Study title

Main Topics:Variables Headteachers of selected schools were asked for information in three general categories: 1. School: Name of LEA; type of school (infant, infant/junior, junior, secondary modern, etc.); school address; whether school is county, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided, special agreement, or other; number of pupils on roll; whether most classes are co-educational; whether any children are boarders; by how many teachers school is below establishment; number of expected teaching vacancies by year's end; number of teaching hours Head carries out; existence of Deputy Head and number of teaching hours he/she carries out; date of school building construction; existence of separate Head's, Deputy Head's and staff rooms; number of children affected by over-crowding in schoolroom; location of school playing fields, if any; whether school has PTA or other organised parents group; visual aids available for use in school; whether school has special classes for backward children or an organised unit for ascertained ESN children; whether school suspends or alters normal time-table for internal examinations; proportion of fathers of children who are employed in non-manual occupations and proportion of children from `difficult' neighbourhoods. Secondary school Head teachers are asked, further, whether school possesses separate and purpose-built rooms for specialist classes such as science laboratories and gymnasiums, whether teaching groups exist as form classes, subject sets, house or tutor groupings or other groupings, what types of examinations are taken by children in schools (vocational guidance, CSE, GCE etc.). Primary school Heads are asked whether most teaching classes in school comprise children in one, two, three, four, or five age groups, whether nature of age-grouping is result of deliberate policy or forced on headteacher by school conditions, whether children are grouped according to ability and whether children in school take any standardised 11+...