This text looks at a wide variety of issues concerned with underachievement in schools. The author uses a case-study school as a framework to show how recent research and theory about underachievement and disadvantage can be applied in practice. She discusses: understanding the concept of underachievement; social class; ethnicity; gender; poverty; family; peer effects; school effects; and the role of schools and policy makers in reducing underachievement.

There is greater pressure for schools to meet certain levels of pupil achievement now more than ever before. Teachers and policy-makers are looking for ways to ensure pupils are not underachieving, and to do this must have some understanding of the causes of underachievement.

This timely book examines different levels of achievement of pupil groups and the reasons behind them. The authors highlight ways in which schools and policy-makers might improve achievement through changes in policy and practice. Some of the topics considered are:

* What is underachievement?
*...

Art historian Wiley Jones enjoys a mundane existence in the protective cocoon of academia. Surrounded by volumes of manuscripts and dusty artifacts, her carefully orchestrated life is thrown into chaos when she is encouraged to join an art recovery project based in Croatia. The moment she and her unwanted protector, undercover FBI agent Scott McCormick leave Chicago they quickly find themselves immersed in a shadowy world of dead ends and misdirection. Scott enjoys the thrill of the chase as it relates to both Wiley and their ensuing investigation. On the surface it appears a cache of...