New labour

• New labour aims

  • Focusses heavily on what the government could do to bridge the education gap.
  • Aim to produce greater equality of opportunity by providing additional help or opportunity for those of poorer backgrounds.
• Compensatory education policies

  • Excellence in cities
  • Sure start
  • National literacy strategy
  • Academies
• Excellence in cities

  • Initially aimed at secondary schools.
  • Schools in educational priority areas were given extra money, resources and teachers to help them become better schools and to improve the educational performance of the most disadvantaged young people.
  • Aimed to raise levels of educational achievement, boost aspirations, confidence and self esteem.
• Sure start

  • Targeted preschool children in deprived areas.
  • Anyone can access it.
  • Provided play centres, baby groups and home visits to advise parents.
  • The idea was to create more equal opportunities through intervening early to improve children's abilities to learn by encouraging stimulating play, improving language skills and early identification in support of children with special needs.
  • Aimed to tackle poverty and social exclusion.
• Power and Whitty's evaluation of sure start

  • It has little educational impact.
  • Blames failure on the child and their background and failed to acknowledge that the material backgrounds of the children have a much greater impact and are beyond the influences of any educational initiative.
  • Failed to tackle poverty, which was the underlying cause.
  • Many schemes lacked resources, especially after the initial enthusiasm had worn off.
• NESS 2010 evaluation of sure start

  • Although sure start may not have addressed poverty or notably increase educational success, it did encourage several positive outcomes within the families it worked with.
  • Sure start had had a positive outcome for families, mothers and children.
  • Children's BMIs were lowered and they had better physical health.
  • Families has more stimulating, less chaotic home environments, less harsh discipline and greater life-satisfaction.
• National literacy strategy

  • Literacy and numeracy hours were introduced.
  • Class sizes were reduced to 30.
  • Aimed to tackle low levels of reading and writing schools in badly performing inner city areas.
• Academies

  • New labour proposed that academies should be established, particularly in inner city areas.
  • This puts education in partnership with other sponsors to replace failing schools and provide high quality education for all, particularly in deprived areas.
• Further and higher education policies

  • Aim higher programme
  • Education maintenance allowance
  • Expansion of higher education
• Aim higher programme

  • St up to raise the aspirations of groups who were underrepresented in higher education particulate the achievement of black African Caribbean.
  • It provided extra resources to 30 schools where African and Caribbean pupils between 11-16 were performing below average.
• Evaluation of the aim higher programme

  • Tickly found that black students were still more likely to be placed in lower tiered GCSE exams and lower streamed sets and they could only get a C at best.
• Education maintenance allowance

  • Payments of £30 a week were made to students from low income backgrounds to reduce dropout rates and encourage them to stay on in education after 16 to get better qualifications.
• Expansion of higher education

  • Places in higher education, ie. universities, doubled between 1990 and 2004.
  • This had the aim of increasing places for students of working class backgrounds.
• 'A third way'

  • Draws from both social democratic and Neo liberal perspectives.
  • On one hand (left) they would aim to produce greater inequality of opportunity by providing additional help or opportunity for those of poorer backgrounds.
  • On the other hand (right) they would be concerned with raising standards through increased competition and choice.
• Specialise schools

  • New labour believed increased diversity would meet the needs of individual pupils.
  • Schools were encouraged to specialise in specific subjects.
  • New labour believed this would encourage competition, raise standards, allow students to excel in the specialism.
  • Pupils would not have to attend Alistair Campbells 'bog standard' local comprehensive school.
  • Sally Tomlinson said that specialise schools favoured the middle class who were better placed to play the admissions game.
• New vocationalism

  • New labour saw new vocationalism as a way to provide individuals with the training needed to be competitive in a globalised high-skilled, high wage society.
• New vocationalism policies

  • The new deal
  • Modern apprenticeship scheme
  • Vocational GCSEs and A levels
  • Increased flexibly programme
  • Mix and match curriculum
• The new deal

  • Aimed to reduce youth unemployment.
• Modern apprenticeship

  • There where many different levels of apprenticeship schemes in a huge range of industries.
  • Typically involve on the job training in sectors ranging from tourism to engineering.
  • Those undertaking them are paid a small wage, which varies with your age, while undertaking training.
• Vocational GCSEs and A Levels

  • The most recognised type of vocational A level is a BTEC.
  • While the purpose of this was to eradicate the traditional vocational-academic divide, it was mostly woking class children that went down the vocational route while middle class children did A levels.
  • Many middle class parents viewed A levels as the only 'proper qualification'.
• Increased flexibility programme

  • Pupils at KS4 are allowed to attend college for 1 day a week to follow vocational qualifications their school didn't offer.
• The mix and match curriculum

  • Students were able to take vocational subjects alongside academic ones.
• Evaluation of new vocationalism

  • The fact vocationalism education has gradually been extended over the years suggest that successive governments see it as playing an important role in our society, especially in getting children ready for work and providing them with the type of skills our economy needs.
  • It is clear a number of students are not suited to a purely academic education.
• League tables

  • Labour continued the use of league tables as a way of measuring the quality of education that different schools provided, with the aim of providing parents choice in competitive markets.
  • Extended league tables by introducing 'value added' scores, which made the system more equal as a way of showing that the end result wasn't only the result that mattered.
• Stephen Ball - the school parent alliance

  • Middle class parents wanting middle class schools and middle class schools wanting middle class pupils.
  • In general the schools with more middle class pupils have better results because they are seen as easy to teach.
• McKnight evaluating new labour

  • Found that overall standards rose under new labour, with improvements seen in GCSEs, A levels and at key stages.
  • There was a small reduction in class differences, but there was no major impact.
• Melissa Benn evaluating new labour

  • Said that there was a contradiction between new labours policies to tackle inequality and its commitment to marketisation.
  • She call this the new labour paradox.
• Private schools

  • Towler believes the new labour underestimated the degree to which inequality in society prevented equal opportunities in education.
  • New labour failed to abolish fee paying schools.
• Stephen Ball

  • Suggests that under new labour, there were overall increases in the proportion of students getting 5 or more GCSEs at grade C. 
  • There was some improvement for ethnic minority students.
  • High levels of child poverty (although reduced) continued.
  •  The gender gap remained, with boys lagging behind girls.
  • Any success was inconsistent.  
• Weaknesses of new labour

  -       The gap between middle classes and working classes achievement continues to grow because of selection by mortgage, cream skimming, over inequality of society.

  -       Private school system means that those with money can get their children better education.

  Students have a negative experience of education as schools have become too test focussed, reducing the real diversity of educational experience. Students are taught to the test and are less able to think critically.