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This chapter discusses two separate but related aspects of the school environment: population, in relation to both class size and the size of the school, and crowding. Overcrowding affects the performance and well-being of both students and teachers. Regardless of school size, overcrowding is a concern if the school is beyond its intended capacity. Population issues relate to both class size and the size of the school. Crowding is both a subjective experience and a measurable condition. Crowded conditions can be alleviated by modifying school size, class size, and furniture arrangements.

One of the priorities of the New Labour government was education. Well before the 1997 General Election, the Labour party expressed its agenda of making education a top priority. In his 1996 speech, Tony Blair said that the three highest priorities in government were ‘education, education, education’. In both the 1997 and 2001 election pledges, education was featured and promised. In 1997, Labour promised to cut class sizes to thirty or under for students ages five, six, and seven by using money from phasing out the assisted places scheme. In 2001, Labour pledged to increase the number of teachers by 10,000 and improve standards in secondary schools. And recently, Tony Blair reaffirmed Labour's commitment by stating that education was, is, and will continue to be the top priority of the government. This chapter assesses the impact of Labour's education policies by focusing on those designed to tackle educational inequalities. It examines the number of policies targeted at schools such as reducing class size, literacy and numeracy hours, Education Action Zones (EAZs), Key Stage tests, Excellence in Cities, and post-compulsory education policies such as Education Maintenance Allowance and changes to the post-16 curriculum. The chapter also explores how changes to Higher Education financing have affected the socio-economic make-up of university entrants and considers the prospects for the future.

This chapter offers recommendations for improving literacy in America, focusing particularly on reducing class size. Smaller classrooms succeed by focusing on proximal sources of influence that promote children's literacy skills. The chapter also recommends effective parenting, high-quality childcare, children's self-regulation, individualized instruction, improving the quality and status of teachers, and promoting dialogue and interaction between researchers and teachers.

As Laura looked back on the two years, she knew she had succeeded in educating her students not only for competence, but also for caring. How long this competence would last, Laura did not know. Many things contributed to her success. Laura’s class of approximately 20 students was mostly self-contained, and many students were in the class for two years, allowing her time to bond with them. Laura’s school was part of the Child Development Project which advocated and supported Laura’s teaching style and philosophy. Laura’s principal was supportive, and she had a trusted colleague who would help when some students presented serious problems. Would her students go on to lead successful lives? Many faced huge obstacles. Some might not make it. But she felt confident she had succeeded in helping each of them make real progress.

This chapter begins with a discussion of two cases where policies with “good evidence” went wrong: the Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project and the California Class-Size Reduction Program. It then sets out the book's purpose, which is to provide a general framework for understanding what went wrong in these two cases. This framework will provide readers with the kinds of questions that must be answered to make better predictions about whether a proposed program will work, and how and when to implement the program.

I can still remember going to my first economics lecture when I arrived at Oxford to study Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. It was a rather plodding account of the main British industries of the 1970s—manufacturing, mining, etc. The only vivid moment came when we were breaking up at the end and a student sitting nearby turned to me with a question: ‘What’, he asked, ‘is coal?’ International students really do bring different perspectives. Looking back now I can see that the economics faculty could have done so much more with that first lecture. They should have fielded Oxford’s most eminent professor to give us a powerful account of the shape and significance of economics. That first lecture was always going to stick in the memory: it was a missed opportunity. Oxford subsequently reformed their lectures for new students and deploy their most prestigious academics. Other universities have done this too. One academic told me, with just a hint of cynicism, the first lecture to new students was like empty skips appearing in your street—you need to fill them with your rubbish before anyone else can put their rubbish in. The teaching of economics has been caught up in swirling controversy. It involves big arguments about the role of the state and how the global financial crisis should change the discipline. But it is also about what constitutes good teaching. Here is an account of how the subject was taught at one university: ‘Tutorials consist of copying problem sets off the board rather than discussing economic ideas, and 18 out of 48 modules have 50% or more marks given by multiple choice.’ Proper teaching involves keeping a subject fresh by endlessly updating it as some contested issues are resolved or just become moribund whilst new areas of exploration and dispute emerge. Einstein is supposed to have set students the same physics questions two years in succession, but when he was challenged he replied that although the question was the same the answer had changed. The quality of teaching is the biggest problem facing our universities.