educational policy

• all educational policy in the UK, beginning with the establishment of free, compulsory secondary education in 1944 has been driven by three main aims:
  • economic efficiency: developing the talents of young people to improve the skills of the labour force so Britain maintains a successful position in the world economy. this often involves making the education system meet the needs of industry through an emphasis on vocational education. in recent years this has taken on greater urgency due to high rates of youth unemployment. Dolphin (2014)  suggests a strong workplace based vocational education and training system, with high employer involvement, contributes to a smoother transition from education to work.
  • raising educational standards: there have been many different ways of attempting this.
  • creating equality of educational opportunity in a meritocratic society: most peoples occupational positions and pay are allocated mainly on the basis of their skills. everyone should have an equal chance of gaining qualifications.

• Gillborn and Youdell (2000) identify four dimensions of equality of educational opportunity
  • equality of access
  • equality of circumstances - all children of the same socio-economic status when they enter school
  • equality of participation - same chances to participate on equal footing
  • equality of outcome - everyone has the same chances of sharing in the eventual benefits of schooling
• dominant meaning given to equality of educational opportunity in education policy is equality of access
• other three dimensions rarely consisdered
• halsey, heath and ridge (1980) suggest that one of the tests of success of equality of opportunity is the extent to which there is equality of outcome
• remains wide inequalities

• tripartite system introduced in 1944.
  • free secondary education for everyone
  • three types of schools- grammar, secondary modern and technical schools
  • IQ test at age 11
  • 15-20% with best results go to grammar and most go to secondary modern, about 5% in technical schools
  • during 1960s tripartite system questioned
  • 11+ unfair and unreliable which disadvanaged working class children and damaged self esteem of children who failed.
  • secondary moderns were seen as second rate schools. research shows talent was being wasted at such schools

• abolished selection a 11 and the three types of school
• 164 grammar schools remaining
• bans selection by ability
• evidence of covert selection

• forbids discrimination in admiting pupils on the grounds of ability or socio-economic status
• amendmen proposed in 2014 to discriminate in favour of the most disadvanaged by giving priority to those eligible for pupil premium
• encouraging schools to attract the poorest parents

• conservative-liberal democrat coalition took the view that raising standards in all schools would be enough to give every child equality of opportunity
• policies of positive discrimination and compensatory education
• aimed to give young people whose home and social class background are seen as obstacles to sucess extra assistance
• changes to the admissions code in 2014 give priority to students eligable for pupil premium
• kerr and west (2010) childrens progress is limited by factors beyond the control of the school system

• many schools, if given the opportunity would prefer to select the brigtest, best behaved and best motivated pupils.
• they prefer pupils who have well off and well educated parents who can support the school financially and help their children educaionally
• three main types of selection
  • selection by ability- performance on 11+. streaming or setting
  • selection by aptitude - potential to be good in certain subjects, used by specialist schools
  • selection by faith - select a proportion of their pupils based on the religious beliefs

• arguments for
  • benefits 'high flyers' since schools containing pupils of all abilities hold bighter students back due to slower pace
  • argue thiswouldmt happen with selection as bright students can be 'stretched' in classrooms of the same ability
• arguements against
  • late developers benefit-
  • fewer social divisions and more social cohesion through social mixing
  • reduced risk of labelling and self fulfilling prophecy
  • benefits pupils of all abilities - more intelligent pupils have a stimulating effect on the less able and self fullfilling prophecy is easier to avoid. beneficial for 'high flyers' and has no effect on the schools exam performance
  • no negative impact on social mobility

• a paren can apply for a place in any state funded school in any area and if the school is undersubscribed, then it must accept that child.
• described as a system of parental choice
• popular schools fill up fastest and are over subscribed
• this means not all parents are able to get their first choice - really just expressing a preference

• if a school is over subscribed pupils are admitted according to oversubscription criteria
• priority to people in care, with brothers or sisters in the school and who live in the catchment area and religious faith (in faith school)
• change proposed in 2014 that gives priority to those eligible for pupil premium
• the mos popular schools are normally in the wealthiest middle class areas. they generally do better because they contain pupils from middle class homes
• middle class parents have the best chances of securing places in these schools as they live in he middle class areas where the schools are located
• working class parents miss out on the best education, contributing to inequality

• Tough and Brooks (2007) have idenified a form of selection in admissions called covert selection
• secondary schools use backdoor social selection to cherry-pick those who they think are likely to be of higher ability and/or social class
• Green Allen and Jenkins found free schools were social selecive and cherry picked wealthy students and even the schools in deprived areas were failing to admit the neediest students
• involves discouraging studens from poor backgrounds from applying by
  • making school literature difficult for parents to understand
  • having expensive school uniform
  • not promoting the school in poorer areas
• academies commision found that some academies were holding 'social events' for prospective parents or asking parents to complete long admissions forms and suggested such practicies can enable schools to select pupils from more privilaged families with the cultural capital to fill in the forms to their childs advantage
• faith schools have sometimes gained information about family circumstances and pupil characeristics through letters from spiritual leaders

many of the educational policies since the 1980s such as privatisation and marketisation have their roots in neoliberalism

• believes the state should have a minimal role in providing and managing public services
• the free market should decide how they operate
• suggests the best way to deliver and improve the quality of public services is to make them operate like private businesses.
• feature of the new right approach to education

• globalisation has impacted education policy in two main ways:
  • the privatisation and marketisation of education
    • promoted by neoliberal organisations like OECD and large global private businesses
    •  education is a multi-billion pound global market and large multinational companies are seeking to gain access to this market
    • hancock (2014) estimated education exports in 2012 were worth £18 billion to the uk each year.
    • globalisation and neoliberal policies mean that global education markets are growing each year.
  • international comparisons
    • PISA and TIMSS
    • compare test results in maths, science and reading in 15 year old students  in around 50-65 countries every 3 to 5 years. the data is then put into league tables to show the relative performance of different countries
    • deeply influence education policies.
    • result in reassessment of current policies and the formation of new policies drawn from the highest achieving countries.

• alexander (2012) suggests PISA and TIMSS have led to an educational, economic and political moral panic and the search for 'miracle cures' which politicians see as underpinning success in countries topping the league tables
•  he identified the following examples of policies implemented as a result of comparisons
  • national literacy and numeracy strategies- labour 1998-2010- two hours per day
  • slimming down national curriculum - 2010-15 Conservative-LibDem coalition government slimmed down England's curriculum to 'essential knowledge' in English maths and science.
  • raising the academic entry requirements for teachers- inspired by Finland
  • 'master teachers'- 2014 labour - inspired by Singapore

• strengths
  • useful to see whether educational spending matches achievement- UK spending is well above that of the average OCED country yet performs worse than other lower spending countries. 
  • useful for benchmarking international standards- show what is humanly possible
  • provide evidence of what policies seem to work best
• weaknesses
  • based on a very narrow conception of education
  • test results do not necessarily mean education received is better or worse in different countries and there are concerns about validity and reliability of the tests used.
  • can have damaging and wasteful effects on policy-  Alexander notes that comparing international tests can lead to policy changes based on 'ill-founded assertions about educational cause and effect' 
• alexander concludes that because of 'PISA abuse' the tests should carry a similar warning to that which appears on cigarette packets in Britain- 'this product may damage your nations educational health'

• services that were once owned and provided by the state are transferred to private companies.
• UK central government and local authority spending on education amount to around £88 billion a year so there is an enormous potential market for private investors.
• ball and youdell(2007) identify two main types of privatisation: endogenous and exogenous
  • endogenous privatization-  privatisation in education - schools operate more like private businesses. this involves importing private sector values such as local management, competition, efficiency, performance related pay, target setting, league tables and per capita funding. such policies were implemented by conservative governments between 1979 and 1997, continued by labour governments between 1998 and 2010 and sped up by the Conservative-LibDem coalition from 2010-15 with the rapid expansion of academies.
  • exogenous privatisation- privatisation of education- the opening up of state education to private profit-making businesses. this involves companies taking over things like school services such as staff training, management, inspections (tribal inspections) designing building financing and operating school buildings under PFI (private sector finances construction and manages buildings for 30 years) branding, education policy and examination. ofsted announced it would no longer use private contractors after concerns about the quality of inspectors used 

• strengths
  • more efficient schools- more education for less cost
  • more choice for parents
  • profit motive may encourage private companies to provide schools and improve 'failing' schools in areas where education is poor- to make money companies must ensure schools are full and well run by attracting pupils through high standards and good results
• weaknesses 
  • money may be drained from the education system- private providers may not reinvest profits 
  • cherry picking- may target best schools or those easy to improve
  • going out of business leaves children without schools
  • equality of educational opportunities and quality of education under threat- making money may override the needs of pupils. schools may exclude the hardest to teach pupils reducing their educational opportunities. may select and unevenly allocate resources to students in order to maximise the overall performance. students who are seen as being of low academic ability are the most expensive to teach and are seen as unattractive investments

• the process whereby services that were previously controlled and run by the state have government control and support reduced or removed and operate like businesses, subject to the market forces of supply and demand, competition and consumer choice
• originally an idea of chubb and moe
• the main features of marketisation of education are:
  • independence
  • competition 
  • choice
• these features are backed up by quality control, through school and college inspections by Ofsted, a national curriculum, testing and the publication of league tables

• underpinning marketisation was an emphasis on 'parent power', with parents having more rights and choice of schools
• brown (1990) refers to this as parentocracy.
• child's education is increasingly dependent on the wealth and wishes of parents rather than the ability and efforts of pupils
• wealth is important due to wealthy parents having the choice of private education and being more able to make effective choices in the state-funded system.

• to satisfy consumer choice, since the 1980s there has been a growing range of different types of schools.
• the promotion of school diversity is accompanied by encouraging partners like private businesses, universities, community and parent groups and educational charities to become more involved in running schools
• help raise standards using their expert knowledge or enthusiasm
• examples of schools currently available
  • specialist schools
  • community schools
  • free schools
  • foundation and trust schools
  • voluntary aided and voluntary controlled schools
  • faith schools
  • city technology colleges 
  • special schools
  • academies
  • grammar schools

• schools would be forced to raise standards in order to attract students
• failing schools would risk being closed down so would be forced to improve or be turned into academies.
• some policies to raise standards include target setting, national testing and publication of results, national performance tables and Ofsted inspections and reports

• a series of education acts, most importantly the 1988 education reform act established the following features of education in England. nearly all still exist today
• growing independence and local management of schools- LMS transferred control of school budgets and a wide range of other aspects of the school to school governors, headteachers and consumers, and away from the local authority. schools were encouraged to become independent self-governing grant-maintained schools funded by the government. make schools more responsive to local needs.
• formula funding- funding based on the number of students attracted. 
• parental choice and open enrolment
• the national curriculum and national testing- there are attainment targets with formal assessment at the end of key stages 1-3 and NCTs at the end of key stages 1 and 2
• OFSTED- conducts inspections of all schools. reports are often used by parents to choose a school
• league tables- designed to help parents decide how well schools are doing so they can choose the best for their children, encouraging competition 

• more money for schools, more nursery education and smaller primary school classes- maximum size of 30, emphasised the importance of early learning and sure start centres were established. literacy and numeracy hours established in primary school. 
• helping the most disadvantaged- attempts to raise standards in poorer areas through extra money and better-paid teachers and schemes such as Education action zones. establishment of academies in 2000 to give a fresh start to underperforming schools. argued that academies exclude the most disadvantaged through covert selection. one policy that did not help disadvantaged students was the introduction of tuition fees for higher education
• specialist schools- an attempt to move away from 'bog standard' comprehensives. choose  10% of students by their aptitude for the subject.

• new style academies- all state schools encouraged to become academies. poorly performing schools forced to become academies.
• free schools- all ability state-funded independent schools, set up in response to what local people say they want. designed to be run by groups of teachers, parents, charities, faith groups, education experts or private companies to satisfy local demand
• pupil premium- extra money per head allocated for pupils who come from poorer homes. aimed to encourage schools to attract poorer pupils, reducing social inequalities. a change to the Schools admissions code proposed in 2014 would allow schools to discriminate in favour of those entitled to the pupil premium
• The English baccalaureate- ball and Exley suggest the coalition policy was underscored by conservative beliefs in 'real subjects' and that 'old methods are best' when it comes to teaching, discipline and the curriculum.
• reform of the national curriculum- more demanding
• reform of examination system- coursework removed
• tougher targets for schools- 'progress 8'

•  ball argues parents are encouraged to see themselves as consumers of education. they argue that parental choice follows a pattern of social class differences and contributes to the reproduction of social class inequalities. tough and brooks point out better educated middle-class families are more likely to make choices based on schools performance whereas working-class families are more likely to choose schools close to their homes and which their children attend. some schools carry out coverts selection meaning working-class parents don't have as much freedom of choice. middle-class parents know how to work the system to get the schools they want and are better placed to:
  • shop around and find the best schools
  • understand and compare schools in league tables
  • know more about how to assess Ofsted school inspection reports and what constitutes a 'good school' 
  • afford to move into catchment areas for good schools
  • afford higher transport costs 
  • know more about how popular schools allocate places and make more effective use of appeals procedures should they be refused a place 

• educational triage:  competitive climate in schools means teachers try to ensure their school's survival within the educational marketplace through educational triage. the introduction of the ebacc means teachers will devote more time to pupils who have a chance of achieving this standard, who are more likely to come from middle-class homes. there is a risk school will ignore less academically successful pupils.  there is evidence schools are allocating less time on the timetable to non-ebacc subjects.
• difficulties in improving schools and colleges: competition for students, and therefore money, may make it harder for poorer schools to improve as students go elsewhere. popular schools get more money which allows them to get better facilities and better-qualified teachers. the pupil premium may not be enough to encourage higher performing schools to try and attract poorer students.
• 'dumbing down': if students find work difficult they may encourage them to choose an easier course in order to retain students. 
• problems with the national curriculum and testing: doesn't give teachers enough opportunity to respond to the needs of their pupils. have been criticised for putting too much pressure on young children and giving them a sense of failure early in their education.
• reduced quality control: evidence is emerging that ofsted isnt as independent as it needs to be.

Around 7% of the school population have chosen to opt out of the free, state-funded system and attend the fee-paying private sector of education.

Walford (2003) points out that there is a wide diversity of independent schools such as schools that practice transcendental meditation and Buddhism, others that serve seventh day Adventists, Sikhs or Jews.

Many of these schools start up because of parents expressing choice of school, and while such schools may meet parental wishes, they don't necessarily lead to the elite carriers associated with the most prestigious independent schools.

• most research about private education has  been about public schools
• these are very expensive private schools
• the reason for this is because, as Walford says, 'entry to such schools has been seen as a passport to success, high-status universities and prosperous and influential careers'
• the existence of such schools has implications for equality of educational opportunity, as having the money to access such schooling gives a huge advantage compared t those who lack such resources
• the public schools are a small group of independent schools belonging to the 'headmasters and headmistresses conference'.

• smaller class sizes and better facilities mean children have better chances of getting into top universities
• The Sutton trust (2011) found that independent schools are nearly 7 times as likely to be accepted into Oxford and Cambridge, rising to 55 times more likely as pupils who qualify for free school meals. 
• many public schools are also selective schools so the average ability of students tends to be higher in state schools. 
• high academic standards are reinforced by high levels of parental interest
• parents should have the right to spend their money as they wish- and improving their children's life chances through choosing for them to be privately educated is a sensible way of doing so.
• teachers salaries tend to be higher which may mean they attract better qualified, more experienced teachers.

• children of the well-off shouldn't be given more advantages
• such schools traditionally had the same tax subsidies and benefits through charitable status as charities helping those in need and some top independent schools are using their status as charities to help wealthy parents reduce their tax bills. 
• in 2006 the Charities Act was amended so that charities providing education had to demonstrate wider public benefit, such as offering more access to those who cant afford fees, to continue to qualify as charities.
• taxpayers have to pay for the cost of training teachers in these schools 
• quality of teaching often isn't better, but class sizes are smaller and have better facilities 
• more money should be spent on improving the state system 
• even if students from public schools get worse exam results than those in comprehensives, they end up with better jobs. 

• public school education is a prime qualification for the elite jobs in society
• although 7% attend public schools, many of the top positions are held by privately educated people.
• well off parents can almost guarantee their children will have well-paid future careers
• 'old boys network' formed, where those in positions of power recruit others who come from the same social class background and have been to the same schools.