Querying the Traditional Role of Schools in Attainment

Publication Summary

In this chapter we briefly rehearse the traditional way in which schools are judged — in terms of their ‘effectiveness’ at promoting the attainment of pupils in formal tests and assessments. In fact, so dominant is this view of the purpose and quality of schools that the impact of schools on pupil academic attainment is somewhat taken for granted, and the impact of schools on other potential outcomes is largely ignored. Later in the book we examine some of the other possible ways in which teachers, schools, and school structures can influence the development of pupils. Schools could be considered ‘effective’ in terms of financial efficiency, pupil attendance, pupil enjoyment of education, future pupil participation in education, pupil aspiration, preparation for citizenship and so on. Another perfectly proper indicator of school success can be based on pupil scores in assessments intended to discover how much or how well pupils have learnt what is taught in the school. What is interesting is how dominant this last version of school effectiveness has become over the last 50 years, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. This chapter looks at the dominant approach to evaluating school performance, presenting flaws in its logic, and so arguing that it is time to stop using this now traditional but limited view of what schools are for. One consequence could be the opening of a revised approach to school design and allocation, based more on equity than on effectiveness as judged in these rather narrow terms.