A study commissioned by the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services has concluded that collaborations between higher and lower attaining schools can have a positive impact on student outcomes.
Although the study talks about ‘federations’ in fact only 15% of the sample were true federations, that is, properly constituted federations with a single governing body, The vast majority are actually collaborative arrangements. The research, carried out by the universities of Manchester and Nottingham, looked at 264 schools across 122 collaborative agreements.
This report is available at:http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/impact-of-federations