ABSTRACT
Any study that shows attainment in some schools to be higher than in others, when attainment level on entry to the system is controlled, has thus demonstrated relative academic progress to be associated with particular schools. The Progress at School project was designed as a longitudinal programme to investigate the effectiveness of New Zealand secondary schools. The study was a replication in many respects of influential UK research (Smith and Tomlinson 1989) and was intended to provide information on the impact on student performance of the market-driven reforms to school administration introduced in the late 1980s. An approximately representative sample of 5400 students in 37 secondary schools was followed from intake in year 9 to year 13. Standardized tests of reading comprehension and ‘scholastic abilities’, which were used to derive a combined ‘ability’ score, were administered on intake. The reference to ‘ability’ is adequately theorized: in this context it denotes the scores obtained on specific tests at a particular time, and is not an object of measurement, but an index with known distribution. What relationship, if any, this index has to the various cognitive dispositions of students is not problematic in this context and is not discussed. Most of the sample students attempted School Certificate (usually taken in year 11) and marks were made available for the purposes of this research. Sixth Form Certificate grades (year 12) and University Bursary (year 13) examination marks were also obtained. It will be noted that the research made a five-year longitudinal study employing a sample of about 10% of the year group. The research found some interesting differences between schools in their ability to generate relative academic progress, established that relative academic progress is associated with non-cognitive dispositions, and found evidence of an internal educational market, associated with those elements of cultural capital (Bourdieu et al. 1999), within the working class, all of which matters are worth reporting.
