1988 Education Reform Act Flashcards
Which policies had been introduced by the education reform act
League tables
OFSTED
Formula funding
Open enrolment
National curriculum
Ao1 league tables
Ranked schools in order of the percentage of students achieving 5 grades A*- C
This creates competition where schools have to complete to have the best position in the league tables. This means parents can make an informed choice about where they want to send their child too.
This encourages schools to raise standards as there is no place for them to hide if results are poor
Ao3 league tables
According to Gilborn and youdell the introduction of league tables has led to the A - C economy
This is where schools concentrate on the pupils they perceive as having the potential to achieve 5 grade Cs or above
In the study, they found that the school adopts an educational triage where the school categorises pupils
As those who will pass anyway
Hopeless cases
Those with potential
Educational triage raises class differences in achievement, as opposed to raising standards according to Gilborn
Ao1 Ofsted
Ofsted measures how schools perform and provides a detailed report on successes and areas for improvement
Schools which are seem to be failing, are placed in special measures where they receive extra support so that standards are improved
To makes parents have an informed choice on where to send their child
Also create a competition as schools compete to get a better rating than other schools
Ao3
Ofsted
There’s only a snapshot of performance This may lack validity.
Gerwitz found that there are privileged choosers, semi skilled choosers, and disconnected choosers
middle-class parents are more likely to know about offsted reports which then advantages their child as they are the privilege choosers
Ao1 formula funding
Funding is based on pupil numbers. The more popular the school is the more funding they receive.
This encourages competition for pupils, so schools need to raise standards in order to attract pupils and funding
The best schools attract the most students and they get the most money
Unpopular schools lose the income. This means they find it harder to attract pupils and this creates a cycle.
Ao3 formula funding
This helps to raise standards for all students as schools have no guaranteed students and they need to attract pupils for funding
This system could have a negative impact on students in under performing schools
And this could further disadvantage the students studying there as they lack resources
Ao1 open enrolment
Parents were given the right to send their child to a school of their choice, rather than simply the nearest school
This creates a parentocracy where parents have choice
This encourages schools to raise standards to attract pupils and parents
Functionalist will argue that shows how education is meritocractic
Ao3
Open enrolment
Ball believes parentocracy is a myth
As not all parents have the same choice middle-class parents can move houses to ensure their child is able to attend a certain school
They also have cultural capital and so they have more options available to them
Parentocracy tries to appear fair, but it in fact legitimises inequality
Ao1 national curriculum
This dictates what children are to be taught
This places in targets for pupils at given ages for example sats, GCSEs etc
Everyone is taught the three core subjects, which is English, math and science and also includes history geography technology
And there is an agreed syllabus for RE which is set by the local authority
Ap3
National curriculum
This can be criticised as a one size fits all approach which does not recognise the very gifts of children that may not fall in line with these prescribed academic subjects
However, girls benefit from this as they insured that had the same opportunity to study the same subjects as boys as rather than being put into feminine courses
