School Effectiveness Essay

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CHAPTER ONE ORIENTATION TO THE RESEARCH STUDY 1.1 Introduction The focus on school effectiveness has assumed a pivotal role in educational discourse over the past decade in many countries (Reynolds, Teddlie, Creemers, Scheerens and Townsend, 2000:3). The intense interest in school effectiveness through research and in policy could be seen as an impetus for school improvement. Sammons (2006:4) posits that the interest in school effectiveness research and school improvement is an attempt to raise educational standards. The key concern in this study was to determine how schools can be effective in the competitive arena of education through the measurement of matric results while being unequally positioned due to social circumstances. Christie, Butler …show more content…

1.2.2 Aims of the study This study focused on the investigation of the critical factors that contributed to school effectiveness in a disadvantaged community. The aims of this study were twofold: The first aim was to understand what makes a school in a disadvantaged community effective. The second aim of the study was to develop a model which can be used by ineffective schools to achieve a status of effectiveness. I am of the opinion that research exploring the critical factors contributing to school effectiveness will inform school leaders, teachers and policymakers about the issues impacting on school effectiveness in a disadvantaged community. I am hopeful that the information from this thesis would inform the above stakeholders and result in an increased improvement of academic achievement in disadvantaged communities. 1.3 Research questions In considering the aims of the study, the following research questions were posed: • What are the critical factors contributing to school effectiveness using matric results as the yardstick, in disadvantaged

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