Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Prior research on the “London effect” – that is, the rapid gains in performance of low-income pupils  in Inner London since the late 1990s – has shown that success at the secondary level can largely be explained by student success at the primary level.  This paper takes a close look at the success of primary school pupils (as measured by their gains in the standard Key Stage 2 (KS2) test as 11 year olds) relative to national trends in two Inner London boroughs, Hackney and Tower Hamlets. These two boroughs were among the most impoverished and lowest performing academically of all the Inner London boroughs, and also in the country, in the late 1990s but both demonstrated rapid improvement in subsequent years. Pupil achievement on the KS2 reaching the national average by 2004 in Tower Hamlets and by 2011 in Hackney.  We begin by examining a number of external factors for the improvement, including gentrification, the changing ethnic mix and increased resources, and then turn attention to the borough-specific explanations for the improvements that occurred at different times in the two boroughs.  Our analysis is analytically descriptive. We draw heavily on publicly available data, school reports published over the period by the national Inspectorate (Ofsted), interviews with policy makers in both boroughs, a review of prior research, and visits to schools. We conclude that in both boroughs, a major reason for the pupil gains was that the schools got better, and that was due in large part to strong leadership based on clear visions (that emerged at different times)in the two boroughs. We end the paper with three lessons related to school improvement for U.S. policy makers.