Education Acts

Question 1

Forster education act 1970

Answer 1

Created primary schools in Britain for all children aged 5-11 to ensure a better educated workforce so Britain could remain strong in industry and manufacturing on the world stage

Question 2

Butler education act 1944

Answer 2

• education began to be shaped by meritocracy
• created secondary schools and tripartite system - students allocated to one of 3 schools based on ability done through 11+ exam
• grammar, secondary modern and technical

Question 3

The comprehensive system 1965

Answer 3

• aimed to overcome class divide and make education more meritocratic
• catchment areas
• streaming

Question 4

What’s the problem with the comprehensive system?

Answer 4

Children living in expensive catchment areas have the opportunity to attend the best schools and more white m/c students attending as their parents have the cultural capital to check league tables and economic stability to move if need be. Continued to reproduce class inequality

Question 5

Education reform act 1988

Answer 5

• introduced by thatchers conservative government to increase competition between schools (by doing so, standards would increase)
• introduced principle of marketisation and national curriculum so schools can be easily compared.

Question 6

Marketisation

Answer 6

Schools encouraged to compete against each other and act more like private businesses rather than institutions under the control of local government

Question 7

Examples of marketisation

Answer 7

League tables, ofsted report, open enrolment, parentocracy

Question 8

Parentocracy

Answer 8

Miriam David - rule by parents. Schools increasingly run like businesses, all attempting to attract the most parents to send their children to that school

Question 9

How has marketisation helped and hindered education?

Answer 9

Schools now have an incentive to raise standards and keep improving, as a result standards of education improve, benefiting all pupils. However, Witty and Ball argue marketisation reproduces class based inequalities

Question 10

Who identified cream skimming and silt shifting?

Answer 10

Bartlett and Le Grand

Question 11

Cream skimming

Answer 11

M/c pupils get the best education, schools that do well in league tables are attractive to parents and in high demand. These schools can be selective over which pupils they take as they are over subscribed, only recruiting m/c high achieving pupils to ensure they keep doing well in league tables

Question 12

Silt shifting

Answer 12

Schools that do badly in league tables/ofsted reports enter a spiral of decline as they lose potential pupils to better schools and therefore cannot be selective over the pupils they select. They end up taking less able pupils, with parents perceiving these as sink schools resulting in w/c pupils getting a poorer education

Question 13

Formula funding

Answer 13

Whitty argues popular schools get more funding, meaning they can afford better resources/better qualified teachers. Schools reputation grows and can attract savvy m/c parents, meaning they can cream skim more able pupils and avoid taking less able pupils who damage schools results, called silt shifting

Question 14

Who identified privileged skill choosers, disconnected local choosers, semi skilled choosers?

Answer 14

Gerwitz

Question 15

Privileged skill choosers

Answer 15

• professional m/c parents using th eir cultural + economic capital to gain educational capital for their children
• manipulates the system to get the best school

Question 16

Disconnected local choosers

Answer 16

• w/c parents whose choices are restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital
• less aware of choices open to them
• distance and cost a major restriction, local school only option
• focused more on friends and safety rather than league tables

Question 17

Semi skilled choosers

Answer 17

• mainly w/c but ambitious for their children
• lacked cultural capital and found it difficult to make sense of the education market
• relies on others opinions about schools often through social media