Education- State Policy and Education Flashcards
What types of schools were involved in the tripartite system?
Grammar schools, secondary modern schools and technical schools
What did the 1944 Act do?
Made secondary schools free for all, raised the leaving age to 15, introduced the tripartite system
What were grammar schools?
Able kids who passed the 11+, taught traditional subjects ready for university, about 20% got in to grammar schools
What were secondary modern schools?
For the 75-80% of pupils who failed the 11+, offered basic education
What were technical schools?
Meant to provide a more vocational education for pupils with an aptitude for practical subjects
What was the problem with the 11+?
Didn’t necessarily measure your intelligence, culturally biased, suited middle-class more than working-class, legitimised social inequality
What was the problem with technical schools?
Few were built
How were children labelled if they failed the 11+?
As failures which could have put them off education
What advantage did well-off middle-class pupils have above others?
Parents could afford to send them to private schools if they failed the 11+
What did the 1965 Labour government insist?
Schools were reorganised so that everyone had equality of opportunity, comprehensive system
What were positive aspects of the comprehensive system?
- No 11+ so no children are labelled as failures
- High-ability pupils generally still do well and lower-ability pupils do better
What were negative aspects of the comprehensive system?
- Most schools still sort pupils into streams or sets
- Working-class areas still have worse GCSE results than middle-class areas
What did the Prime Minister say in 1976?
British education and industry was in decline because schools didn’t teach people the skills they needed in work
What is vocationalism?
Governments have had policies designed to create a closer link between school and work
What were some vocational reforms?
Youth Training Schemes, NVQs and GNVQs, New Deal
What were Youth Training Schemes?
Job training schemes for school leavers aged 16-17, started in 1983
What were NVQs and GNVQs?
Practical qualifications- NVQs in 1986, GNVQs in 1992
What was the New Deal?
Meant people on benefits had to attend courses if they didn’t accept work, introduced in 1998
How do some sociologists criticise vocational education?
Argue that it aims to teach good work discipline, not skills
What do some Marxist sociologists say about vocational education?
It provides cheap labour and governments encourage people into training schemes to lower unemployment statistics
What problem do some universities and employers have with vocational qualifications?
They often aren’t regarded as highly as academic qualifications
How do some feminists criticise vocational qualifications?
They argue that vocational qualifications force girls into traditionally ‘female’ jobs
What reforms did the Conservative government introduce in the late 1980s?
- Widening choice within the education system
- Encouraging more competition to create a ‘market’ in schools (marketisation)
How did the 1988 Education Reform Act help the idea that education should link to the economy?
Introduced more vocational courses and more work placement schemes
How did the 1988 Education Reform Act fix the problem that there should be better standards in education?
- Introduced a National Curriculum of compulsory subjects for all 5-16 year olds so that core subjects had to be given more space in the timetable
- OFSTED set up to inspect schools and make sure they were doing a decent job
- Schools could opt out of local education authority and become grant-maintained schools which meant they got money straight from the government and spend it how they liked
How did the 1988 Education Reform Act say that there should be a system of choice and competition?
- Parents could choose which school to send their child to if the school had space
- League tables which show the grades pupils get can help parents choose
- Schools worked like businesses and advertised for students
How did the 1988 Education Reform Act state that there should be more testing and more exams?
- Pupils had to sit SATs at 7, 11 and 14 and GCSEs at 16
- Results can be used to form league tables and monitor school standards
How does Whitty criticise the 1988 Education Reform Act?
Argues that middle-class parents have an advantage in the education market as they are more likely to have succeeded in education so have the cultural capital to choose a good school for their child, may also have the financial capital to move to an area with better schools, parental choice can actually reinforce social class inequality
How is constant testing a criticism of the 1988 Education Reform Act?
Can be stressful for students, encourage labelling and self-fulfilling prophecies
How does Ball criticise the 1988 Education Reform Act?
New National Curriculum was the ‘curriculum of the dead’ because emphasis on core subjects was outdated
What did New Labour want when they took power?
To intervene to do something about educational inequality, but also wanted choice and diversity- ‘third way politics’, old Labour policies of state intervention combined with New Right policies of marketisation
How did the New Labour continue the process of marketisation begun by the previous Conservative government?
Allowed schools to specialise in certain subjects to create diversity and increase choice for parents, allowed faith schools to be set up
How did New Right thinking make education more privatised?
Agencies given contracts for things like improving reading and writing in primary schools
What did New Labour say about privatisation?
Improve efficiency and standards because contracts were competitive, however some argue it takes too much control away from schools
What were some interventional policies that the government pursued?
- Reducing infant class sizes to a maximum of 30
- Introducing numeracy hour and literacy hour in primary schools
- Trying to increase number of people going to university
How did Curriculum 2000 policy create a big change for 16-18 year olds?
Made A-level education broader, vocational A-level introduced, key skills qualifications launched
How did the 1988 National Curriculum policy affect girls?
It gave all pupils equal entitlement to all subjects for the first time, credited with increased achievement of girls in the last 20 years
What policies have encouraged girls to get involved with subjects they have traditionally avoided?
Computer Club for Girls, Women Into Science and Engineering, Girls in Science and Technology
What did the government do in 1999 to help boys’ achievement?
Gave grants to primary schools to hold extra writing classes for boys to help push up SATs scores
How did the 2005 Breakthrough Programme help boys’ achievement?
Introduced mentoring, after-school classes and e-tutorials for teenage boys in an attempt to improve their exam performance
What was Sure Start 1999?
Aimed to improve early education and childcare in England, offered up to 2 years of free childcare and early education to all 3 and 4 year olds
What was the Education Maintenance Allowance?
Gave up to £30 per week to students who stayed on in education post-16, series of bonuses available for good attendance and progress, means-tested so only children from poorer families could benefit
What were Education Action Zones (1998)?
Way of tackling educational inequality by area, organisations combined resources to try to raise standards
What was the aims of free school meals and breakfast clubs?
To reduce class inequality
What was the Academies Programme?
Opened new schools in disadvantaged areas where existing schools were judged to be ‘failing’, run in partnership with local partnership with local business sponsors to try and improve performance
How did Benn criticise New Labour?
Policies aimed at reducing educational inequality seemed to be inconsistent with policies that threatened to increase it, third-way politics too contradictory
How did the Coalition government change the academies programme?
Any school classed as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted could apply to become an academy without a sponsor
What were failing schools made into under the Coalition government?
Sponsored academies
What did the increasing number of schools run by private organisations mean?
Privatisation of the education system has advanced
What were free schools introduced by the Coalition government?
Set up by groups of parents, teachers or religious groups and don’t have to teach the National Curriculum
What were the changes to the National Curriculum made under Education Secretary Michael Gove?
- A-levels changed to a linear structure so all exams must be taken at the end of the course
- Coursework and modular exams removed from GCSE
- More formal grammar included in the primary English curriculum
What did Pupil Premium do?
Provided extra funding for schools with students on free school meals to be spent on improving educational experience for these pupils
How can Coalition education policies be criticised?
- In some disadvantaged areas, academies and free schools attract the best teachers which undermine other local schools
- Difficult to track whether pupil premium funding is actually being spent on disadvantaged pupils or whether it is being absorbed into the whole school budget
- Maximum tuition fees in higher education increased, can be seen as socially exclusive and debt can be off-putting for working-class students
What is globalisation?
The idea that the traditional national boundaries are breaking down across the world as people are becoming more connected by improved technology, multinational companies and increased migration
How has globalisation had an impact on education policy?
British economy needs to be competitive in global industries like technology so British workers need to be highly trained
How has increased immigration impacted educational policy?
Meant there’s a heavier focus on learning about other cultures and schools need to provide support for pupils whose first language is not English
What does Kelly say is the problem with globalisation?
If education systems become increasingly similar then they’ll become less relevant to the needs of individual nations
