ABSTRACT
This chapter has examined some of the issues relating to school effectiveness research that have the potential to improve overall achievement levels. This has confirmed that schools do differ in terms of the extent to which they impact on pupils’ progress, but the research reviewed highlights the importance of taking into account a range of individual pupil characteristics, such as motivation, family background and other background factors. It is also important for other issues to be addressed – in particular the possible relationship between factors considered to be important in order for schools to be effective and how these might be compromised by the characteristics of pupils within the schools. This is an issue we return to in Chapter 10.
