Christopher Chapman

• The University of Manchester

School effectiveness research has been subject to various criticisms over the years. While some of these have been justified, others have conflated the ‘science’ with the use to which it is put by policy makers, or have made unjustified methodological claims against the field. The latest is Stephen Gorard’s BERJ paper ‘Serious doubts about school e...

A la hora de analizar las realidades escolares y su movimiento a favor del cambio educativo, los conceptos de mejoramiento y liderazgo son difíciles de separar. Si el mejoramiento requiere de liderazgo para ser impulsado en los distintos niveles del sistema escolar, el liderazgo educativo necesita a su vez de la perspectiva del mejoramiento, para t...

Systems of educational organisation are run in three ways (Anderson, 2005): • Through ‘regulatory’ responsibility to rules, regulations etc. (what can be called ‘administrative accountability’); • Through adherence to ‘professional’ norms, values and standards (‘professional accountability’); • Through ‘results driven’ accountability related to the...

Educational effectiveness research (EER) has accumulated much knowledge in the areas of school effectiveness research (SER), teacher effectiveness research (TER) and school/system improvement research (SSIR). Yet many schools and educational systems are not making enough use of the material and their insights. The article reviews evidence of practi...

School federations are groups of two or more schools operating under a single governance structure. The study reported in this article compared federations designed to raise performance in low-attaining schools against a matched sample of their non-federated counterparts. The findings are based on quantitative analysis of data collected in 2009–201...

Educational effectiveness research (EER) has accumulated much knowledge in the areas of school effectiveness research (SER), teacher effectiveness research (TER) and school/system improvement research (SSIR). Yet many schools and educational systems are not making enough use of the material and their insights. The article reviews evidence of practi...

Educational effectiveness research (EER) has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the characteristics and processes associated with more and less effective schools in a diverse range of contexts. However, this remains a contested field of inquiry and has been subjected to significant critique. This paper examines the origins and...

Yes, it is official.We now have an address we can call our own, with our new offices in Endsleigh Gardens, London and two new members of staff: Farzana Rahman and Mark Donoghue. In the next several months members will find their inquiries being redirected from KSAM's Lynne Fletcher and Emma Pettigrew in Macclesfield to Farzana and Mark in London. A...

Background: Formalised networks have become integral features of many education systems. Some networks have emerged organically as practitioners have sought to share and improve practice while others have been systematically planned and supported by policy makers in an attempt to raise the overall effectiveness of entire systems. However, despite t...

Networking and collaboration in educational settings have become increasingly important in terms of supporting innovation and policy developments in many educational systems. However, to date, the role and action of the middle tier remains an under-researched area, especially in the United Kingdom. This paper draws on findings from a study of distr...

Networking is not a new phenomenon in educational circles. Teachers and other education professionals have a long history of collaboration and networking. However, the concept of developing collaborative practices designed to stimulate educational change through formalised networks has only recently become central to policy-making across educationa...

In England, federations are defined as groups of schools that have a formal agreement to collaborate with the aim of raising achievement and promoting inclusion and innovation. This paper presents a number of findings from the case study strand of a 3-year study investigating the impact of 37 federations (see Lindsay et al., 200726. Lindsay , G. ,...

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This article outlines the findings from a small-scale research study that explored how a group of secondary schools in challenging contexts had improved and raised attainment successively over a 5-year period. The study points to the importance of external factors and how they influence a school's ability to improve and to sustain improvement. The...

Incl. bibl., index.

This article focuses on 'improving' schools in difficult or disadvantaged contexts. It explores the contemporary policy discourse and intervention strategies aimed at improving schools in such circumstances. It argues that contemporary approaches to improvement are unlikely to succeed because the approaches adopted are not sufficiently differentiat...

This paper outlines the contemporary research evidence concerning school improvement in challenging contexts. Drawing upon findings from recent studies in the UK funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) the paper outlines some of the improvement strategies that have been successf...

This article reflects on lessons learnt from recent research and evaluation work in secondary schools operating in urban and challenging contexts in England. It is suggested that there is a common process that effective leaders follow in order to generate and sustain tangible improvements. Central to this argument are the incremental devolution of...

Incl. bibl., abstract. Schools in difficult and challenging circumstances have received increasing policy and to some extent research attention in recent years. Improving schools in these circumstances is likely to prove a difficult process. This literature review has attempted to collect research on improving schools in these areas. Themes emergin...

There is a great deal of contemporary interest in improving schools in challenging contexts. However, there are relatively few research studies that have focused exclusively upon successful leadership practices in such schools. This article outlines the findings from a research study funded by the National College for School Leadership in England t...

Special issue. Incl. bibl., abstracts.

Incl. bibl., abstract. This article reports the findings from a preliminary study of the impact of OfSTED (Office for Standards in Education) inspections on classroom change. The study utilized a case study approach to investigate teacher perceptions, responses and intentions to change their classroom practice as a result of the inspection process....

This paper outlines five structural arrangements Federations, Academies, All-through Schools Trusts, Managed Structures and draws on the available literature to argue the evidence base for new leadership models is somewhat limited in scope, with only a few large-scale projects. Using England as an example the paper reports that most of the evidence...

This paper draws on six cases from phase 2 of the NCSL sponsored research into 'new models of leadership' to explore how the every child matters (ECM) agenda is being interpreted and implemented in practice. The paper presents two vignettes to illustrate the diversity of ECM policy, practice and leadership within new structural arrangements. The fi...

Incl. bibl., index.