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

近几十年来，全世界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，但生活在最贫困地区的最贫困学习者仍然是系统性最差的（OECD 2017）。在英格兰，政策制定者已经开始将这些不良结果的空间集中视为“冷点”。关于学校教育，教育部（DfE）和国家教学和领导学院（NCTL）将这些领域定义为劣势程度最高的领域，学校面临最具挑战性的环境，需要额外的支持来改善学校和儿童的生活（DfE和NCTL 2018）。最近为“增加对冷点地区的支持”所做的努力包括创建教学学校，定义为“由强有力的领导者领导的强大学校，与其他人合作提供高质量的培训，发展和支持”（DfE和NCTL，2018）。与众不同的是，这种方法旨在利用Campbell-Wilcox（2017）所称的“赔率”学校的专业知识-即通过公平的做法，在弱势社区持续取得良好成果。鉴于英国教育标准局担心，一些学校通过排除最弱势的学生来加剧不平等，从而确保改善，从似乎更公平的学校学习尤为重要。作为回应，本研究旨在了解更多关于学校出现“赔率击败”成功，并利用这些知识，通知教学学校的工作。具体而言，它将探讨这些学校如何：了解当地环境和学生群体的不利因素;在实践中应对这些不利因素;以及他们的反应的性质是什么，支持他们的成功。简单地说，很少有研究试图了解学校似乎赔率击败作为一个整体，复杂，上下文，多方面的组织，并提供足够的细节，以探索其方法的全部或部分潜在可转移性。这可能会使教学学校在考虑寒冷地区的学校可以做些什么来改进时，除了自己的实践之外，几乎没有参考点，并受到这些实践固有的局限性的限制。解释解决这些问题，这项研究已共同设计与圣帕特里克的教学学校，这是致力于发展高质量的研究知情的支持，并由教育部任命的国家教育领导人领导。它将提出三个首要问题：1。那些看起来胜算不大的学校是如何理解当地环境和学生群体中的劣势的？2.他们对此有何回应？3.他们的反应的本质是什么，支持他们的成功？CASE学生将与CASE合作伙伴密切合作，建立三合会。像圣帕特里克的，两个额外的学校必须：1。服务于弱势地区和反映当地贫困的学生群体2。保持学生的进步和成绩达到或超过全国平均水平3。在录取和排除方面表现出公平的做法。

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.