Education policies and privatisation and Globalisation of policies

Question 1

What are educational policies?

Answer 1

they are initiatives/ strategies introduced by govts to achieve a particular outcome or education system

Question 2

What is ‘Marketisation’?

Answer 2

a method of introducing competition into the public services (e.g., education and health) that were previously controlled and run by the govt, with the aim of raising educational standards by creating competition between schools

Question 3

What are the aims of educational policies?

Answer 3

• politicians and educational advisors aim to introduce policies improving and raising the standard of education for all students of class, ethnicity etc for success of young people’s skills to compete efficiently in global economy

Question 4

What are the debates and concerns regarding educational policies?

Answer 4

• does it give equal opportunities
• many focus on reducing inequalities in education system- therefore less advantaged backgrounds, ethnicity or gender should have same chance to gain qualifications
• however critics claim polices have actually made inequality greater between these groups

Question 5

What was the education policy prior to 1944?

Answer 5

-> before 1870= no state schools
-> wealthy kids educated via priv tutors or fee-paying schools
-> w/c children had basic education run by churches or charities- many not educated at all –> 1870 Education Act (Foster Act) established first schools for all children up to age 10 - basic education focusing on religious matters, literacy and numeracy

Question 6

What was the 1944 Education/Butler Act- introducing the tripartite system?

Answer 6

-> free secondary education for pupils up to 15
-> act brought TS of secondary education- different types of schools each catering for different aptitude and abilities
-> aim to bring equal opportunities for all pupils to succeed in life through own efforts and abilities rather than social background
-> 11+ exam introduced determining which secondary people attended
-> Grammar schools- academic curriculum and access to higher education for academic students who passed 11+ (Upper middle/ M/C)
-> Technical schools- offered a more practical curriculum and access to manual work for those who failed 11+- things like engineering (Lower M/C- skilled W/C)
-> Secondary modern schools- metalwork, woodwork, cookery- for those who failed 11+(W/C)

Question 7

Evaluation of the tripartite system?

Answer 7

• Reproduced class inequality: 11+ questions biased towards white, m/c pupils in terms of vocab etc- meaning w/c children did not have a real chance to do well and go to grammar schools and unis while w/c pupils more likely to go to a secondary modern and be labelled ‘failures’, resulting to low motivation and subsequently low educational achievement and thus less likelihood to going to university- in turn has actually maintained class inequality by allocating different classes into different types of schools that offered different life opportunities
• Reproduced gender inequality- the TS reproduced gender inequality by allocating the different classes into different types of schools that offered different life opportunities
• M/C parents still had choices- in addition to TS of schooling- still existed priv schools for wealthier backgrounds who could afford to pay for this education- therefore these parents still had choices bc parents who obtained good grades got good education

Question 8

What was educational policy like 1965-79?

Answer 8

• TS seen as failing to provide equal education opportunities for all
• 1965- Labour govt abolished the TS (i.e. exam grammar schools and secondary moderns) and replaced it with a comprehensive system - single type of school aiming at educating all pupils under one roof- regardless ability and at removing class divide of TS
• admissions based on catchement areas- certain distance within school

Question 9

What were positive evaluations of the comprehensive system ?

Answer 9

• better exam results for all- pass rates of GCSE and A-level steadily risen
• functionalists would argue this system brings children for all social backgrounds together and therefore promotes social integration of different classes- also see this system as more meritocratic because it gives pupils a longer period in which to develop and show their abilities unlike TS

Question 10

Evaluations of comprehensive schooling?

Answer 10

• grammar schools still existed - some authorities refusing to introduce new system- still gave wealthier parents the greater choice by allowing them to attempt to send their children to grammar schools and thus reproducing class inequality
• exam results not same across all classes- system did not reduce achievement differences for w/c and m/c as m/c do better and go to unis
• class barriers remain
• streaming and setting- schools were streamed according to their ability- therefore disproportionate number of m/c pupils placed in high-ability streaming/sets, whereas a disproportionate number of w/c pupils were placed in the bottom groups- and even if streaming is not present teachers may continue to label w/c pupils negatively and restrict opportunities- suggests comprehensive system continues to reproduce class inequality
• Marxists argue system appears to be meritocratic offering equal chance to all, but is a myth- produced class inequality from one gen to the next via streaming and frickin labelling - difference in achievement in blamed upon individuals perhaps not working hard enough making it appear w/c have equal choice

Question 11

What were the educational polices of the Conservatives like 1979-97?

Answer 11

• govts of Thatcher saw education as failing to provide a sufficiently skilled workforce- B lack of industrial competitiveness was partly blamed on schools
• also believed that schools were failing pupils and needed to raise the standard of education- therefore Tory party introduced 1988 education Reforms Act heavily influenced by New Right policies whereby schools compete against each other, creating a ‘education market’ with aim of raising educational standards
• concept known as marketisation–> introducing competition into public services that were previously controlled and run by state

Question 12

What were the measures of the 1988 ERA ( in turn what are policies promoting marketisation)

Answer 12

• Grant maintained schools (more controls for schools): schools allowed to opt out of local authority control if enough parents voted for this in order to give them more independent and more choice- known as granted maintained schools schools- idea to free schools to specialise in particular subjects or types of students
  
  • City Tech colleges: diversity, choice and competition to be extended by introduction of city tech colleges- focus of STEM built in inner-city areas for 11-18 year old students competing with existing schools
  • Open enrolment/ Parental choice: parents can choose which schools to send children to - right to choose will encourage schools to aim for highest possible standards, as schools will compete to attract pupils as more pupils = more money
  • Formula funding: schools allocated funds by local authorities based on number of pupils- the more pupils the greater reward budget the school received
    -National Curriculum: govt told teachers what to teach and provided tests
  • League tables: the publication of league tables and OFSTED inspection reports gives parents the info they need to choose right school- puts pressure upon schools to improve performance to attract pupils

Question 13

What is vocational education and training?

Answer 13

• until 70’s vocational training- training for work- was responsibility of employers- view began to change with rapid rise of youth unemployment- many argued this due to schools failing to teach appropriate work skills to young people–> industry faced a skills shortage. New measures:
  
  • National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs): standardised vocational qualifications for particular occupations
  • General NVQs (GNVQs): more general covering wider areas- tourism and leisure or health and social care available from 1995- provide an alternative to traditional qualifications
  • Modern apprenticeships: these programmes combined training at work with part time attendance at college with aim of achieving Level 3 NVQ (equivalent to an A-Level)
  • New Vocationalism: aimed initially at unemployed ppl. Training initiatives- for example Youth Training Scheme was a training scheme for school leavers, combined work experience with education

Question 14

What was the educational market and parental choice?

Answer 14

• Gewirtz et al- found amount of choice involved in selecting a school was limited both by availability of schools and by ability of parents to judge and choose between them- therefore parents not equal- three groups distinguished in terms of their ability effectively to choose between schools:
  
  • Privileged/skilled choosers- strongly motivated to choose a school for their children and have the necessary skills to do so. Have ability to understand the nature of different schools and to evaluate claims made by schools in publicity material- devote time and energy into finding out about different schools and criteria- choices may mean moving house or paying for private education- usually M/C
  • semi-skilled choosers- strong inclination but limited capacity to engage with market - just as concerned with getting best possible education but don’t have same level of skill as privileged counterparts
  • disconnected choosers- not involved with educational market- only consider smaller number of options- frequently choose two closest schools where they live- tend to think there is little differences between schools and place emphasis on happiness of child than academic reputation of the school - worser schools?
• generally the higher a persons class - the more likely are to benefit from best state schooling

Question 15

Evaluations of marketisation? (myth of parentocracy)

Answer 15

• schools are becoming more concerned with attracting gifted and advantaged than helping disadvantaged
• critics of parental choice- claimed that quality of a child’s education is dependant on how powerful the parents are, referred to as parentocracy. Brown argues that m/c families have greater parentocracy than w/c as have better understanding of education system
• criticisms of league tables and formula funding- Ball argues that marketisation reproduces and legitimatises inequality via both- Tables ensure that schools that achieve good results are in more demand as parents are attracted to good rankings- allowing these schools to be more selective and recruit higher achieving pupils-> m/c get best education and opposite occurs for less successful schools reproducing social class inequalities and same goes for funding- unpopular schools lose income and find difficult to match the teacher skills and facilitates of more successful rivals

Question 16

The New Labour Govt 1997-2010 overview?

Answer 16

• Blair and Brown came into power 1997- maintained policy of marketisation but main aim to continue to reduce educational inequality
• one way was to pump more money into mainly deprived inner-city areas where pupils were under-achieving

Question 17

What were some implementations of the Labour govt?

Answer 17

• Education Action Zones (EAZ)- set up 1998, introduced to help in areas of deprivation with low levels of educational achievement, usually under-performing secondary schools and their feeder primary schools- aim was to provide additional support and resources raising motivation and attainment levels
• Sure Start- Sure Start projects deliver a wide variety of services which are designed to support children’s learning skills, health and well-being, and social and emotional development. this was introduced to help pre-school children and their families living in disadvantaged areas, as children from such areas are at risk of doing poorly at school, by providing better childcare support, early education, and health and family support while the child is growing up
• City academies- academies originally designed to replace ‘failing’ comprehensive schools in low-income, inner-city areas. Normally working class families- where schools seen as failing- aim to knock down old buildings and build new modern schools - this would help deprived children see new education env as exciting and important, and help raise educational achievement

Question 18

What is the influence of neoliberal perspectives- specialist schools?

Answer 18

• labour continued Tory specialist school policy- schools specialising in particular subject areas- provide diversity and choice within the educational marketplace, increasing comp and raising standards
• however an OFSTED report found that schools often achieve better results in subjects outside their specialist areas

Question 19

What is the educational triage ?

Answer 19

• Gillborn and Youdells study found that teachers divided students into 3 groups in terms of predicted performance at GCSE- first group consisted of students who were expected to attain A to C grade with little difficulty, second group seen as ‘borderline’ cases- border of C and B, third group = ‘hopeless cases’- students with little or no hope of reaching grade C or above
• G and Y found that teachers rationed teachings for each group in the triage- main focus = second borderline group- given most experienced teachers, additional teaching, close attention to their progress and further resources such as new textbooks
• aim of educational triage was to maximise proportion of students obtaining 5 or more GCSES grades A*-C- most effective way of doing this was seen with additional resources of time, effort and money directed at borderline cases and main reason for doing this was to improve school’s position in league table
• ‘discriminating’ against first and third triage was particularly harmful to third triage- those who really would have needed most help- G and Y found usually these were Black-Caribbean students

Question 20

Evaluation of New Labour?

Answer 20

• failed to deal with social inequality- Marxists have critic New Labour policies for not dealing with social inequality adequately like them retaining idea of marketisation
• tuition fees discouraged by w/c children- Benn criticised the New Labour policies on educational inequality- on one hand introduced EMAs (payments of £30 a week to low income students) to encourage poorer to stay in school- and on other hand introduced tuition fees for higher education which discourages pupils from w/c backgrounds from continuing education at Uni
• Compensatory education was not effective- polices such as Sure Start and EAZ may not have been effective in terms of raising achievement- studies shown that children in secondary who were part of Sure Start in primary are still academically falling behind and not reaching expected levels- perhaps external factors = too strong

Question 21

What was the coalition 2010-15 govt like in educational policies?

Answer 21

• reformed many existing policies to further tackle educational inequality - did this by further reducing LEA role and continuing principle of marketisation

Question 22

What were the main polices of coalition governments ?

Answer 22

• Academies- from 2010- all state schools encouraged to become academies, freeing them from the LEA control and the National Curriculum. By 2014 over 56% of secondary and 11% of primary schools in England = academies and thus arguably removed the focus of reducing educational inequality- GCSE results from 2010 to 2011 was twice that of non-academies however. Unlike New Labours sole poor area’s for city academies- coalition govt allowed any school to be an academy
• Free schools- free schools are funded by the govt- not controlled by LEA- do not need to teach National Curriculum and can be set up by parents, teachers, and charities, often in response of what the local community wants with regards to education. Aim to give teachers the freedom to design teaching styles to meet local needs and by giving parents to have opportunity to choose suitable schools based on knowledge of child. If they are unhappy with state school in local area, in the belief that competition will drive up standards and thus help reduce educational inequality.
• The pupil Premium: introduced 2011- additional payments to schools based on number of FS, students enrolled- school received extra money for each ‘poor’ student- Deputy PM Clegg claimed the aim to equip every school to support students from most disadvantaged backgrounds helping build a more socially mobile Britain- try to narrow educational gap and thus reduce social inequalities in education.
• Tuition fees and help with Uni fees- from Sept 2012- uni’s allowed to charge fees up to 9k a year- 3x more previous limit as ‘rapid growing student numbers and an increasingly competitive global education market.’ Children from families with low to medium incomes could get help to cover cost of livings while at UNI. At that point, students nit required to repay until earned around 21k a year- figures now changed- and all debts at that point wiped after 30 years. Students who did not end up in well paid jobs would therefore be unlikely to repay full amount of loans for tuition and maintenance, which would encourage those from poorer family backgrounds to go to uni.

Question 23

What are the evaluations of free schools?

Answer 23

• reinforced inequality- Wiborg found that children from ‘highly educated’ families were the ones who did well in free schools. She argued that free schools actually widen this educational gap between m/c and w/c, bc popular free schools end up developing selective admissions system in order to manage demand and thus attract the bright pupils. Therefore, she concludes that free schools can lead to greater inequality.
• no evidence free schools have improved standards- OFSTED 2015 report: 158 free schools inspected and outcomes are broadly in line with those for all schools- at the same time this report was early days for the free schools.
• 2016 GCSE results were mixed- some excellent, some poor

Question 24

Evaluation of pupil premium?

Answer 24

• OFSTED-2012- found that in many cases the pupil premium made little or no difference to support the poorer children as the money is often spent in other matters within the school ad thus did not help reduce educational gap.

Question 25

Conservative educational polices from 2015?

Answer 25

• Academies: continued rapid growth of academies. 2016- 2075 out of 3381 secondary schools were academies. At one point decided to make all schools compulsory academies, faced position from even own party-> dropped.

Question 26

What are education polices of selection?

Answer 26

• given the opportunity- schools would select bright, motivated and well behaved kids to achieve best possible grades and remain high position in league table- however govts determine how schools must select pupils. They are mainly:
• ability: under TS, schools could select pupils on 11+- those who passed attended grammar and those who failed attended secondary modern schools- selection by ability is now forbidden for all state-funded schools- ability wise commonly used by private, fee-paying schools and some remaining state-funded grammar
• open enrolment: policy introduced under 1988 EA- gave parents power to apply to any state-funded school- schools could only reject applicants if they were physically full- if schools = over-subscribed, had to follow over-subscribed criteria.
• School Admission Code- introduced 1998, must be complied by all state-funded schools. Aim of admission Code Policies is to operate in a fair way and not to discrim against pupils bc of social, economic, religious or ethnic background- every chid has same equal opportunities to access a place at a school they desire. If the school is under-subscribed, the school must accept that child. The oversubscribed criteria is : -priority given to children who have sibling at school. - priority to those who live in catchment area of school.
  - schools can select up to 10% of intake by aptitude in permitted subjects oversubscribed faith schools can prioritise same religious faith. - some oversubscribed allowed ‘fair banding’ Cognitive ability Test
  meaning not all parents able to get their first choice school if over-subscribed
• Aptitude: school selects pupils on basis of aptitude or potential to be good in certain subjects. Specialist Secondary Schools are state-funded secondary schools allowed to select up to 10% of students on the basis of their aptitude in some specialist subjects.
• Faith: proportion of pupils on basis of religious beliefs

Question 27

What are evaluations of selection policies by those in favour of selection by ability regardless the type of school?

Answer 27

• critics point out that a form of selection by ability is also practised in non-selective comprehensive schools as pupils are very often put into streams or sets according to ability.
• High ability pupils are held back- in classrooms containing pupils of all abilities- claim that teaching high-ability children together stream or sets within a school would allow them to be academically ‘stretched’, rather than being held back by slower leaners who unable to cope with work
• Aptitude tests are misused- secondary school with specialise in a subject can select up to 10% pupils by test which show aptitude for that subject- however tests in specialisms like business or economics are ‘absurd’ bc pupils will not have studied the subjects in primary school, so tests are used to assess ability

Question 28

What are evaluations of selection policies by those not in favour of selection by ability regardless the type of school?

Answer 28

• reduced risk of being a failure- risk that failing selection by ability may have negative a negative effect on children’s self-esteem which can affect their education- therefore by removing selection by ability children are less likely to be labelled as failures at an early age
• benefits for pupils of all abilities- more intelligent pupils can have a stimulating influence on the less able.
• Criticisms of school admission code is to operate in a fair way- not to discrim against pupils bc of their social, econ, religious or ethnic background. However, poplar over-subscribed schools tend to be found in wealthy m/c neighbourhoods. These schools generally produce good results bc they contain children from m/c homes who do better in education. Meaning m/c parents have a better chance of securing a place at an over-subscribed school than w/c parents-> w/c parents lose out on getting places in popular school bc they live in wrong catchment area and in poorest areas- cycle of social class inequality.
• use of covert selection- some schools use covert selection policies in an attempt to pick higher ability children of those from a higher social class and discourages parents from poorer backgrounds to apply, even if forbidden by code. Some ‘covert methods’= school literature difficult to understand for parents with poor literacy; expensive uniform and kit; no promotion of school in poorer areas; making parents complete long complicated admission forms, m/c parents more able to complete than w/c.
• fixing ‘banding’ tests- banding splits perhaps students in 5 groups and taking in an equal number from each through a test

Question 29

What was Gender and educational policies like?

Answer 29

• up until 19th century, girls mainly excluded from education system, although middle upper class educated to be good wives
• 1944 education act brought free secondary schools for both genders but even then girls were discriminated against to some extent- act introduced tripartite system but girls often would have to achieve a higher mark than the boys in the 11+ exam in order to secure a place in a grammar school
• GIST AND WISE aiming to encourage girls into stem

Question 30

How has ethnicity and the educational policies been like and what is multicultural education?

Answer 30

• assimilation policies introduced 60s and 7s aiming at integrating ethnic groups into mainstream British culture as a way of raising educational achievement
• in late 90s, compensatory education programmes were offered in areas of deprivation, where a high number of ethnic groups were living, in order to boost those under-achieving in schools
• in 80s and 90s saw introduction of multicultural policies- aim was to learn about their own and different ethnic cultures and languages as this would raise the self-esteem of ethnic groups and encourage better educational results- some 90s policies to raise educational achievement of ethnicities :
  -> monitoring exam results by ethnicity
  -> amending the Race Relation Act to place a legal duty on schools to promote racial equality
  -> introducing ‘Saturday school’ in the black community and offering additional language programmes

Question 31

What are evaluations of selection policies on ethnicity?

Answer 31

• institutional racism is the real reason- Gillborn argues that institutional racism in education system accounts for real cause of under-achievement- ethnocentric curriculum for example
• compensatory education is inadequate- no amount of educational resources can adequately compensate for materially and culturally poor family backgrounds
• some ethnic groups do not speak English as a second language- critics argue some minorities who are at risk of under-achieving already speak English and roves real cause is institutional racism within school
• Multicultural education policies trivialise ethnic cultures- by picking out stereotypical features. Such a superficial representation does not deal with the deeper issue of why ethnic-minority children underperform, namely, institutional racism.
• Multicultural education produces further racial stereotypes- Stone argues this - for example, multicultural curriculum encourages Afro-Caribbean pupils to pursue own cultural awareness by means such as steel bands, rap music and sports pursuit- reinforces stereotypical racial views
• multicultural curriculum produces greater cultural segregation- New Right is critical of policies promoting multiculturalism as this is more divisive for society and produces cultural segregation- they hold view that education should assimilate cultures into one shared national cultural identity

Question 32

What is privatisation?

Answer 32

• the transfer of govt assets or responsibilities (like schools) to private companies
• in recent years there has been an inc towards privatisation of public services both in UK and globally
• private companies become involved in range of activities in education and building of schools, providing supply teachers, work-based learning, OFSTED inspection services and running LEAs
• often very profitable- companies expect to make up lot as much profit then they do on other contracts

Question 33

What is the cola-isation of schools?

Answer 33

• private sector coming into education indirectly
• vending machines, displays or logos and sponsorship
• Molnar-> ‘schools by their nature carry enormous goodwill and can thus confer legitimacy on anything associated with them = product endorsers
• benefits are limited- Cadburys sports equipment promotion was scrapped after it has revealed pupils would have to eat 5440 chocolate bars just to quantify for a set of volleyball posts-The Food Commission went on to describe how a ten-year-old child eating enough chocolate to earn a basketball through the Cadbury marketing scheme would need to play basketball for 90 hours to burn off the calories consumed. . Families spent £110,000 in Tesco supermarkets just for 1 computer for school

Question 34

What are endogenous privatisation policies?

Answer 34

• it is using the ideas and practises of running priv businesses and applying them to education system so schools, colleges and uni’s behave and are run more like priv businesses. Examples of endogenous privatisation policies are:
• privatisation of the education system was first introduced by tory govt through 1988 ERA, which included educational policies such as ‘marketisation’
• privatisation continued with Labour govt, for example, by performance- related pay whereby teachers were paid according to how well students did. A programme of new buildings for schools and colleges was partly financed by the Private Finance Initiative: priv companies built schools but in return were given contracts to receive loan repayment, and to provide maintence for 25-35 years
  Coalition govt continued the priv of education, introducing academies which are run and managed by private education businesses

Question 35

What is exogenous privatisation and its policies?

Answer 35

• refers to the private business sector moving into the education system in order to make a profit, by designing, managing or delivering aspects of education. Private firms and consultants are now very active in selling educational services that have often previously been delivered by local and national govts. These can include:
• School services- outsourcing services such as building maintenance, provision and management of ICT, catering and cleaning, staff training and development, consultancy and use of supply teachers
• Management of academies- many academies are managed by private educational businesses such as Academies Enterprise Trust and E-ACT, which run around 70 secondary schools as well as primary and special schools
• School inspections- private companies such as Tribal Inspections run school inspections on behalf of OFSTED- but in 2014 OFSTED announced it would stop using them following concerns over the selection, training and quality of inspectors employed
  -Building schools- PFI schemes give private companies contracts to design, build and manage educational services. The contract between the priv investor and the govt lasts for about 25-35 years, during which time the private companies receive repayment at a high rate of interest from the govt, giving them a good profit.
• branding of schools- private companies are selling schools website constructions, logo development and school prospectuses, all designed to give schools a distinct identity enabling them to compete in educational marketplace
• running the examination system- UK’s largest exam board, Pearson Edexcel, is run by the multinational private profit-making company Pearson PLC- Pearson one of world’s largest educational and book publishing companies and provides academic and vocational qualifications in over 70 nations.

Question 36

What are the positive evaluations of privatisation policies?

Answer 36

Privatisation raises educational standards- in a competitive education market, local education authorities and schools can compare the services offered by priv education companies ad select the supplier which is most efficient and offers best value for money, which can only mean more children can be educated to a higher standard

Question 37

What are negative evaluations of privatisation policies?

Answer 37

• private companies are primarily profit driven may lead to a lower quality of education and opportunity for some children
• private companies ignore challenging schools- need to remain competitive in the education market and will be judged on how well the schools performs. Meaning they are more likely to avoid schools with students who are challenging or of low academic ability , and pick schools which can easily be improved- suggesting profits over needs of children, and thus reducing the educational opportunities of the children who need it the most

Question 38

What is main impact of globalisation on UK education policy?

Answer 38

Is the greater shift towards treating education more like a business

Question 39

How has globalisation had an impact via greater privatisation of the education system

Answer 39

• Tory govt introduce 1988 ERA introducing marketisation and privatisation polices into education system. Kelly argues that globalisation inc the trend towards privatisation of education system. Many educational orgs and services are now owned by priv foreign companies in the UK. For example, some of the PFIs in the UK are financed by overseas companies. The main leading educational software companies are all owned by global multinational companies, such as Disney. UK’s exam board Edexcel is owned by one of largest US educational publishing companies- Pearson
• some UK educational companies and orgs also operate internationally- private schools and colleges have become increasingly reliant upon overseas pupils, particularly from China and Hong Kong - students as commodities to be bought and sold to different institutions for profit
• forming educational policy- private companies are providing consultancy work by exporting UK educational polices, such as OFSTED-type inspections, to other countries and then providing the services to deliver such policies
• Global economic competitiveness- UK workers now need to compete with others in a global economy which requires them to have skills that that will be valuable in a global market, Globalisation has meant that the B govt has tailored its policy to meet needs of a global economy
• commercialisation- priv companies are promoting their product or brand by targeting youth consumers through schools, for example, by selling to schoolchildren through vending machines, sponsorships and equipment promotions. This process has been called cola-isation of schools

Question 40

How has globalisation had an impact via the international comparison of education systems?

Answer 40

• globalisation has meant tat we can compare the educational performance of students in different countries. OECDs programme for INT students Assement conducts tests on 15yr old students from around 70 countries every 3 to 5 years in mathematics, science and reading- data then ranked in form of league tables to show the performance of different countries. By comparing the educational performance of other countries, national govts can reassess existing policies or import educational policies of those countries that are doing well into their own education systems, hoping to raise standards. OFSTED uses such educational performance comparisons to explain the generally poor performance of British students and has identified possible solutions by copying out other the educational systems of countries that came top in the international league tables

Question 41

What are ‘Alexanders’ identifications of specific examples of policies implemented as a result of INT comparisons?

Answer 41

• the national literacy and numeracy strategies- introduced by Labour govt running from 1998/9 to 2010- these imposed on every primary school in England a requirement to teach 2 hours of literacy and numeracy a day
• slimming down the national curriculum- coalition govt slimmed down England’s national curriculum to ‘essential knowledge’ in English, Maths and science and some other subjects
• raising the academic entry requirements for trainee teachers from 2012

Question 42

What are the positive evaluations of globalisation of educational policy?

Answer 42

• INT comparison- provide ‘factual evidence’ for govts wanting to amend or introduce new policies that may not be welcomed by those in education system or politicians
• Helps to see which policies work best- int comparisons allow govts to improve own education system by seeing which policies work best and which don’t

Question 43

What are the negative evaluations of globalisation of educational policy?

Answer 43

• PISA tests are not comparable- evidence is given from a very narrow aspect of education and not provide the wider education
• PISA is not a valid test- Alexander argues that int tests results does not necessarily indicate that education systems are better or worse in different nations, as quality of education could depend on outside-school factors, for example, comparing high-preforming countries like Singapore with the UK is meaningless bc the cultures are so different and the education systems are not comparable
• globalisation may lead to marginalised education- according to Ball: impact of globalisation on all nations has meant most changes in educational policies have been geared towards preparing young for work in a competing economic global market, that is, the development of work-based skills, this may mean that many national govts will place less emphasis on wider role of education, such as passing on important knowledge which turns individuals into good citizens