EDUCATION - neoliberal claim vs effect of M/P policies (eval) Flashcards
CLAIM 1 - driving up standards
neoliberals like Chubb and Moe argue that competition, increased parental choice, and placing the running of state schools in private hands will drive up standards as schools compete as businesses do to provide the best product.
this benefits ALL groups and will reduce class, gender, and ethnic inequalities in achievement.
CLAIM 1 EVAL -
a) EPI report 2020
there is still significant attainment gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils - the standards weren’t driven up for all.
disadvantaged pupils in England are 18.1 months behind their peers at 16 years old - which was the same gap as in 2015.
this widened with covid as different schools had different online provisions.
CLAIM 1 EVAL -
b) funding formula
spiral of decline - schools working in WC areas mean they decline and they receive less funding so decline even more without the necessary resources to improve and raise standards - pupils in areas served by these schools are less likely to achieve good results whereas pupils in MC areas are going to be in better resources schools.
reiterates class inequalities within achievement.
CLAIM 1 EVAL -
c) league tables
GORARD and SIDDIQUI
selective grammar schools top league tables for pupil achievement in all areas in England indicating that once factors such as poverty, ethnicity, and home language are taken into account, selective schools do no better than average in terms of achievement.
they APPEAR on top of league tables because these only take into account a limited set of criteria - they create sense of false success.
CLAIM 1 EVAL -
d) academy chains
FRANCIS and HUTCHINGS
the study examines the outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in academy chain schools.
in 2017, disadvantaged pupils in 12 out of 58 chains had attainment above the national average for disadvantaged pupils in all mainstream schools.
however,
38/58 of these schools had attainment below the mainstream average, including 8 which were below average.
this is 2/3s of academy chains under-performing for poorer pupils.
CLAIM 2 - educational opportunity
neoliberals claim that the key to improving educational opportunities is to introduce as much choice into the ‘education market’ as possible.
they argue that the parentocracy means that educational opportunities have widened.
CLAIM 2 EVAL -
a) Bartlett and cream-skimming, silt-shifting
argues that high achieving schools can take the best students and avoid taking less able students who are more likely to hinder the school’s league table position.
this adversely affects particular demographics, such as WC boys who are less likely to go to better schools.
CLAIM 2 EVAL -
b) myth of parentocracy
Gerwitz’ study of 14 London secondary schools found that parents may not be able to make the best use of their educational choices - MC parents have economic and cultural capital and so they become ‘privileged-skilled choosers’ as they know how the system works and they have the economic power to afford to move to areas served by higher-achieving schools.
WC parents can become semi-skilled local choosers = they lack the cultural capital to support their children.
WC parents become disconnected-local choosers who essentially are less aware of their choices and who lack the economic capital to afford the travel costs or move house.
CLAIM 2 EVAL -
c) free schools
been primarily created by MC parents so although policy my have increased parental choice, this has mainly been to benefit one social group.
free schools TAKE FEWER disadvantaged pupils than nearby state schools - e.g., in 2011, only 6.4% of pupils at Bristol Free School were eligible for free school meals compared with 22.5% of pupils across the city as a whole.
CLAIM 2 EVAL -
d) fragmentation of education provision and centralisation
Ball argues that marketisation and privatisation policies have resulted in state educated becoming highly fragmented - in rural areas, there are very little choices of secondary school but then elsewhere, there is a bewildering array of different school types - parental choice is limited too in how local communities now don’t have a direct say in how school is run.
we now have academies, free schools, grammar schools, secondary modern schools, comprehensive schools, community schools, trust schools etc.
previously, parents could contact their local council about school matters, but now it Is up to the privately run school to respond as they like.
FURTHER, central govt has greater power to allow or require schools to become academies which reduces the role of elected local authorities in education.
