educational policies

Question 1

1965 comprehensives Act

Answer 1

• main aims, equality of opportunity, one school for all
• details of the act, the Tripartite system abolished and comprehensive schools established - Local education authorities would maintain context of schools
• evaluations, poor standards in some schools, especially where progressive education was concerned - Banding and streaming occurred along class lines, working classes normally ended upon lower bands and vice versa for middle class - parents had little choice in education, near impossible to remove children from the local school if they wanted, thought that all schools provided same level of education

Question 2

1988 education Act

Answer 2

• Main aims - to introduce free market principles (more competition) into education system- introduce greater parental choice and control over state education - raising standards in education
• Details of act - Marketisation and parentocracy (schools compete for pupils parents like consumers) - league tables, parents can see how well schools are doing and make a choice - OFSTED, to regulate and inspect schools - National curriculum, schools teach the same subjects - Formula funding, funding based on number of pupils, encourages schools to raise standards to increase demands

Question 3

1988 education Act - evaluation

Answer 3

• Competition increased standards, results improved during 1990s
• selection by mortgage - house prices in areas of the best schools increased, pricing out poorer parents
• Cream shimming, best schools selected the best students, mainly middle class
• Middle class students had more choice due to higher level of cultural capital
• league tables criticised for encouraging teaching to the test.

Question 4

1997 New Labour

Answer 4

• Main aims - to respond to increased competition due to globalisation - raising standards - equality of opportunity, increasing choice and diversity
• details of policy, increased funding to education, reduced class sizes, introduced numeracy and literacy hour, introduced academies, sure start, ema, tuition fees for HE.

Question 5

1997 New Labour - Evaluations

Answer 5

• Early academies rose in standards in poor areas a lot
• generally better at improving equality of opportunity than the new right
• parents liked sure start but didn’t improve education
• tuition fees put working class kids off (Connor)

Question 6

2010 coalition and conservative gov

Answer 6

• Main aims- same as new right, reduce public spending on educational due to financial crisis
• Details of policy - cut funding to education (scrapped EMA)
• forced academisation
• free schools and pupil premium
• Evaluation - standards have carried on raising - Academisation and free schools are both ideological, no evidence they improve standards more than LEA schools, free schools, advantages the middle class - pupil premium too early to judge

Question 7

ACRONYM

Answer 7

Children Might- Chubb and Moe, Marketisation
Do- David, Parentocracy
Badly- Ball, Ethnocentric curriculum
Given Your- Gilborn and Youdell, Educational triage
Work- Whitty, middle class advantages

Question 8

PERCY

Answer 8

P- new labour gov 1997-2010 aimed to improve education standards through marketisation
E- 1997 new right act included classes of 30, established literacy and numeracy hours in primary schools, made more uni places available
R- Chubb and Moe (1990) stated marketisation was effective - provides benefits and educational standards
C- Ben (2012) New labour policies increased inequalities in the UK, introduction of £100 tuition fees later raised to £3000.

P- greater parental choice (1988) reinforces inequality
E- based on the idea that students can only achieve what their parents’ social class allow them to
R- Whitty (1988) middle class parents have an advantage due to succeeding in education - Ball (1993) there’s an alliance between schools and middle class parents because schools want high achieving pupils
C- Hancock (2014) education exports one worth £18 billion to UK economy each year, marketisation of education has benefitted the economy

P- League tables (1988) increasing inequality
E- 1988 ERA included league tables, designed to compare schools within an area
R- Gilborn and Youdell, educational triage
C- Opposing Mindset, league tables actually make schools focus on everyone equally to increase grades across the boards

P- 1988 act allowed more parental choice
E- introduced OFSTED and league tables, meaning parents could evaluate schools, benefitting the middle class
R- David (1993) parentocracy a child’s education is more dependant on wealth and wishes of parents
C- Ball (1993) critiques ERA, stated than an ethnocentric school curriculum was made, benefitting white middle class, excluding ethnic minorities