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This paper is concerned with the influence of the policy of local education authorities upon educational attainment. We suggest that the influence of local policy has been neglected in the sociology of education and hypothesize that policy variables are likely to be of major importance as determinants of attainment. Evidence drawn from correlations of policy, provision and social-class variables with each other and with various measures of attainment tends to validate this suggestion, and indicates that two `policy- models' of local authority activity may be appropriate: viz, the elite-orientated authority model, in which resources are differentially concentrated on a sponsored elite with consequent high attainment of this elite; and the egalitarian authority model where resources are more evenly spread throughout the school system with consequent `inferior' attainment of an elitist kind, but where the evidence suggests there is higher overall attainment of the total school system product. It would also appear that the determinant of the policy set pursued by an LEA. is the social class background of the area it covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary responsibility of the journal "Sociology of Education," is to publish papers that advance sociological knowledge about education. The journal also can serve as a significant medium for the application of this knowledge to major issues of educational policy and practice. Thus the editors invite contributions of several kinds, 1. papers that extend sociological theory with reference to education, 2. discussions of research methods that are of especial relevance to the sociology of education, 3. reports of sociological research on education, most particularly those weaving together theory and data, 4. systematic analyses or summaries of the sociological literature on education, 5. articles applying sociological principles to educational practice, and 6. critical or programmatic statements on educational policy from the standpoint of sociology. Recognizing that the boundaries of the social science disciplines are unclear and shifting, papers will be considered not with respect to the disciplinary affiliation of the author but according to the quality of the paper's contribution to sociological knowledge or its application to education.