Taken together, these suggest that positive intervention in our weakest schools may be a productive course. Governments are increasingly taking an active part in constructing a safety net for such schools. Two recent guides i provide policymakers with the most current thinking gathered from a broad range of international perspectives on this question. They offer insights and strategies to restore under-performing schools to health. Defining Troubled Schools Identifying schools in need of intervention is no simple matter.
Schools are highly complex organisms, making cause and effect difficult to isolate.
Raw indicators are not sufficient to separate effective from ineffective schools. Measures of pupil attainment must be considered in relation to many other factors such as student progress over time, comparisons with schools of similar student intake, and a school's capacity to respond to the educational challenges it faces. Stoll and Fink, a Canadian-British research team, identify another type of school presenting an enormous challenge. Such schools are also shortchanging their students. There is justifiable concern that labelling schools in difficulty is harmful.