Raising attainment in mathematics — The story of Wolverton School

This paper has arisen from a case-study undertaken as part of ‘Whole School Action on Numeracy’, one of six linked projects in the Leverhulme Numeracy Research Programme. Studied over four years, ‘Wolverton’ School emerged as a success story in terms of consistently increasing attainment results in mathematics. The research revealed some of the tensions that exist for schools in the current atmosphere of pressure to raise levels of attainment. Decisions have to be made about curriculum coverage, about setting, about teaching to the test. These tensions together with the strategies adopted by the school to promote the development of numeracy form the subject of the paper which draws from teacher and headteacher interviews, followed by analysis by the research team, with an additional section summarising the responses from an LEA primary adviser from a different authority who was interviewed and asked to comment on the first two sections of the paper. The Epilogue brings the story up to date with comments from a recent interview with the Headteacher as he moves on to a new school.     

’Courting business’: the rhetoric and practices of school‐business partnerships

This paper explores an increasingly popular form of business involvement in public education in industrialized countries ‐ school ‐ business partnerships. Beginning from the articulation of such partnerships by the OECD, the Conference Board of Canada and the Alberta government, the paper goes on to present a case analysis of the partnership between a large corporation and a secondary school in Calgary, Alberta. This shift from ‘macro’ to ‘micro’ levels contextualizes political discourse around partnerships and allows us to see where this discourse is adopted by local proponents, but at the same time where it is challenged by certain groups of employees, students and teachers. Such challenges problematize these relationships and raise issues around who is involved in planning partnerships, contradictions within and between the motives of proponents, and the relationship between such corporate involvement and government educational reform.     

The risky business of choosing a high school

Drawing on literature about risk and individualization, as well as previous studies of quasi‐markets in education, our study focuses on two questions: first, how do middle–class parents and their children respond to the risks associated with choosing a high school? And second, how do they construct their identities through the choice process? Interview findings suggest that pressures on parents and students to individualize risk tend to reinforce socially structured inequalities and encourage the commodification of social relations. Although students and parents resist the individualizing discourse of risk to varying degrees, the dominant tendency is for choosers to attempt to colonize the future by drawing on their social and cultural capital. If more equitable choice processes and outcomes are desired therefore, attempts must be made to collectivize risk.     

The Social Functioning of Students With Learning Disabilities: Implications for Inclusion

This article presents a selected review of research on the social functioning of students with learning disabilities (LD) and draws implications for the inclusion of students with LD in regular education classrooms. Four areas of social functioning are addressed: social skills, self-concept, friendships, and social networks. Research in these areas indicates that some, though not all, students with LD demonstrate problems in the social domain that may have consequences for their inclusion in regular classrooms. In light of the trend toward inclusion of students with LD, we argue that the social dimensions of placement decisions for these students should be considered.