Educational systems all over the world want to improve the educational attainment of their populations. Considerable efforts and investments have been put into achieving this aim. We are continuously looking at ways in which educational systems can progress through proven programmes and by improving the quality of teaching and teachers.
Comments on our new book, Making Schools Better for Disadvantaged Students: The International Implications of Evidence on Effective School Funding.
"Growing up as a child on an inner-city Midlands’ council estate in the 1970s and 80s, I was in receipt of free school meals. Little did I realise then that over 40 years later, in one of the advanced nations in the world, I would be reading a book about what can be done to make schools better for disadvantaged students. This superb work by Professors Gorard, See and Siddiqui builds on years of their research in this field and clearly highlights the impact on the education outcomes, especially at Key Stage 4, of children who are raised in persistent poverty. The authors provide compelling evidence for a less segregated approach to schooling and the positive impact this would have on reducing the disadvantage gap. For me, this is where policymakers’ efforts need to be focused as opposed to criticising schools who serve wonderful but persistently disadvantaged communities."
Darren Hankey, Principal of Hartlepool College of Further Education.
"As Chair of Comprehensive Future I hear on a daily basis about the unfairness which riddles our school system through academic selection and poverty. The segregation created by the viciously competitive 11-plus test has little to do with ‘academic potential’ and everything to do with whether a child’s family is affluent and middle class or poor and working class. At Comprehensive Future we are passionate supporters of Gorard and Siddiqui’s work. They stand alone as researchers whose work consistently demonstrates that every child, and indeed the whole of society, benefits from an inclusive education. This latest book by Gorard, See and Siddiqui is an exciting and ambitious work examining polices worldwide for reducing the poverty attainment gap for disadvantaged students. It offers persuasive arguments not just for an inclusive education system but for educational policies and appropriately targeted funding for students who are persistently at risk of educational disadvantage."
Dr Nuala Burgess, Chair of Comprehensive Future and Researcher at School of Education, Communication and Society King’s College London
Current projects include
Lu, B., & Siddiqui, N. (2022). The more selective, the more effective? The geographical difference of the effectiveness of selective education. Educational Review, 1-19.
Gorard, S., See, B. H., & Siddiqui, N. (2022). Making Schools Better for Disadvantaged Students: The International Implications of Evidence on Effective School Funding. Taylor & Francis.
Gorard, S. and Siddiqui, N. (2019) How trajectories of disadvantage help explain school attainment, SAGE Open.
Gorard, S. (2019) Significance testing with incompletely randomised cases cannot possibly work, International Journal of Science and Research Methodology, 11, 2.
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