ABSTRACT
There are several reasons to produce a model. First, a model serves to explain previous research parsimoniously. It maps a series of avenues for future research which may serve to alert policymakers that investment in the field would be rewarding, and thus potentially stimulates the funding of further research. A model may provide a useful ‘road map’ for practitioners, and indeed there are hints that it has been partially an absence of school effectiveness theory that has hindered the take up of effectiveness knowledge by practitioners in schools. Arguments from Scheerens and Creemers (1989b) also concern the need for a model to generate both a more theoretical orientation, a secure foundation for research and a guide to the field to prevent new entrants from re-inventing the wheel by conducting already existing research.
