Education

• Marketisation


  Schools have govt control reduced & become like private businesses, subject to the forces of supply/demand
• Privatisation


  Services which were once owned/provided by the state are transferred to private companies
• Endogenous privatisation


  Privatisation within education, making schools more like private businesses

  • E.g. league tables
• Exogenous privatisation


  Privatisation from outside, opening education up to private businesses

  • E.g. school services (staff training, catering, etc.)
• Why globalisation has changed education policy

  • Changing job market: different skills needed to be competitive
  • Education needs to compete on a global scale e.g. PISA tables
  • Change in policy since 1980s (Thatcher) to reflect globalisation
  • Govts are looking to other countries' education systems to improve their own
• Globalisation-inspired policies:

  • National literacy/numeracy hours
  • Slimming down the national curriculum to 'essential knowledge' in English, maths, science, etc.
  • Raising academic requirements for trainee teachers (2012): from Finland
  • 'Master teachers' (Labour 2015 GE pledge): inspired by Singapore
  • Free schools: originated in Denmark
  • British values & PREVENT: response to anti-Western terrorism
  • Increased funding for EAL: response to increased immigration
• AO3 for international education comparisons:

  • Shows whether education spending matches achievement e.g. UK spending higher than average, but achievement is lower
  • Encourages competition & raises international standards
  • Shows policy-makers what works & what doesn't
  • Test results don't show the full picture e.g. some countries have strict school cultures which harm mental health but produce better results
• Globalisation, marketisation, & privatisation:

  • Increased marketisation & privatisation
  • E.g. unis have overseas campuses in developing countries
  • E.g. unis advertising themselves to international students (rely on them for their higher fees)
• Arguments in favour of independent schools:

  • Selective: help to maintain high academic standards
  • Parental choice/parentocracy
  • Attracts better teachers
  • Part of meritocracy: those who achieve high-paying jobs are rewarded with the option of privately educating their children
• Arguments against independent schools:

  • Marxism: reproduces class inequality
  • MPs make policy which reflects the ideology of public schools
  • Charitable status (allows tax exemptions): Labour wants to remove this
  • Sutton Trust: private school students 7x more likely to get into Oxbridge (55x more likely than those on FSM)
  • Elite education -> elite jobs & 'old boys network'
  • Myth of meritocracy: private schools have opportunities state schools don't
• Private schools & government policy:

  • Don't have to follow national curriculum: no mandatory PSHE -> rape culture in private schools (Everyone's Invited)
  • More likely to enter students for IGCSE/IBacc
  • Don't have to follow School Admissions Code (must follow Equality Act)
  • Independent Schools' Inspectorate, not OFSTED
• School Admissions Code:

  • Cannot discriminate based on class/ability/parental background
  • Can discriminate to prioritise students who are pupil premium/in local authority care (incentivised by the extra cash for each of these students)
• Open enrolment


  Parents can apply for a place at any state-funded school in any area & if the school is under-subscribed it must accept the child
• Oversubscription criteria:

  • Prioritises: children in care, those with siblings at the school, those in the catchment area, those who live nearest, by faith, pupil premium
  • Types of schools likely to be oversubscribed: outstanding, high league table place, those in affluent areas
  • Oversubscribed schools get more funding, undersubscribed get less
• Covert selection (Tough & Brookes)


  Schools attempt to discourage parents from lower socio-economic backgrounds from applying

  • E.g. by making the school literature difficult to understand, having lengthy application forms, not advertising the school in poorer areas
• Selection by ability


  Students are assessed on the basis of their ability/intelligence

  • Only permitted at grammar schools, often practised in private schools
• Selection by aptitude


  Students are chosen based on their ability in a certain subject

  • State schools with subject specialisms can select up to 10% of a cohort on this basis
• Selection by faith


  Selection on the basis of faith

  • Only allowed for schools with a faith character
  • Must admit at least 5% of students who aren't of the faith if demand exists
• Coalition education policy 2010-2015:

  • New-style academies: all state schools encouraged to convert, 'inadequate' schools forced to
  • Free schools
  • EMA replaced with 16-19 Bursary Fund: lower amounts available to fewer students for a narrower purpose
  • Pupil premium: FSM/LAC students carry extra funding for schools
  • EBacc: maths, English, sciences, languages, humanities
  • National curriculum reform: intended to be more 'demanding'
  • Exams reform: removal of coursework, linear assessment
  • Progress 8: measure of pupil achievement in key subjects
  • Raising tuition fees to £9000
• Aims of coalition education policy:

  • Parental choice
  • Independence from govt control
  • Reducing educational inequality
• Evaluation of coalition education policy:

  • Academies can set their own admission policies so can practise selection
  • Scrapping EMA lowered stay-on rate for further education
  • Pupil premium often isn't spent on those it's intended for due to lack of funding
  • Focus on specific subjects advantages students & disadvantages others
• Aims of New Labour education policy:

  • Reducing inequality in education
  • Promoting diversity/choice in education
  • Raise educational standards
• New Labour education policy 1997-2010:

  • Free nursery places
  • Maximum class sizes for KS1
  • Additional school funding
  • National Literacy & Numeracy schemes
  • Specialist schools
  • 'Special measures': more inspections, threat of closure
  • Beacon schools: extra funding for best-performing schools to help others
  • 'Value-added' league tables: improvement of each student
  • Sure Start Centres
  • Education Action Zones: more funding for schools in deprived areas
  • City academies
  • Education Maintenance Allowance: money for working class students to attend college
  • Raising school leaver's age to 18
  • Tuition fees
• Evaluation of New Labour education policy:

  • Most policies involving extra funding have been scrapped
  • Greater diversity of schools
  • 'Special measures' creates sink schools
  • Academies accused of covert selection/cream-skimming
• Aims of Conservative education policy 1979-1997:

  • Meritocracy
  • Parentocracy
  • Raise standards
  • More independence for schools
• Conservative education policy (1988 Education Reform Act):

  • League tables
  • Formula funding
  • National curriculum
  • OFSTED
  • National testing
  • Open enrolment
  • Local Management of Schools: control over budget/admin etc. transferred from govt -> schools
• Parentocracy


  Parental choice within education: schools should compete to be attractive to parents

  • E.g. OFSTED, league tables
• Gillborn & Youdell: 4 aspects of equality of educational opportunity

  • Equality of access: no unfair social selection, no better schools in affluent areas
  • Equality of circumstance: children should be of similar socio-economic status when they start school
  • Equality of participation: same school experience e.g. same access to GCSE subjects
  • Equality of outcome: everyone shares in the benefits of schooling
• Tripartite system:

  • 3 types of schools: grammar, technical, secondary modern
  • School each child attends determined by the 11+ (IQ test)
• Comprehensivisation:

  • Introduced 1965
  • Scrapped tripartite system & selection by 11+
  • Comprehensives: don't formally select by ability
• Grammar schools:

  • Created by 1944 Butler Act (tripartite system)
  • Attended by students who achieved the highest 11+ results
• Foundation & trust schools


  Foundation owns the land/building so has a say over how the school is run; more freedom from the national curriculum
• Community schools


  State-funded, run by the LEA, follow national curriculum
• Voluntary-aided/voluntary-controlled schools

  • LEA maintained
  • Often have a religious character
  • Eligible for capital funding grants: sum of money given by the govt to an organisation to buy buildings/land/equipment/make improvements
  • Foundation/trust contributes to building costs & controls running of the school
  • Don't have to follow the national curriculum
• Free schools


  All-ability, state-funded schools run by groups of teachers/parents/charities etc., set up in response to what local people say they want from schools
• Faith schools


  Can select a proportion of their students based on religious beliefs
• City technology colleges


  Free, independent, all-ability schools set up through partnerships between govt & businesses to teach technology/science in inner-city areas

  • Teach the national curriculum & a range of qualifications
• Specialist schools


  Private/govt-funded schools with a special focus on a chosen subject area; can select up to 10% of students based on ability

  • E.g. technology, languages, business
• Special schools


  Caters for students with SEN: often have lower student:teacher ratios & special facilities to cater to learning/physical disabilities
• Montessori schools


  Generally pre-school/early years schools with mixed-age classes & greater freedom for children to choose between activities