Reducing the Educational Gap: Good Results in Vulnerable Groups

We analyse the educational performance of a group of schools that serve socially vulnerable children and that have implemented distinguishable teaching and management methods. Conditioned to students, school characteristics, selection criteria and resources, robust performance measures show statistically significant economically relevant differences in favour of these schools. Whilst only a small part of this difference can be explained with simple management practices that we isolate statistically, there remain an important residual we can associate with distinctive practices identified in the qualitative literature as present in successful schools.