ABSTRACT
One of the reasons often used to try and justify the selection of student intakes to schools, or to create systems that divide students into discrete tracks from an early age, is that this is necessary to improve overall performance. Since SES and other student characteristics are correlated with attainment from an early age (Chapter 1), this means that selection must lead to higher social segregation between schools. Chapter 4 has shown that opting for higher segregation yields a considerable risk of damage to societal cohesion and to the well-being of students. So whether selection works, in the sense of improving attainment overall, is a key question for overcoming disadvantage. If it does not, then the risk from increased social segregation is being run for no reason. More generally, it is important to know what schools can do to improve attainment, especially for their most disadvantaged students and those least likely to succeed. This chapter considers the model of school effectiveness currently dominant in research, policy and practice internationally. There is no doubt that academic outcomes from schools are heavily stratified by social and economic background, at least as much as school intakes are. These linked patterns of stratification are repeated in every developed country studied, and for every new cohort of students. This is well-established and well-known. What part can schools play in reducing the impact of early disadvantage? Do schools themselves make these patterns better or worse?
