Unequal access to quality education is a major problem.

At the same time, school can, to some extent, compensate for the negative impact of the family’s socio-economic deficits (2). School effectiveness studies have shown that 8% to 15% of the differences in academic results demonstrated by students from different schools can be explained by in-school factors and not the external context (1).

This fact lays the foundation for creating a policy aimed at helping schools with persistently low academic results and working with the least safe contingent of students and parents, and at providing them with strategies which would enable schools to cope with these objective obstacles and enhance their effectiveness.

The research was directed at schools demonstrating low academic achievements and in need for assistance in three regions of the Russian Federation.

The main purpose if the project was to develop diagnostic procedures and tools for identifying schools with poor results and urgently needing help (including schools working in most complicated and socially disadvantaged contexts), and define types of the problems and deficits.   The school effectiveness model (R.Marzano, P.Мortimor) was used as the example for the implementation of improvement. Researchers posed the following questions:

·        What features lead to weaker results?

·        What administrative problems prevent schools from finding the most efficient educational strategies and building a positive school climate?

·        What professional skills and qualifications the teachers lack and need at the same time, to succeed in working with students from disadvantaged backgrounds?

1. Fullan M. The new meaning of educational change. Prosveshenie, 2006. 2. Marina Pinskaya, Tatyana Timkova, Olga Obukhova. Can schools influence the elementary school students’ level of literacy in reading? Based on the analysis of PIRLS-2006 results. The education journal Voprosi Obrazovaniya, issue #2, 2009. 3. Alma Harris, Judith Gunraj, Sue James, Paul Clarke and Belinda Harris. Improving Schools in Exceptionally Challenging Circumstances Tales from the Frontline. Continuum Press, 2005. 4. Hopkins D. Meeting the Challenge. An Improvement Guide for Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances. London: Department for Education and Skills, 2001. 5. Mortimore, P. The road to improvement. Reflections on school effectiveness. Swets&Zeitliner Publishers. 1998. 6. Marzano R. J. What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. 2006. 7. McCutcheon A. Latent class analysis. London: Sage, 1987. P. 5-44; Dayton C.M., Macready G. Use of categorical and continuous covariates in latent class analysis // Applied latent class analysis / Ed. by J. Hagenaars and A. McCutcheon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002