ABSTRACT
The study of school failure,‘ineffective’ schools or ‘failing’ schools has not been an activity that has interested many within the British educational research community historically. With exceptions (e.g., Barber, 1995; Stoll, Myers and Reynolds, 1996; Reynolds, 1991, 1996a) and with the notable exception of the contributors to this book, researchers have preferred to study effective school institution and assume that this study will help us understand and potentially remediate the ineffective ones (see reviews of this tradition in Reynolds, Bollen, Creemers, Hopkins, Stoll and Lagarweig, 1996; Reynold, Creemers, Stringfield, Teddlie, Schaffer and Nesselrodt, 1994). Why has this been cause?
