Lessons from 'odds-beating' schools: understanding how schools serving disadvantaged areas achieve good outcomes

近几十年来，世界各地的富裕国家都在努力提高学校的质量。但是，尽管取得了一些进展，但生活在最贫穷地区的最贫穷的学习者在系统上仍然做得最差(经合组织2017年)。在英格兰，政策制定者已经开始将这些糟糕结果的空间集中度视为“冷点”。关于学校教育，教育部(DFE)和国家教学与领导学院(NCTL)将其定义为劣势最严重的领域、学校面临最具挑战性的环境以及需要额外支持以改善学校和儿童生活的领域(DFE和NCTL 2018)。最近“在寒冷地区增加支持”的努力包括创建教学学校，其定义是“由强有力的领导人领导的强大学校，与其他人合作提供高质量的培训、发展和支持”(DFE和NCTL，2018年)。与众不同的是，这种方法寻求利用坎贝尔-威尔科克斯(Campbell-Wilcox)(2017)所称的“胜算”学校的专业知识--即通过公平的做法，在贫困社区始终如一地取得良好结果。鉴于Ofsted担心一些学校通过排斥最弱势的学生来加剧不平等，从而确保改进，从看起来更公平的学校学习尤为重要。作为回应，这项研究试图更多地了解那些看起来“胜券在握”的学校是如何成功的，并利用这些知识来指导教学学校的工作。具体地说，它将探索这些学校如何：了解当地环境和学生人数的劣势；在实践中对这些劣势做出回应；以及它们回应的性质如何支持它们的成功。简单地说，很少有研究试图了解那些看起来胜算很大的学校是作为一个整体、复杂、有背景的、多方面的组织，并充分详细地探索其方法的潜在可转换性--全部或部分。这可能会使教学学校在思考寒冷地区的学校可以做些什么来改进时，除了自己的做法之外几乎没有参考点，并受到这些做法固有的限制的限制。明确地解决了这些问题，这项研究是与圣帕特里克教学学校共同设计的，该学校致力于开发高质量的研究知情支持，并由DFE指定的国家教育领导人领导。它将问三个关键问题：1.那些看起来胜算很大的学校如何认识到它们在当地背景和学生群体中的劣势？2.它们如何应对？3.它们的回应是什么性质支持它们的成功？案例学生将与案例合作伙伴密切合作，以建立三合会。与圣帕特里克学校一样，新增的两所学校必须：1.服务于弱势地区和反映当地弱势群体的学生群体2。学生的进步和成绩持续达到或高于全国平均水平3。在接纳和排除方面展示公平的做法。

In recent decades, affluent countries world-wide have sought to improve the quality of their schools. But despite some gains, the poorest learners, living in the poorest areas, are still doing systematically least well (OECD 2017). In England, policymakers have started to think about these spatial concentrations of poor outcomes as 'cold spots'. With reference to schooling, the Department for Education (DfE) and National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) have defined these as areas with the highest levels of disadvantage, where schools face the most challenging circumstances, and where additional supports are needed to improve schools and children's lives (DfE and NCTL 2018). Recent efforts to "grow support in cold spot areas" have included the creation of Teaching Schools, defined as "strong schools led by strong leaders that work with others to provide highquality training, development and support" (DfE and NCTL, 2018). Distinctively, this approach seeks to harness the expertise of schools which Campbell-Wilcox (2017) terms 'odds-beating' - i.e. consistently achieving good outcomes, through equitable practices, in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Given Ofsted's concerns that some schools are securing improvements by exacerbating inequalities through excluding the most disadvantaged learners, learning from schools which appear more equitable is especially important. In response, this study seeks to learn more about how schools which appear 'odds-beating' succeed, and to use this knowledge to inform Teaching Schools' work. Specifically, it will explore how these schools: understand disadvantages in their local contexts and student populations; respond to these in practice; and what it is about the nature of their response that supports their success.Simply, little research has sought to understand schools which appear odds-beating as whole, complex, contextualised, multi-faceted organisations, and in sufficient detail to explore the potential transferability of their approaches - in whole or in part. This may leave Teaching Schools with few reference points beyond their own practices, and constrained by the limitations inherent in these, when thinking about what schools in cold spots can do to improve. Explicitly addressing these issues, this study has been co-designed with St Patrick's Teaching School, which is committed to developing high-quality research-informed support, and led by a DfE-appointed National Leader of Education. It will ask three overarching questions:1. How do schools which appear odds-beating understand disadvantage in their local contexts and student populations?2. How do they respond to this?3. What is it about the nature of their response that supports their success?The CASE student will work closely with the CASE partner to establish the triad. Like St Patrick's, the two additional schools must:1. serve a disadvantaged area and student population reflecting local disadvantage2. have sustained student progress and achievement at or above national averages3. demonstrate equitable practices in admissions and exclusions.