Effective Schools, Equity and Teacher Efficacy: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This paper offers an introduction to the literature on school effectiveness, equity and teacher effectiveness research. It summarises and extends a larger report and discusses definitions of effective and ineffective schools and the surrounding debate. It further highlights research findings of studies investigating the processes within effective schools, theories of successful leadership and teaching practices that have proven to improve to students’ outcomes. Moreover, it discusses some of the implications school effectiveness research has had on the related but distinct school improvement research tradition. It concludes that education cannot remedy social exclusion by itself but remains an important means of implementing policies intended to combat social disadvantage. Finally it provides a list of recommendations for policy development to bring about improvement.