Effective Schools?

This article traces the origins and trajectory of effective schools research (ESR) over three decades. The review attempts to (a) categorise and make sense of the voluminous literature on ESR, (b) synthesise and extend the growing critiques of ESR in the Anglo-American community, (c) assess the transnational impact of ESR in developing countries and (d) outline an alternative approach to the study of schools which values school - and classroom - level processes and interactions as they relate to student achievement.