employees is also considered. Approaches to managing absenteeism, including policy development and implementation, are reviewed. Possible causes of teachers' early retirement because of disability are set within the context of management practice, educational reform and making best use of 'older' employees.     

Are small classes better? Understanding relationships between class size,classroom processes and pupils' learning

Twelve years ago Blatchford and Mortimore's authoritative review of class size research appeared in this journal. They concluded that a major problem with class size research was the lack of detailed studies of complex classroom processes that might mediate class size effects on pupils' learning. This article reviews two UK class size reviews and quantitative, qualitative and mixed method class size research. Evidence from research, and insights from 30 years of classroom‐based inquiry, form the basis for the development of theoretical models of relationships between class size, classroom processes and pupils' learning. Recent research evidence from secondary school classrooms calls into question simple one‐way relationships between class size and pupils' learning. Politicians are challenged to face up to the complexities involved and to be open to more flexible approaches to reforming the organisation of teaching and learning in schools that go beyond expensive programmes of crude across‐the‐board class size reductions. Further class size research is recommended that incorporates sophisticated qualitative methods in order to adequately understand and represent the kinds of teacher and pupil expertise involved in promoting and maximising opportunities for high quality learning in different large and small class contexts in primary and secondary schools.     

Children's Participation in Development for School Health

This paper presents a rationale for children's participation and argues that their capacity for participation is determined not only by age and by stage of development but also by such factors as gender, religion, ethnicity, wealth and disability. It critically reviews a range of models to measure children's participation and uses one of these models to analyse the level of participation illustrated in case studies of school health in Nepal, Zambia and Botswana. Finally, it identifies strategies for increasing the level of children's participation through developing health-promoting schools. It concludes that among the main barriers to children's participation are the attitudes of adults who have yet to fully realise the value of children's participation and to develop the skills needed to work with them as partners for health.     

Creating Good Schools for Children in Poverty Through Title I Schoolwide Programs

The Improving America' s Schools Act--the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act--will make schoolwide Title I programs available, beginning with the 1996-97 school year, to schools in which at least 50% of students are from families in poverty. Through schoolwide programs, eligible schools may combine Title I funds with other federal, stare, and local resources to upgrade the quality of education for all children. The legislation explicitly encourages schools and districts to design their own ambitious curricula for all students, keeping them in Title I programs within their regular education classrooms while minimizing the time they spend in "pullout" programs. In this article, we synthesize research on schoolwides with the views of experienced practitioners in 21 highly regarded schoolwide projects under Title I's predecessor, Chapter 1, to identify the principles guiding effective schoolwides. Findings are based on in-depth interviews with teachers and principals and on evidence of success found in reviews of project materials and outcome evaluations. Although schoolwide programs are locally devised and unique, the most successful build on a framework that includes these eight features: a shared vision, time and resources for planning and program design, skillful management and a well-defined organizational structure, a clear focus on academics, continuing professional development schoolwide, a commitment to cultural inclusiveness, patent and community involvement, and an accountability orientation. The study highlights promising practices that future Title I schoolwide programs can adopt to reorganize schools, streamline management, and upgrade the curriculum for children in schools serving communities with the highest concentrations of poor families.     

Assessment in South African Schools

This article reviews assessment policy and practice in South African schools in recent years. A historical perspective is used to throw some light on current policy and practice. The key argument offered in the article is that vestiges of the old have strong mediating powers in defining what ultimately counts as 'transformed' assessment practice in the new dispensation. The dominance of a high stakes summative discourse is argued to have slowed down, if not threatened, progress towards the country's policy vision of more broadly-based and progressive assessment arrangements.     

An evaluation of Learning Contracts within the context of partnership in school‐based training: implications for school based mentoring

This paper explores parents' expectations and perceptions of effective induction and formative partnership with their child's school during the transition to full‐time statutory education.

Based on fifty case study children from two schools of similar size and catchment area but with different induction practices, it looks at a range of issues including parents' perceptions of home visiting, pre‐entry visits to school and pre‐entry profiles, as well as parents' knowledge about school and their notions of partner ship.

The paper outlines the implications for schools' partnerships with parents, exploring: ways in which schools and parents can begin to understand one another; how schools can help parents to support their children's learning; and ways in which effective schools can create opportunities for parental involvement.     

South-Asian Adolescents in British Schools: A review

This paper reviews published research on the education of South Asian young people in the UK. Young people of South Asian ancestry face extra problems of social adjustment at school because of the clash of values between the Asian home and the school and the racism of British society. The review covers important areas of concern, i.e. scholastic achievement, vocational aspirations, entry to higher education, inter-ethnic relations in schools, attitudes of teachers and mother tongue teaching. It is quite clear that South Asian young people in the UK (with the exception of Bangladeshis) are achieving as well as their white counterparts. Indeed, their rate of entry to universities is higher than that of whites. There also appear to be 'good' race relations in British schools as reported by most researchers. However, what emerges from the analysis is that there remain two main areas for concern; namely, the teaching of the mother tongue within the school curriculum and the entrenched negative attitudes (prejudice) of some teachers against South Asians. It is argued that there are wider ramifications of this paper for other ethnic minority adolescents in Europe and elsewhere. The paper concludes by offering some suggestions which might prove useful in this context.     

Teaching Religion in Public Schools: Review of Warren A. Nord,Does God Make A Difference?

In this review of Warren Nord's Does God Make a Difference? Taking Religion Seriously in Our Schools and Universities, Walter Feinberg provides a detailed analysis of Nord's argument that the study of religion should be constitutionally mandated as a corrective to the overwhelmingly secular course of study offered in contemporary public schools and universities. Nord bases his claim on both constitutional and educational grounds. His constitutional argument is that, due to their secular bias, schools fail in their requirement to take a neutral stance toward religion; he contends that this creates a school environment hostile to religion that thus requires a legal remedy. Nord's primary educational argument is that religion courses are needed to counterbalance the secular bias dominant in public schools and universities. Feinberg delineates how Nord's constitutional argument fails and how his educational argument has serious flaws and contradictions. According to Feinberg, a stronger argument for mandating courses on religion in schools would be that because public schools exist in a religiously infused environment, it is important for students to be exposed to alternative understandings that promote reflection on and criticism of one's own beliefs, including religious beliefs. Feinberg concludes that if religion is to be taught in the public schools, it needs to be justified on civic rather than religious grounds.     

Sustainable development education in Scottish schools: the Sleeping Beauty syndrome

This paper reviews and discusses the development of Sustainable Development Education (SDE) policy within the context of the Scottish formal school system. The focus is on the progress, and lack thereof, of implementation of SDE in schools in the light of some of the key curriculum documents and associated political decisions and advisory reports. The period of the review dates from 1993, which saw the publication of a report that was regarded as the seminal document for the development of environmental education in Scotland, to 2007 and the Scottish Executive's proposals for SDE in the light of curriculum reform for schools for the 21st century. The paper employs, loosely, the metaphor of the Sleeping Beauty to tell the story of SDE in Scotland in three parts: the story's three phases of emergence, obscurity and re‐emergence might serve as a useful metaphor, here.     

Unfairness in access to higher education: a 11 year comparison of grade inflation by private and public secondary schools in Portugal

Fairness in access to HE is unarguably a subject of paramount importance. Wherever a student’s secondary school scores are relevant for access to HE, grade inflation practices may jeopardize fair access. Pressures for high grading are common in the context of educational consumerism and competition between schools and students. However, they are not equally distributed across different types of schools, given that they have distinct relationships with the State and the market, and work with distinct populations. Specifically, the schools that are more subject to market pressures (namely private schools) are, in principle at least, the ones with more incentives to inflate their students’ grades. This paper presents an empirical study based on a large, 11 years database on scores in upper secondary education in Portugal, probing for systematic differences in grade inflation practices by four types of schools: public schools, government-dependent private schools, independent (fee-paying) private schools, and specially funded public schools in disadvantaged areas (TEIP schools). More than 3 million valid cases were analysed. Our results clearly show that independent private schools inflate their students’ scores when compared to the other types of schools. They also show that this discrepancy is higher where scores matter most in competition for HE access. This means that—usually wealthier—students from private independent schools benefit from an unfair advantage in the competition for the scarce places available in public higher education. We conclude discussing possible solutions to deal with such an important issue.     

Book Reviews

ABSTRACT

Drawing on data derived from on-going research projects investigating the privatised inspection process recently introduced for all schools in England and Wales, the paper considers the role of school governing bodies. Reference is made to the part governors can play in school improvement, particularly in those schools deemed by the inspectors to be in need of 'special measures'. It draws upon the experiences of a small sample of such schools and their governing bodies to suggest ways in which governors are able to play an important role in increasing their school's effectiveness and contribute to its continual improvement.