Poverty and effective schools

Abstract

James Coleman's 1966 Equality of Educational Opportunity in the USA cast doubt on the ability of schools to overcome family influence and affect children's attainment. An American ‘effective schools’ movement, beginning in the late 1970s, sought to refocus attention on school differences and the characteristics of more or less ‘effective’ schools. A parallel British research interest developed in the 1970s and an international movement for effective schools and school improvement took shape in the 1980s. The early American effective schools research was directed towards school strategies that would overcome social disadvantage. This paper discusses the development of the research in new economic and political conditions, the policies of individual American states, Congressional legislation, and elements of a late 1980s re‐emergence of policies ‐including educational policies ‐‐ against poverty.