Educational policy and inequality

• Selection - the tripartite system

  From 1944 schools began to be influenced by meritocracy.

  Grammar schools - academic curriculum for non manual jobs. Had to pass 11+ exam. Mainly MC.

  Secondary modern schools - non academic, practical curriculum for WC.

  Technical schools - for the lower WC.
• The comprehensive school system

  • Introduced in 1965, aimed to overcome the class divide. Grammar schools still existed but many schools were dependent on catchment area.
• Two theory role of the comprehensives

  • Functionalists - comprehensives promote social integration - this was disproven due to setting and streaming.
  • Functionalists - meritocratic - Marxists disagree as they reproduce generational inequality through streaming and labelling. 
  • Marxists - comprehensives schools legitimate class inequalities by appearing to be equal. 
• Marketisation and parentocracy

  • The process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition into education - Marketisation.
  • Parentocracy:
  • Publication of league tables and Ofsted reports rank schools and give parents information to make an informed choice. 
  • David describes education as a parentocracy, ruled by parents. Power has shifted to the consumer to control what they want to see in schools. 
• Marketisation policies

  Exam league tables
• Marketisation policies such as exam league tables

  Reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools
• Cream skimming


  Good schools can be more selective and recruit high achieving middle class pupils
• Silt-shifting

  Good schools are able to avoid taking in pupils who are likely to damage their league tables
• For bad schools


  The opposite happens
• Funding formula

  Schools are allocated money based on how many consumers they get
• Popular schools

  Can gain better teachers and facilities
• Unpopular schools

  Fail to attract pupils and their funding is further reduced
• Privileged skilled choosers


  MC parents who use their economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children. They know how to access the best schools and have the means to do so, e.g living in the catchment area, having connections with teachers there.
• Disconnected local choosers

  WC Parents whose choices were restricted due to lack of capital. Cannot understand school admissions and care more about locality and facilities than league tables. The nearest schools are the most realistic.
• Semi skilled choosers

  WC yet ambitious, they lacked cultural capital to understand the school admissions.
• Gerwitz found three types of parental choosers
• Gerwitz - parental choice
• Study of 14 London secondary schools
• The myth of parentocracy

  • The school system reproduces and legitimises inequality.
  • Ball believes that the illusion of parentocracy makes people believe that we can all equally pick the best schools to attend, when in reality MC parents have better opportunities. 
  • We instead blame our academic underachievement on ourselves.
• The conservatives of 2010

  • Influenced strongly by neoliberal and new right thinking.
  • Aimed to reduce government spending and involvement within education
• Academies

  • Schools were encouraged to leave state authorities. Funding would be given directly to them, and academies could control their curriculum.
  • Over 78% of schools are academies.
  • By allowing any school to become an academy, the government lost its focus on reducing inequality.
• Free schools

  • Free schools can be set up by parents, teachers, businesses, anyone. 
  • Research shows that these schools mainly benefit upper class families. 
  • Critics claim that they are socially divisive. They appear to improve standards but only through strict pupil selection.
• Fragmented centralisation

  • Ball argued that promoting academies and free schools have lead to fragmented centralisation.
  • Fragmentation - diverse provisions from private providers lead to greater inequalities.
  • Centralisation of control - central government has the power to allow schools to become academies or free schools, 
• Policies to reduce inequalities

  • Free school meals for all children up to Year 2.
  • Pupil premium - money that schools receive per student from a disadvantaged background.
  • However pupil premium is not always spent on those students specifically.
• Privatisation And blurring the public and private boundaries.

  • Privateisation involves transferring schools to the control of private companies.
  • Senior officials within education may move to the private sector, e.g head teachers would leave to work within private education. 
  • Pollack - people with experience offer insider knowledge to private sectors, making them successful.
• Privatisation and globalisation of education policy

  • Private companies such as Edexcel are owned by foreign companies such as US company Pearson.
  • The UKs top 4 educational software companies are owned by global conglomerates.
  • Local states are becoming less important in regards to policy making which is more commonly happening overseas.
• The cola-isation of schools

  • The private sector is also involved with schools through vending machines on school premises, and brand loyalty through sponsorships. This is called the cola-isation of schools.
  • Molnar - schools are targeted by private sectors as they are a product endorsement. The benefits to these schools and pupils are limited, if there at all.
• Education as a commodity 

  • Privatisation is shaping educational policies. Education new equates to privatised profit making for companies.