The Social Context of Effective Schools

This article analyzes differences in the operation of school effectiveness factors in high- and low-SES effective schools. Observable differences are found on several effectiveness variables. The social context of the effective schools appears to influence the breadth of the curriculum, the allocation and use of instructional time, the instructional leadership role of the principal, the nature of the school reward system, and the type of expectations embedded in school policies and practices. These findings, though tentative, indicate that practitioners should not treat the well-publicized effectiveness factors as generalizable to all school settings. In addition, the results suggest that researchers concerned with understanding the process of effective schooling should focus on the manner in which these schools translate contextual expectations into school policies and classroom practices.