This volume brings together eight case studies which describe a variety of initiatives to create more effective schools for children of poverty, especially in the Third World. The initiatives reviewed published and unpublished documents and both qualitative and statistical studies were examined. Countries include Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Ghana, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States. Each initiative was developed independently to address unique challenges and situations but taken as a group, the features of the approaches described in this volume can be viewed as a basis for considering the development of effective schools strategies in other contexts.

This volume brings together eight case studies which describe a variety of initiatives to create more effective schools for children of poverty, especially in the Third World. The initiatives reviewed published and unpublished documents and both qualitative and statistical studies were examined. Countries include Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Ghana, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States. Each initiative was developed independently to address unique challenges and situations but taken as a group, the features of the approaches described in this volume can be viewed as a basis for considering the development of effective schools strategies in other contexts.

This book is quite different from existing 'Western' books on school effectiveness. It describes and analyses the way in which schools operate in developing countries and also tries to explain why they are as they are. Examining them at three levels - the macro, the meso and the micro - the authors use a theoretical framework that they have termed 'post-bureaucracy.' The book has four interlinked sections. First the authors examine the existing economic and theoretical contexts around school effectiveness, including an analysis of the causes of economic crisis and its impact on school management. In the second section the analysis of schools as bureaucratic facades is proposed. The reality of school life, from which any theory of school effectiveness must derive, is illustrated by an ethnographic account of the job of the headteacher in developing countries. The third section explores different ways to understand this reality, operating on three levels: global relationships, national and community cultures, and individual agency. In the final section Haber and Davies draw these levels and realities together. They argue for the democratization of schools as the only way forward for effective education fordevelopment.

This paper provides a review of research on effective schools for both developed and less-developed countries, discusses some methodological questions, and then offers a few guidelines for educational policy in less-developed countries. Perhaps the most important conclusion derived from the synthesis of the literature is that, although additional funds for education appear to be a necessary condition for educational improvement, merely spending more money is not a sufficient condition for improvement. How the funds are used is of critical importance. This survey concentrates on the "how" questions, providing a general discussion of areas where educational improvements are likely to be realized.