Product Description: This important new book draws lessons from a large-scale initiative to bring about the improvement of an urban education system. Written from an insider perspective by an internationally recognized researcher, it presents a new way of thinking about system change...read more

Product Description: Responding to Diversity in Schools provides guidance for education practitioners on how to use an inquiry-based approach in responding to learner diversity. It supports readers in addressing an agenda for change, considering questions such as: Who are the learners who are missing out? What evidence do we need in order to understand the barriers faced by these learners? How can we analyse this evidence in order to find effective ways of moving forward? How do we involve others in this process? Responding to Diversity in Schools sets out to encourage innovation in schools, challenge existing assumptions and practices, and promote critical reflection...read more

While many books explore the possibilities for developing inclusive practices in schools, and ‘inclusion’ is widely regarded as a desirable goal, much of the literature on the subject has been narrowly concerned with the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. This book however, takes the view that marginalisation, exclusion and underachievement take many forms and affect many different kinds of child. As such, a definition of inclusion should also touch upon issues of equity, participation, community, entitlement, compassion, respect for diversity and sustainability. Here the highly regarded authors focus on: barriers to participation and learning experienced by pupils the practices that can overcome these barriers the extent to which such practices facilitate improved learning outcomes how such practices can be encouraged and sustained within schools and LEAs. The book is part of the Improving Learning series, published in partnership with the Teaching and Learning Research Project.

The improvement of urban schools is one of the major challenges facing practitioners and policy-makers today. Issues related to poverty create particular difficulties in urban schools, and the emphasis on market-led improvement strategies has tended to add to these challenges. In addition, strategies for 'raising standards', as measured by aggregate test and examination results, can result in marginalisation or exclusion of some groups of learners. Drawing on research evidence, "Improving Urban Schools" addresses the question of how primary and secondary urban schools can be improved in a more inclusive way. The authors argue that urban schools and their communities have within them expertise that tends to be overlooked, and latent creativity that should be mobilised to move thinking and progress forward. They show that new approaches to leadership, various forms of collaborative school-to-school partnerships, and major changes in national policy development are needed to make use of this untapped energy. The book includes vivid accounts of these activities to shed light on what really happens in urban schools, and presents practical strategies for school leaders and practitioners who want to make a difference in urban schools.

Product Description: The aim of this book is to consider how schools and LEAs can develop inclusive policies and practices for students who experience a range of difficulties in learning or behavior. It highlights debates and contradictions about the realities of inclusion and suggests ways in which practice can move forward...read more

The current emphasis on individualised intervention programmes for students with special needs may not only be impractical, but also undesirable. This book compares and contrasts special needs approaches with school effectiveness strategies. The author sets out theories about inclusive schooling that arise out of a detailed scrutiny of practice. The link between theory and practice will be welcomed by many practitioners. With extensive examples from the field to illustrate Ainscow's ideas, this is an eminently accessible text.

Product Description: First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This volume features 19 reports to the International Congress for School Effectiveness from Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, identifying a diverse range of critical issues, a diversity of policy responses and a diversity of practical applications, all in education...read more

Product Description: The current emphasis on individualised intervention programmes for students with special needs may not only be impractical, but also undesirable. This book compares and contrasts special needs approaches with school effectiveness strategies...read more

Inclusive education has become a phrase with international currency shaping the content of conferences and national educational policies around the world. But what does it mean? Is it about including a special group of disabled learners or students seen to have 'special needs' (them) or is it concerned with making educational institutions inclusive, responsive to the diversity of all their students (us)? In this unique comparative study, the editors have brought together an international team of researchers from eight countries to develop case-studies which explore the processes of inclusion and exclusion within a school or group of schools set in its local and national context. The study includes classroom observation, the experiences of the school day of students and interviews with staff, students, parents and school governors. Through an innovative juxtaposition of the case-studies and commentaries on them, differences of perspective within and between countries are revealed and analysed. The study arose from a dissatisfaction with previous research, which presents 'national perspectives' or seeks findings that have global significance. This book avoids such simplification and draws attention to the problems of translation of practice across cultures. The editors start from an assumption of diversity of perspective which like the diversity of students within schools can be viewed as problematic or as a resource to be recognized and celebrated. (view table of contents)

Product Description: First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: "Improving the Quality of Education for All" (IQEA) is a school improvement project which aims to produce and evaluate a model of school development that strengthens the school's ability to provide high quality education for all its pupils by building upon existing good practice...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: First Published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.