This book offers an analysis and summary of school effectiveness research. The book reviews the history and "state of the art" knowledge in the field, with a look at the international research base; reviews those research practices in terms of design, data collection, and data analysis; and outlines some creative new directions for the field. Following the preface and introduction by David Reynolds, section 1 presents two chapters that describe state-of-the-art school-effectiveness research; (2) "The History, Value and Purpose of School Effectiveness Studies" (Bert P. M. Creemers); and (3) "School Effectiveness Research: A Review of the International Literature" (David Reynolds, and others). Five chapters in section 2 describe advances in research practice in school effectiveness: (4) "The Analysis of Large Data Bases in School Effectiveness Research" (Sam Stringfield); (5) "Outlier Studies of School Effectiveness" (Sam Stringfield); (6) "The Study of Context in School Effects Research: History, Methods, Results, and Theoretical Implications" (Charles Teddlie); (7) "The Integration of Classroom and School Process Data in School Effectiveness Research" (Charles Teddlie); and (8) "The Contributions of Classroom Observation to School Effectiveness Research" (Eugene C. Schaffer, Pamela S. Nesselrodt, and Sam Stringfield). Section 3, "New Directions for School Effectiveness Research," contains four chapters: (9) "A Model of Elementary School Effects" (Sam Stringfield); (10) "Effective Instruction: An Empirical Basis for a Theory of Educational Effectiveness" (Bert P. M. Creemers); (11) "Conceptual Frameworks on School Effectiveness: Rational Control Versus Choice" (Jaap Scheerens); and (12) "School Effectiveness--The Need for an International Perspective" (David Reynolds, Bert P. M. Creemers, James Bird, Shaun Farrell, and Frans Swint). Seventeen tables and eight figures are included. References accompany each chapter. Author and subject indexes are included. (LMI)