ABSTRACT
The White Paper Excellence in Schools set the tone for the main thrust of education reforms in Britian in the late 1990s and into the twenty-first century. In his Foreword the Secretary of State for Education and Employment described the government’s core commitment as ‘equality of opportunity and high standards for all’ (DfEE 1997: 3). The White Paper also recognised that inequality of educational attainment is a key factor placing young people at risk of isolation, non-participation and social exclusion later in life. A second document, The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, set up in the aftermath of the shocking racist killing of a young black man in London, generated a widespread commitment to racial equality and also made recommendations to develop an educational agenda with regard to tackling racism in schools.2 However, the educational recommendations of the Lawrence Inquiry have been met by concern about institutional racism on one hand, and confusion as to the way forward on the other. The report, Raising the Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils, published by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) shortly after the Lawrence Inquiry suggested that most Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and schools lacked clarity and direction when it came to addressing inequalities of attainment between different ethnic groups (OFSTED 1999: 7-8).
