ABSTRACT
The development of value-added (VA) measures of school effectiveness could be said to have progressed along twin tracks, reflecting their use for both accountability and school improvement purposes. The latter has its origins in the field of School Effectiveness Research (SER): a quantitative, school-focused approach that seeks to measure school output, correct for input and circumstance (‘context’), and assign a scalar to the value the school adds to the learning experience of its students (Kelly 2008: 517). School Effectiveness Research began in earnest in 1979, following earlier research by Coleman et al. (1966) and Jencks et al. (1972). Edmonds (1979) and Brookover et al. (1979) in the USA, and Rutter et al. (1979) in the UK, produced seminal studies which found that schools have a ‘small but significant’ effect on pupil attainment. School-level factors which were found to have impact included the balance of able and less-able students, the presence or absence of reward systems, the physical environment, the opportunity for students to take responsibility, and having strong leadership with democratic decision making. Among the factors found not to be correlated with effectiveness were class size and school size. In the 1980s, Reynolds, Creemers, Scheerens and others added to the list of factors affecting outcomes: a high proportion of students in positions of authority, low levels of institutional control, high expectations, a low ratio of pupils to teachers, a safe and orderly school climate, and regularly evaluating student progress (Teddlie and Reynolds 2000). With the advent of more sophisticated statistical approaches (and software), School Effectiveness Research was then able to adjust its models to account for these factors, considered to be beyond the control of the school, in order to come closer to ‘the school effect’ – the contribution that the school makes to the academic progress of its students – and to cater for the fact that in reality students are clustered within schools and are not single entities independent of their peers.
