It notes that is has often been said that schools cannot act alone against racial inequality, prejudice and social exclusion, that are "outside their gates but reach into the classroom".

"While that may be true," the report says, "and offer some comfort to those schools who feel they are constantly battling against the odds, it must not become an excuse for failure to take action.

"If schools do not take a stand, what hope is there for breaking the vicious circle of these corrosive forces which exist in society at large?

"Indeed, the best schools more often than not combine a drive for high achievement with a strong community programme which both promotes, and benefits from, good race relations."

This is what the report says is going wrong:

• few schools monitor their initiatives to raise attainment systematically or give them a specific ethnic focus
• the impact of equal opportunities policies is limited and poorly monitored
  
• the use of ethnic monitoring as part of a school's strategy for raising attainment barely exists at primary level and is inadequately used in secondary schools
  
• very few schools review their curricular and pastoral strategies to ensure they are sensitive to ethnic groups in both the school and the wider community
  
• fewer than a quarter of the local education authorities visited had a clear strategy for raising attainment and only a third monitored that attainment in ways which allowed action to be targeted effectively
  
• uncertainty, verging on helplessness, is evident in many education authorities about strategies which will help specific groups, such as black Caribbean boys.

Better than average

Schools which understand the hostility often faced by ethnic minority pupils, and have developed ways to counter stereotyping, have had "a tangible impact" on pupils' confidence, self-esteem and achievement.

One example in the report refers to an (unnamed) primary school which has worked hard to overcome the problems its pupils have.

Eighty-nine per cent of them have English as an additional language, a significant number are refugees - who have often suffered considerable trauma - there is a great turnover of pupils passing through the school, and more than 60% are entitled to free school meals because their families are so poor.

Yet its national test results at age 7 are above the local and national averages - the maths results, well above. At age 11, results in English are just below the averages but maths and science results are well above.

This is what the report says schools and education authorities must do:

• monitor pupil achievement and behaviour by ethnic groups
  
• use that data to set targets and use special funding effectively
  
• ensure that all pupils make good progress in literacy, numeracy and information technology
  
• take unequivocal action to counter racial harassment and stereotyping