education policies

• Marketisation was introduced under the conservative government. The education reform act 1988
• marketisation (aka parentocracy) 1988 act includes:

  • the publication of ofsted reports & league tables to give parents more info
  • Formula funding: schools recieve the same amount of funding for each pupil
  • Schools can opt out of local authority & become academies
• mark inequalities:

  'good' schools can be more selective: cream-skimming (these MC students gain an advantage) & avoid taking less able pupils who might damage their league table position: silt-shifting, schools with poorer league tables cant be as selective & have to take the less able students (mainly the working class) therefore their league table positions remain poorer. These schools are unattractive to middle class parents & wont enrole their kids. Additionally these more MC popular schools recieve more funding, meaning they have better facilities & teachers.
• mark inequalities:

  The middle class' capital gives them an advantage in choosing schools. Their cultural capital means they know how school admissions work and have more time to visit schools and have the skills necessary to research. Their economic capital means they can afford to move children around schools to get the best deals. For example, paying extra travel costs & moving house into better catchment areas
• mark: Free schools ( coalition government in 2010). This policy allowed for groups independent of local authority to set up schools which recieved funding directly from the government. These schools could be set up by parents, businesses, charities ect. Aimed to increase choice by filling a gap in consumer demand. EG if parents wanted to have a school specialising in sports, the parents in the community could come together and create a school that did this. Increasing choice by giving parents freedom to fill their percieved gaps in the market.
• criticism for free schools.,

  Only increases choice for the middle class. This is bc middle class parents are likely to be the only ones with the time or capital to set up free schools. Therefore these schools are more likely to be set up in MC areas and take on MC students (this is cream-skimming). Contributed to the two tier system. Therefore parental choice is only a priviledge of MC parents and working class parents are unable to utilise the system in the same way.
• mark: league tables 1988

  where schools exams resulted are ranked in order, the highest at the top and the lowest at the bottom. These tables are published online & in newspapers. Aimed to increase parental choice by allowing them to easily access information on the quality of the schools. This policy saw more parents wanting their children to go to the highest achieving schools. Therefore to attract as many pupils as possible, schools would have to increase their standards to attract more funding (due to the formula funding policy)
• criticism of league tables:

  Gillborn & Youdell: league tables have encouraged the process of educational triage. due to stereotypes, working class & black students were the most likely to be seen as lacking ability & were labelled as 'hopeless cases' and left to fail while schools time & rescources go to the students they see as ensuring them a high league table position.
• mark: open enrolement: aimed to increase parental choice by allowing parents to select the schools they want their child to go to. Dif from the previous tripartite system & comprehensive school where parents had no choice & local authorities would fill up spaces in school. This aimed to drive up the standards as schools had to improve in order to attract more consumers. This operating on a market scheme is called 'parentocracy', therefore power is in the hands of the consumer rather than the producer.
• open enrolement criticism

  Ball: parentocracy is a myth as the increased choice only benefits some. This is because middle class parents are better equipped to navigate the marketised education system and gain their children access to the best schools. due to their cultural capital whereas WC parents do not possess the cultural capital needed. & MC parents have the economic capital to move into areas with better schools/ pay the travel costs to send their children to the best schools. Therefore the increased choice in the marketised education system provides can only be utilised MC parents.
• Labour: sure start

  This aimed to work with parents to promote the physical, intellectual, and social development of children before they enter the education system. For example, giving them books, breastfeeding classes, teaching mothers how to promote educational/cognitive development in their child ect. Aimed at giving disadvantaged children are fair 'start' to education. Was especially helpful to parents with SEN kids. Longitudinal studies show that children who had sure start tended to do better at GCSE.
• criticism of sure start

  While it was aimed to be set up in deprived areas, it became 'hijacked' by the middle class, them then becoming the predominant users of sure start, rather than the working class. Because sure start started being set up in more middle class catchment areas thus widening the class gap in educational achievement again.
• Ethnic

  • Assimilation policies: Helped intergrate ethnic minorities into mainstream british culture by aiding language barriers. Criticised as many african caribbean pupils could speak english, their underachievement was caused by racism in the education system
  • Multicultural education: values all cultures in the curriculum to raise the self esteem of EM children so they can achieve more.
  • Social inclusion: included monitoring results of EM students in detail to provide help. criticised for doing little for tackeling the structural causes of ethnic underachievement in education
• New Labour policies to reduce inequalities:

  • Education Maintainance allowance (EMA) paying £30 a month to families in deprived areas to encourage their children to stay on school
  • Numeracy & Literacy Strategies: designated 1 hour a day to ... & reduced class sizes to increase teachers focus on individuals to raise achievement
  • Promote academies
  • (inspired by postmodernism) responds to increased diversity of communties with 'faith schools'
• criticism of new labour

  • contradiction between tackling inequality & promoting marketisation
  • EMA encourage working class students to join higher education, their policy of increased tuition fees deter them from doing so
• Mark: ethnicity

  Davenport: Marketisation has lead to schools 'cream-skimming' which has lead to ethnic segregation as selection procedures have meant that EM pupils fail to get into secondary schools. For example, primary school reports are used to screen out pupils with language difficulties & the application process is difficult for non-english speaking parents to understand.