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The pressure on schools to improve and to raise achievement continues to be a dominant issue in both school and government policies. School Effectiveness and School Improvement seeks to develop the debate further, providing academics and practitioners alike with • a summary and discussion of research on school effectiveness and school improvement up to the present; • new perspectives on these fields, developed from other traditions of thinking and research; • a consideration of the role of organization theory; • an integrated view of these current perspectives; and • clear, practical imp

In line with social capital theory, citizen involvement in local education policy making should affect education performance. Specifically, because voting turnout and candidate competition in school district elections are accountability mechanisms and reflections of a district's social capital, these characteristics of school board elections should affect how schools perform. Using official Missouri election records and school district data, this article examines the effect of district social capital (i.e., voting turnout and candidate competition), demographics, and school resources on school performance (i.e., standardized test scores and graduation rates). Mixed support is found for social capital theory, with voting turnout significantly affecting standardized test scores, though not graduation rates, and candidate competition influencing graduation rates, though in an unexpected direction. This study expands our understanding of the factors affecting school performance and informs the discussion of education reform.En línea con la teoría del capital social, la participación de los ciudadanos en la hechura de las políticas de educación local debería afectar el rendimiento escolar. Específicamente, porque la participación en la votación y el grado de competencia entre candidatos en las elecciones en los distritos escolares son mecanismos de rendición de cuentas y un reflejo del capital social del distrito, estas características de las elecciones del consejo escolar deberían afectar el desempeño de las escuelas. Utilizando registros oficiales de las elecciones en Missouri e información de los distritos escolares, este artículo examina el efecto del capital social del distrito (i.e., participación en la votación y el grado de competencia entre candidatos), la demografía, y los recursos escolares en el rendimiento escolar (i.e., los resultados estandarizados de las pruebas y las tasas de graduación). Se encuentra un apoyo mixto para la teoría del capital social donde la participación en la votación afecta considerablemente los resultados estandarizados de las pruebas, aunque no a las tasas de graduación, y en una dirección inesperada, el grado de competencia entre candidatos influye a las tasas de graduación. Este articulo amplia nuestro entendimiento de los factores que afectan el rendimiento escolar y fortalece la discusión sobre la reforma educativa.

Syed Ali on the effects of school choice.

Suggestions for improving the school choice model proposed by Kenneth Godwin et al (1998) include increasing the time frame of the 5-year experiment, & extending the autonomy proposed for private providers to the public sector. It is maintained that the charter school experience indicates parents want publicly sponsored schools that offer varied choices; however, the proposed 33% minority enrollment is seen as unrealistic in certain geographic areas. A suggested alternative is for schools to fill up to 15% of new places with low-income students if that many apply. The benefits of replacing the no-tuition proposal with a capped means-tested tuition are discussed, along with the possibility of reducing the 50% voucher for the very rich. The mean of equality of opportunity & the importance of test scores are examined, along with the assumption that class or racial segregation hurts achievement, the issue of the common good, & the relation between choice & fostering of community. J. Lindroth

This article examines two recent policy initiatives in Singapore: the independent schools scheme and the autonomous schools scheme. The Singapore government has claimed that these reform initiatives, both of which are aimed at promoting greater school operating autonomy, will help attain greater choice and diversity for parents and students as well as promote excellence in education. The author examines the operating framework of both schemes and concludes that even while these schemes purport to offer school heads increased autonomy, the government continues to exert a great deal of influence over all schools. In addition, the author is critical of the extent to which the policy objectives of these two schemes will be attained. (DIPF/Orig.)

Queer studies of education and research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) kids, tightly connected to anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia and norm-critical activism, have become a growing field with a range of theoretical and political positions and methodological approaches. One of the key contentions within this field is what researchers and activists mean by "queer" in the context of education: is it a focus on queer/ed subjectivities? Is it about using queer theories to critique forms and norms of education in a given sociopolitical context? Who is queer/ed in schools? Is the language of homophobia and transphobia the best or even correct way to describe and analyse normative educational settings and frameworks? In this issue of Confero, we highlight both ethnographic investigations of queer and queered kids in school and critical views of school's policy making and normative frameworks. Queer education research is a rapidly growing area of study. Where researchers and activists insist on the entanglements between not least sexual, gendered and racialised structural formations, we also insist on our expectation that principal values in schools meet the increasing challenges from queer activism and research.

Read before the Institute of public administration [Copenhagen, Denmark], Sept., 1926.

As public schools become desegregated, do local districts increase or decrease their financial outlays for public education? Using previously unavailable data from a 1980 census-mapping project, analysis of 345 school districts in 5 southern states indicates a pattern of general stability in public finance during the 1970s. Contrary to much conventional wisdom, changes in school district finance are found to be largely independent of trends in school desegregation. 2 Tables, 20 References. HA

Queer studies of education have become a growing field with a range of theoretical and political positions and methodological approaches. Moreover, research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) kids is tightly connected to anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia and norm-critical activism. One of the key contentions within this field is what researchers and activists mean by "queer" in the context of education: is it a focus on queer/ed subjectivities? Is it about using queer theories to critique forms and norms of education in a given sociopolitical context? Who is queer/ed in schools? Is the language of homophobia and transphobia the best or even correct way to describe and analyse normative educational settings and frameworks?

In September 2005 the Government received recommendations fromthe School Meals Review Panel (SMRP) on school lunches and on a number of wider issues concerning food in schools. In response to that report Turning the Tables the newly-established School Food Trust (SFT) was commissioned to advise Ministers on standards for food in school other than lunch.The DfES consulted widely on the recommendations of the SMRP andon a more limited basis on the advice of the SFT. Reports on the responses to each of those consultations are available at: www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/conresults.cfm?consultationId=1319Having considered responses to those consultations and taken intoaccount the many representations the Department has received on theseissues from a range of stakeholders, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills has arrived at final decisions on the standards. These standards will apply to school lunches and other food provided in all local authority maintained schools in England.