education Flashcards
Willemse - educational differentiation according to which indicators
- The first indicator for stratification will be the number of tracks in higher education institutions. Tracks refer to various educational paths across and within higher education institutions that are associated with different educational and occupational life chances- will be referred to as differentiation
- The second institutional characteristic in which educational systems may differ, is vocational specificity: the degree to which a system focuses on general or specific knowledge and skill attainment to prepare for a particular vocation. Highly stratified systems tend to put much value on vocational specificity- there is a unified system, a binary system and a diversified system
the 3rd indicator is the lack of standardisation eg budgets and curriculum
unified educational systems
Willemse
, there is only one kind of institution that provides general tertiary education.
diversified educational systems
Willemse- composed of ‘a mix of institutions that are stratified by prestige, resources, and selectivity both of faculty and students’. Usually, all institutions offer both vocational and general academic courses, which means that there is only little vocational specificity in the higher education system
binary educational systems
Willemse- the difference between the first-tier and the second-tier institutions lies in the fact that the second-tier institutions provide a vocational focused education opposed to the first-tier institutions that deal with academic education only. These have high vocational specificity
expected - Liberal welfare regimes mapped onto education
Willemse
high stratification
A basic level of educational provision is expected to be arranged by the government; other provision is largely left to the market and therefore,
while total expenditure on higher education is expected to be low, the share of private expenditure will probably be high.
Tuition fees differ according to the market, student loans are minimal and needs-tested and are probably heavily dependent on private aid
The minimal role of the government leads to little standardization, resulting in large quality differences between higher education institutions- hierarchy of educational tracks
expected- Conservative welfare regimes mapped onto education
high stratification
tuition fees are low and government spending is relatively high.
Student loans and grants are expected to be moderate, since the family should be the first helping party.
high vocational specificity, standardization and strong hierarchy are expected in order to preserve status differences.
expected- Social Democratic welfare regime - mapped onto education
low stratification
The market is crowded out by the state. therefore expect a generous system of student grants and loans, while tuition fees are kept low.
Public expenditure will be high and the share of private expenditure low. In view of the strong emphasis on solidarity and equality
we expect universal entitlements, strong standardization, and low vocational specificity and hierarchy.
public expenditure and welfare state typology
- Public expenditures on higher education vary between 0.6% in Italy and 1.6% in Denmark and Finland. As expected, expenditures are, on average, the highest in the social democratic welfare states.
no systematic difference in public expenditure between the conservative and the liberal welfare states.
- In the liberal countries, public expenditure is not much bigger than private expenditure, but in the conservative countries public expenditure is more than four times as big as private expenditure.
hIgher education enrolment and welfare state type
- Higher education- enrolment rates are the highest in the social democratic countries, where almost half of the eligible population is enrolled.
In the liberal countries the enrolment rate is considerably lower, but still higher than in the conservative countries, which have the lowest enrolment rates on average
vocational specificity of welfare state types
, the liberal countries score the lowest: they all have a diversified system with no separate institutions for vocational education.
Half of the conservative and most of the social democratic countries have a binary system and, thus, high vocational specificity.
standardisation and welfare state types
only four countries have a fully centralized system of higher education, two of which are social democratic countries. However, the other two social democratic countries, Denmark and Norway, have institutional autonomy and, thus, little standardization. This also applies to half of the liberal countries and half of the conservative countries.
stratification of educational systems according to regime type
- the liberal countries turn out to have, on average, the least stratified system of higher education. This is mainly due to the fact that they have no separate vocational institutes.
The social democratic higher education systems are, on average, somewhat more stratified. But here the variation is very large. Sweden has the lowest score on the stratification index, while the Danish and Norwegian systems are among the most stratified. Not unexpectedly, the conservative welfare states, which put a lot of emphasis on maintaining status differentials, have the most stratified higher education systems
Measuring educational poverty according to competences
- Absolute educational poverty would be defined by Competence Level I (of five), which corresponds to functional illiteracy
German educational competence
- According to PISA 2000 this means empirically that measured in national or international perspective absolute educational poverty in terms of literacy amounts to 10 percent in Germany and to 6 percent in the OECD average. In mathematics and the sciences the results are similar
diversity of individuals deemed educationally incompetent
o Almost 50 percent are born in Germany with parents also born there, and German is spoken at home.
o More than a third (36 percent) were born outside Germany.
o of the native born only 6 percent do not make it to Level I, of the foreign born 25 percent
o The educational poverty rate of children with parents of an unskilled background is 18 percent versus 3 percent for children of parents of the upper or lower ‘service classes’
use of competency as measure of educational poverty
- Competences should be more revealing if we are interested in measuring economic prosperity, the innovation potentials of the economy and individual development beyond the dimension of economic success.
missing diploma as a measure of educational poverty
- Since in Germany the premium is not on years of attendance but on holding a degree, getting a certificate, being uncertified (by the school or the dual system)seems to provide a hard and clear indicator for an ‘undersupply of educational resources’. Social reporting could build on this social fact. Poverty in the sense of ‘the uncertified’ in Germany can be found for about 10 percent of each school leaving cohort, mostly affecting children of foreign descent
Only rarely will employers themselves test applicants and check out the signals they receive from the education system.
purpose of liberal education
developing cognitive capacity - focuses on traditional curriculum - ultimate goal is post-grad degree - can often be impractical such as study of dead languages like Latin/Greek
UK focus on purpose of education
- Training - about practicality of knowledge - teaching skills that will be values in work force/society - vocational qualifications - UK often given it a low priority
o distinction between both is in practice more blurry - often combined in one bundle - both emphasise 3 R’s (reading, wRiting, aRithmetic)
funding of education - control
- education spending primary determined by Westminster
- Compulsory education funded via general taxation - justified as a social investment - public good.
- Also have private tutoring etc.
size of private Schools
- fee-charging private schools - 7% attend in 2008 - though regional variance - fewer in Scotland
Thatcher’s changes to educational funding
1988 education act- more financing power to schools and introduced the system of Local Management of Schools, giving schools more autonomy and control over their budgets and management. allowed schools to opt out of LEA control - be grant-maintained from central gov instead
* Aimed to improve the quality of all schools - notion of rising tides lifts all boats - to reduce inequality
Blair - funding of disadvantaged schools
- Launched the Excellence in Cities initiative, targeting resources and support at schools in disadvantaged areas to raise standards and improve educational outcomes.
Blair- adult education
- 2001 skills for life strategy Aimed at improving literacy, numeracy, and language skills among adults in the UK. Introduced a range of initiatives and funding to support adult education and training in these areas.
New Labour’s teacher expenditure
- education expenditure above OECD average by 2009 - boosted teacher numbers/salaries (up 20% in real terms) in Teach First scheme
, workforce increased very substantially - particularly FTE teaching assistants - 1997-2010 134,000 new staff
Blair - higher education
- Dearing report asked students to contribute more - 1998 means-tested tuition fees,
2006 variable fees capped at £3000,- uni was now viewed as a private not a public good
o higher education is neither compulsory nor universal…it is reasonable to ask those who gain private benefits to help fund it’
Blair - school building
- Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme - aimed to renew school building stock in 15-20 years
increase in education funding under Blair *
Funding increase 64% from 1997 to 2007 in secondary schools, 49% for primary
coalition - growth of private provision
- 2011 education act- Emergence of ‘edu-Chains’ running Free Schools and Academies - profit-making companies
- since 2012 Education Funding Agency and growth of academies
coalition - higher education funding
- 2012 uni tuition capped at £9000
- Government has been less generous with funding for student living costs - By 2015–2016 the maximum grant was £3387 for students from house- holds with incomes of £25,000 or less, tapering off at £42,620. At the same time maintenance loans continued. Maintenance grants were again wholly replaced by a universally loans-based system in 2016.
coalition and funding of disadvantaged students
- Pupil Premium and Endowment Fund from coalition - funding to encourage low-income children to stay in education longer
- Subsidised school meals and FSM for low-income children - from 2014 all 5-8 year olds entitled to FSM
Pupil premium
In 2014–15, schools received £1,300 for each pupil aged between 5 and 11, and £935 for each pupil between 11 and 16, registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the previous six years.’
- only 3% of school budget so ‘it can by no means be regarded as a panacea for the problem of wide socioeconomic attainment gaps’
Coalition and school building
- cancelled Labour’s Building Schools for the Future
- cancelled 715 new schemes - Gove justified by blaming Labours ‘needless bureaucracy’
coalition spending on education
- spending stabilized after rise under Labour - 2010-2014 primary school up 2%, secondary school down 6%
- primary school numbers were increasing under coalition (new cohort) - thus per capita spending in primary schools after fell 6%
education staffing under coalition
- staff picture of stability- Under the coalition, FTE teacher numbers increased by 2% to 2014, and FTE regular teaching assistants by 31%, additions of around 7,000 and 61,000 respectively’(less impressive than Labour)
- increase in teacher under coalition was less than the increase in pupils - primary class room sizes started to rise - peaked in 2015 at an average of 27 (though secondary school fell to 20.1)
stability of funding under coalition
- too much focus on stability - protected schools funding in CASH terms ‘implying a real terms decrease, in the face of rising pupil numbers and cost pressures’
coalition - higher education loan repayment
- In 2016, the UK repayment threshold was an annual income of £21,000, compared to median gross annual earnings for full-time employees of £27,600 for the year ending 5 April 2015. The repayment rate was 9% of income above £21,000.
- In 2015, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimated that full-time students in England would graduate with an average debt for tuition and maintenance combined of £44,035 (£29,838 in fee debt), compared to £24,754 (£11,807 in fee debt) if the 2012 changes had not occurred. The IFS also estimated that 73% of graduates would not repay their debt in full
effect of higher education fees on enrolment
- Australia had shown that increases in the rate of tuition, or variations in tuition between disciplines, had little effect on the propensity to participate or tendency to discriminate against low income-family students
- As the UK Higher Education Commission has stated: “students do not feel or act like consumers”. “The ‘buy now pay later’ nature of the money dilutes the effect of the market mechanism
coalition - higher education and student numbers
- For 2015–2016, the government deregulated its control of student numbers, so that HEIs were free to admit any number of qualified students into places financed by income-contingent tuition loans (Hillman, 2014). This allowed HEIs to expand their income at the rate of £9000 per student and take advantage of economies of scale. However, it also increased the long-term public cost of the funding system, especially as newly participating students were likely to repay the cost of tuition at below-average rates
devolution and higher education
- Scotland - No fees
- Welsh tuition grants- get some free money - its students studying anywhere in the UK can apply for grants of up to £5190.
- NI- max fee is 3805
Thatcher and improving free attendance at private schools
- 80s introduced state funded ‘assisted places’ for bright poor children to attend private schools - phased out under her and replaced by bursary schemes.
Thatcher- empowering parents on school choice
- League tables to inform choice
- In the 80s parents were allowed to express a preference over school
- Accompanied by diversity in schools- quasi market
- Idea parents will choose best school for students
effect of parent choice on education under Thatcher
o because schools could make admission choices the effect was that some better school were oversubscribed while bad schools failed to attract enough - because funding was based on pupil numbers this led to spiralling failures
student choice available under Thatcher
AS levels were introduced to widen ‘the choice of subject combinations available to A level students’
‘There should be an element of choice in the curriculum for the 4th and 5th years but the choice of options should not allow pupils to undertake a programme that is insufficiently broad or balanced’ (
Thatcher on national curriculum
The 1985 document stated: ‘There should be an element of choice in the curriculum for the 4th and 5th years but the choice of options should not allow pupils to undertake a programme that is insufficiently broad or balanced’ (s.66). The curriculum was to be designed so that ‘it is likely that 80–85 per cent of each pupil’s time needs to be devoted to subjects which are compulsory or liable to constrained choices’. There had been more prior to national curriculum – in 1970s secondary students were given lots of choice over curriculum
effect of national curriculum on school choice under Thatcher
‘the differences between schools that they might base that choice on would disappear because everyone would have to teach the same national curriculum’- the only basis to choose schools appeared to be public or independent
Blair increasing diversity of schools
Encouraged ‘faith based school’
- increased marketisation via Academies early 2000s - increased diversification of school type and increased parental choice
Blair empowering parents on choice
- added new focuses to league tables eg well-being
- Diversity offered the opportunity for schools to specialise on the grounds again that it ‘means increased choice for parents and pupils’. School choice had changed from being based on a decision (resources permitting) between independent and public schools, to one between new kinds of public schools and the independent sector.
grant maintained schools under Thatcher
- In 1992, choice was extended through the creation of grant-maintained schools that opened ‘the way to greater variety in education’ (‘introduction’). New schools gave parents an additional choice with ‘the right of parents to choose, in a secret ballot, whether their child’s school should apply to transfer out of the control of the LEA and become grant-maintained’
grant maintained schools under Blair
Blair’s government introduced legislation that required grant-maintained schools to return to local authority control or convert to other types of schools, such as foundation schools or community schools.
grant maintained school
Thatcher- Instead of being managed and financed by the local education authority (LEA), grant-maintained schools had greater autonomy over their budgets, staffing, curriculum, and admissions policies. They were funded directly by central government grants rather than through local authorities.
Blair and school meal choice
- There was the possibility of greater choice over school meals provided they met ‘minimum nutritional standards’
grammar schools under major
- The 1996 education document continued to emphasise choice, giving schools greater powers to select their pupils, ‘extending choice and diversity by encouraging new grammar schools, giving schools more power to select pupils, and developing the specialist schools programme’
How choice of schools was increased under Thatcher through change to enrolment policy
Open Enrollment: Thatcher’s government introduced policies to promote open enrollment, allowing parents to apply for their children to attend schools outside their local catchment area. This gave parents more options in choosing a school that best suited their preferences, such as academic standards, ethos, or extracurricular activities.
parent choice in vocational training under Thatcher
Thatcher’s government established City Technology Colleges, which were independent state-funded schools aimed at providing high-quality technical and vocational education. Parents could choose to send their children to these specialized schools if they were interested in pursuing a more practical or vocational-oriented curriculum.
Local authorities and parent choice under Blair
- 2005- Local authorities had to ‘work with the newly-created Schools Commissioner to ensure more choice, greater diversity and better access for disadvantaged groups to good schools in every area’
Parent choice for most disadvantaged under Blair
provision of ‘dedicated choice advisers to help the least well-off parents to exercise their choices’
technology and parent choice under Blair
- Technology allowed parents to make ‘more informed choices about schools in their area and make representations to the local authority about provision’ so parents could not only choose between schools, but also challenge local authorities where they believed provision was not up to standard.
