1988 Education Reform Act

Question 1

What is the 1988 Education Reform Act?

Answer 1

• Conservatives - Maggie Thatcher
• Reduce direct state control
• Focus on parents instead of government
• Competition between schools
• Parentocracy (more choice)
• Marketisation

Question 2

What are the 4 marketisation policies?

Answer 2

• OFSTED
• Open enrolment
• League tables
• Formula funding

Question 3

What are League Tables?

Answer 3

• Parents can access info about a school’s quality
• schools ranked based % of on pupils who gained 5 or more GCSE’s at C or above
• creates competition
• encourages schools to raise standards

Question 4

A03 of League Tables

Answer 4

Gillborn and Youdell
- introduces the A-C economy
- schools concentrate their resources on pupils they perceive as having the potential to achieve 5 grade C’s to boost their position within the league table
- educational triage (study of two secondary schools in London)

Question 5

What is Education Triage?

Answer 5

Schools categorise pupils:
- Those who will pass anyway
- Hopeless cases
- Those with potential
Creates class differences as opposed to raising standards

Question 6

What is OFSTED?

Answer 6

• measures how schools perform - report
• schools seen to be failing are placed in ‘special measures’ where extra support and inspections ensure improved standards
• helps parents making a choice
• creates competition

Question 7

A03 of OFSTED

Answer 7

• creates parentocracy as parents are the ones looking at the reports of the schools (MC parents are more likely to look at OFSTED reports - privileged choosers)
• only offers a snapshot of school performance which may lack validity

Question 8

What is Formula Funding?

Answer 8

• funding is based on pupil numbers
  -encourages competition as schools want to attract more students to earn more funding
• successful schools can have better facilities
• unpopular schools lose income - making it harder to attract more students
• closing down schools that underperform

Question 9

A03 of Formula Funding

Answer 9

• negative impact on students in underperforming schools
• cycle of being stuck with less and less funding
• will impact WC pupils the most

Question 10

What is Open Enrolement?

Answer 10

• Parents can send their child to a school of choice, not just nearest
• Encourages schools to compete - no guaranteed supply of students
• Functionalists - meritocratic

Question 11

A03 of Open Enrolment?

Answer 11

Myth of Meritocracy - Ball
- parentocracy is a myth
- middle class parents have cultural capital - more options available
- middle class parents can move to ensure their child goes to the best school