Research on Effective Schools: Implications for Less Developed Countries

Abstract

Publication of Equality of Educational Opportunity,' popularly known as the Coleman Report, created the impression that schools make little, if any, difference in the learning of children and that the student's family, peers, and general social milieu exert much more of an effect on learning than does the school. A number of researchers, however, were unwilling to accept the notion that schools make no difference. Their efforts to identify and define the distinguishing characteristics of effective schools had, by the mid-1980s, generated an extensive body of literature.2 Moreover, research in developing countries, conducted mainly by World Bank staff, has generated results indicating that schools and teachers do matter, perhaps even more than socioeconomic status (SES).3 Although all the