ABSTRACT
The strategy adopted in Britain over recent years for raising the standards of pupil performance is unique among developed countries in two ways. First, it identifies the school-rather than the nation, or the individual pupil-as the level at which large-scale and lasting improvement is most likely to be achieved. The strategy seeks, therefore, to enhance the capacity of the school to improve the quality of its own teaching and learning, by effective management planning within a regular cycle of review. Second, however, it accepts that at any moment a small proportion of schools are failing to provide an acceptable standard of education, and are incapable of spontaneous self-improvement. The strategy, therefore, provides (most explicitly in England and Wales, but implicitly also in the rest of the UK) for special measures to assist the process in those schools.
