Full Description
*2023 BERA Educational Research Book of the Year*
Around the world, governments, charities, and other bodies are concerned with improving education, especially for the lowest-attaining and most disadvantaged students. Making Schools Better for Disadvantaged Students presents detailed research into how poverty affects student segregation and underachievement in schools. It contains the first ever large-scale evaluation of how funding can best be used to lower the poverty attainment gap for disadvantaged students.
Drawing on a wealth of empirical research from England, India, and Pakistan as well as worldwide reviews of relevant studies, the book presents high-quality evidence on the impact of funding policy initiatives, such as the Pupil Premium funding in England, and the many variations of similar schemes worldwide. It analyses education measures which have been put in place and discusses ways in which these can be used efficiently and fairly to allocate funding to students who are persistently at risk of underachievement. The book is unique in synthesising many forms of evidence from around the world and finding a definition of educational disadvantage that can be used fairly across different contexts.
Offering significant implications for ways to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged students, the book will be essential reading for students of education policy, sociology of education and educational practices, and all researchers, school leaders, and policy-makers working in this area.
Contents
Preface
List of contents
List of tables
List of figures
Glossary of acronyms and key terms used in the book
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 - Global interest in narrowing the attainment gap
Chapter 2 - Why do we care about educational gaps?
KEY FINDINGS ON SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
Chapter 3 - Review of evidence on targeted funding to improve attendance and participation
Chapter 4 - Improving school attendance in other ways
Chapter 5 - The importance of attendance at school in India and Pakistan
KEY FINDINGS ON SCHOOL ATTAINMENT
Chapter 6 - Using targeted funding to improve attainment
Chapter 7 - Studies of improving attainment in other ways
ISSUES IN EVALUATING PUPIL PREMIUM POLICY
Chapter 8 - The Pupil Premium funding policy in England
Chapter 9 - Problems in assessing the impact of Pupil Premium policy
Chapter 10 - Evaluating Pupil Premium Policy through consideration of long-term disadvantage
KEY FINDINGS FOR PUPIL PREMIUM POLICY
Chapter 11 - Changes in socio-economic segregation between schools
Chapter 12 - Changes in the attainment gap
Chapter 13 - The character and geography of long-term disadvantage
Chapter 14 - Combining the results on Pupil Premium funding
CONCLUSION
Chapter 15 - What have we learnt and what are the next tasks?
References
Index
