Goede voornemens zijn niet genoeg als je wil dat leerlingen iets bereiken op school.  In nieuw onderzoek (pdf) onder leiding van Liz Todd van de universiteit van Newcastle, bekeek men verschillende benaderingen om de schoolresultaten van kinderen uit gezinnen met een lager inkomen te verbeteren door de  “aspirations and attitudes“ te veranderen:

“For more than 10 years national and local policy has focused attention on raising aspirations. But there is no evidence that if you want to impact on the attainment of lower-income pupils that changing attitudes and aspirations is the way to go. There is an urgent need to change direction,” says Todd.  ”It’s not that aspirations aren’t important. It’s not about turning them on but keeping them on track. It’s highly unlikely that any child starts school wanting to be unemployed.”

De onderzoekers vonden dat “the most effective way of helping children from low-income households to achieve their ambitions is engaging parents in their children’s learning and in their own learning and in providing a range of support for children such as mentoring.” (via Freakonomics)