Literacy for School Improvement

Value-added analyses are increasingly used as a method of studying the extent schools make a difference to the performance of their pupils. Schools differ substantially in the mean examination performance of their pupils, but it is widely considered that this is more due to differences in their intake than in the schools' efforts. Value-added analyses compare the pupils' performance after allowing for these differences. Ideally such analyses take account of performance at entry, but where this is not available, home background variables have been used. Value-added and school effectiveness analyses have been carried out in a large number of countries, but ones which managed to allow for performance at intake have largely been confined to Western Europe, North America and Australia. Based on the work of an international team from Malta and the National Foundation for Educational Research of the UK, and drawing on the now well-established tradition of research into school improvement, this innovative study applies the approach for the first time to Malta's primary schools. It seeks to demonstrate how aspects of pupils' home backgrounds facilitate or inhibit their literacy progress between Years 2 and 5. It also highlights the particular challenges the cumulative effects of social disadvantage, language difficulties, special educational needs and location can pose for a minority of pupils, families and their schools. Professor John Gray of the University of Cambridge, a leading expert in the area of school improvement, has lauded this pioneering study for drawing on best practice to outline some important strategies for feeding back information to schools and teachers. It also offers a series of searching questions schools might usefully ask themselves about their current practices. As other educational systems have found to their benefit, high-quality data on pupil performance in combination with a continuing commitment to self-review can provide a powerful catalyst for school improvement.