"This book examines the changes, and reasons for the changes, in ways in which schools have been judged to be 'good' or 'effective'. A major focus is the development from the 1970s of a research-based movement in Britain, the United States and elsewhere that has explored school effectiveness and improvement. The author traces the development of the American and British research, and the ways in which it affected American school policy and practice - and failed to do so in competition with national policies that aimed at a national curriculum, assessment and related changes." "In order to consider the nature of this effective schools research and movement, the book sets them against a background of nineteenth- and twentieth-century judgements of what, in Britain, has constituted a good school. It traces the power of inspectors, examinations, governments, managers and others to make judgements and to define the criteria for making judgements, and ways in which research also became influential. This book is therefore an important piece of recent history, using mainly Britain and the United States to explain and illustrate the changes, and focusing on concepts of central importance in current schools policy and practice internationally."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved