ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the growth of the school effectiveness movement and the ways in which, through their engagement with effectiveness, a generation of policy designers have valorised certainty over complexity; formulaic mantra over differentiation; and, narrow, utilitarian economic values as opposed to social and inclusive mores. We argue that effectiveness has a pernicious appeal that eschews professional judgement and constructive feedback and makes claims to be evidence-based without challenging the nature of the evidence itself. We explore the narrow rendering of ‘evidence’ and ‘effectiveness’ in the name of reform and improvement, arguing that these do little to advance the quality of education.
