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The purpose of this paper is to attempt to articulate our dissatisfaction with current thinking about attainment, in the hope that this may help us to see more clearly what ways of conceptualising attainment would be more useful. Thus most of the paper is devoted to demonstrating the inadequacy of psychometric and taxonomic ways of thinking about attainment, but towards the end we shall very much more tentatively suggest an alternative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proportion of 16-year-olds in Britain who stay on at school is low by OECD standards. This paper examines the probability of completing education at the minimum legal age using micro data on individuals. Parameter estimates of a reduced-form logit model of the leaving probability are obtained for both boys and girls. The rich data set used allows the separate effects of family, school and ability to be assessed. Family background in the form of class and parental education is shown to have a large effect even when ability and school type are controlled for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory of language is outlined which emphasises the interactive nature of linguistic communication, and it is hypothesised that such interaction forms the basis for the child's acquisition of control of the language system. It is further suggested that differences in quality and quantity of interaction, in which meaning is negotiated in the shared construction of social reality, may be largely responsible for the 'linguistic disadvantage' which is the putative cause of the educational under-achievement of many children. The paper describes the way in which these questions are being investigated in a longitudinal study of the language development of a representative sample of children, based on regular observations of the children's spontaneous linguistic interaction at home and at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the development of teacher-based techniques for observational research and classroom learning assessment in primary schools in Great Britain. Key issues discussed include a series of inter-related projects involving the study of pupils in their primary schools and their transfer to the next stage of schooling and the impact of certain patterns of teacher interaction on the behavior of students in the classroom and the manner in which these behaviors are related to educational achievement.

The article presents an overview of homework research in Great Britain that is intended to serve as a basis for the identification of several vital methodological and conceptual problems and the stimulation of some interest in what has been a somehow neglected area of educational research. Key issues discussed include the relationship between various homework practices and the achievement of children at the secondary and primary school levels, as well as the issues' implications for educational research and education.