Card 54 - Education Policy: Parentocracy2

Question 1

What does Bartlett explain about successful schools?

Answer 1

• Successful schools become oversubscribed due to the A*-C economy.
• This allows them to cream skin and silt shift, where the school attracts and selects the beneficial students who will achieve highly and are easy to teach, while offloading those students who may not achieve highly and are expensive to teach, such as SEN students.
• Success breeds success.

Question 2

Why does Gewirtz see parentocracy as a myth?

Answer 2

• Gewirtz claims that schools are not ruled by parents free choice, but rather the class and status of the parents advantages them to obtain good schools.
• Therefore the idea of a parentocracy legitimises the inequality in education.