School effectiveness and improvement in the South African school context

Abstract

Making schools effective has been a process driven by school leaders with an aim to undo the legacy of ineffectiveness and dysfunctionality of schools during the struggle period. The notions of school effectiveness and improvement are defined. A comprehensive literature is reviewed on the concepts of school effectiveness and improvement. A historical overview of the past efforts to improve the effectiveness of schools in South Africa is highlighted. The chapter identifies challenges and opportunities of school leadership in maintaining school effectiveness and improvement within the South African school context, e.g., giving functional autonomy to some schools and transforming schools into self-managing schools. The chapter highlights some of the impediments for school effectiveness and improvement and does an analysis to identify factors that can enhance effectiveness and improvement within the South African school context.