Within-School Variation - Education's Biggest Challenge

While academic results achieved by different schools have been extensively measured, up until recently, variations in performance between classes and departments within a school have received little attention. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that performances varied four times more within British schools than between them.

Called “within-school variation” this has been described as education’s biggest challenge because it can have a negative impact on a child’s educational development. An eighteen-month research project by the National College for School Leadership has discovered a number of ways to address this problem by working with 25 head teachers around the UK. It has been so successful that the project will now double in size.