Sensitivity to Context: The Past and Future of Effective Schools Research

Abstract

According to these authors, research on school effectiveness underwent a 'values shift' from equity to efficiency at the time that socioeconomic status and other context variables were introduced into the research models. After elaborating on that observation, the article moves from the history to the future of effective schools research (1) by developing lines from a variety of other kinds of inquiry on school effects that can complement future effective schools research - given that the other approaches also control for contexts - and (2) by arguing for the simultaneous attention to equity and efficiency in future effective schools research.