Schools in Disadvantaged Areas: Recognising Context and Raising Quality

Both educational attainment and school quality are typically lower indisadvantaged areas than others and much recent policy attention has beenfocused on each. This paper looks at the quality problem, exploring therelationships between disadvantaged contexts, what schools do, and the qualityof schooling that they provide. The findings suggest that disadvantaged contextsimpact on the organisation and processes of schools and that these effects differsignificantly from one area to another, in ways that are not reflected by the usualindicators of disadvantage. School managers respond by adapting organisationaldesign and processes. They are, however, constrained in these responses by thelimited and short-life funding available, by the lack of evidence of good practicein specific contexts, and by lack of flexibility over major issues of organisationdesign and curriculum. Challenging contexts and the constraints on schoolresponses together exert a downward pressure on quality. The paper argues thatbecause school processes and quality are affected by context, schoolimprovement in disadvantaged areas will not be achieved by generic measures,but only by policies tailored to disadvantaged areas and sensitive to differencesbetween these areas. It suggests ways in which school improvement policiescould be contextualised in order to raise quality in the poorest areas.[...]