School effectiveness research and educational policy

This paper discusses a series of recent critiques of school effectiveness (SE) research from within the academic community and the responses to them by SE researchers. It uses these as a basis to explore the nature of current SE research and its relationship with government policy. It is argued that much SE research has been too closely concerned with specific government policies as well as having weak theoretical and empirical support. The general response of the SE community to these criticisms is judged to be inadequate and recommendations for future directions are made.