The Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme was launched by the UK's Labour Government in March 1999 to raise standards and promote inclusion in

inner cities The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists somet ...

and other

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

s. Initially targeted at

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

s, the programme was later expanded to include

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s, working alongside the

Primary National Strategy The Primary National Strategy document was launched in the UK in May 2003 by Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education. The then-existing National Numeracy Strategy and National Literacy Strategy were taken under the umbrella of the P ...

. The programme was funded by the government, with £200 million being spent on it in 2001–02, and an additional £300 million in 2002–03. Over 1300 secondary schools and 3600 primary schools in 58

local education authorities Local education authorities (LEAs) were local councils in England that are responsible for education within their jurisdiction. The term was used to identify which council (district or county) is locally responsible for education in a system wit ...

were involved in the EiC programme. In summer 2001, the percentage point increase in pupils achieving five

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

s at A*-C in ''Excellence in Cities'' schools was almost double that of schools who weren't in the programm

The programme tackled underachievement in schools, including the development of Learning Mentors, the development of Learning Support Units, provision for Talented and Gifted program, Gifted and Talented pupils and the construction of

City Learning Centre A City Learning Centre is a facility in the United Kingdom which provides ICT-based learning opportunities for the pupils at the host school, for pupils at a network of surrounding schools and for the wider community. The centre aims to enhance ...

s. The programme also ran alongside the Leadership Incentive Grant and the Behaviour Improvement Programme. The Excellence Cluster concept was introduced to identify small groups of schools in pockets of deprivation, in both urban and rural areas that would benefit from EiC initiatives. Research into the Excellence in Cities (EiC) initiative also found that while it had boosted results in

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, it did not improve performance in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

of children aged 11 to 14 in

Key Stage 3 Key Stage 3 (commonly abbreviated as KS3) is the legal term for the three years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9, when pupils are aged between 11 and 14. In Northern Ireland the ...

Growth

The programme started off covering just 25 ''local education authorities'' in September 1999, but gradually expanded that to include many more over the following years. * September 1999 ''(first phase)'': Covered

Secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

s in 25 local education authorities. * September 2000 ''(second phase)'': A further 22 areas joined, along with

pilots in Phase One areas. * September 2001 ''(third phase)'': A further 10 areas joined the programme, extending it to more than 1,000 schools - about a third of all secondary-age pupils in the country at the time.

References

{{Reflist

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20061213061256/http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/sie/eic/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20061209201359/http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/database/secondary/excellence.html
Excellence in Cities annual report
United Kingdom educational programs Education policy in the United Kingdom Education in England Race and education

Growth

See also

References

External links