educational policies Flashcards
what is meant by
‘equality of educational opportunity’ ?
all students have the opportunity to display their talents and achieve their academic potential regardless of their gender, social class or ethnicity
What are the four aspects of ‘equality of educational opportunity’, as suggested by Gillborn and Youdell (2000)
How did they criticise government policies?
access
circumstances
participation
outcome
Say government policies have focussed too greatly on equality of ‘access’ and the other aspects have not been considered
explain the tripartite system
Students tested age 11, assigned to either grammar, technical or secondary modern schools
pros of tripartite system
free schooling for everyone for first time
functionalists - assigns roles in meritocratic society
those of high ability can be stretched
cons of tripartite system
(% boys who went to grammar school)
self esteem
Smyth (2006)
unfair - 2/3rds middle class boys went to grammar schools, compared to ¼ of working class boys
disadvantages and lowers self esteem of working class kids
doesn’t help late bloomers
mixed ability classrooms can benefit all students (smyth et al 2006)
When was the educational reform act introduced?
what were the key aspects of it?
The Educational Reform Act (1988)
-open enrolment
-formula funding
-national curriculum
-league tables
-grant maintained schools
When was Ofsted set up?
purpose?
1993
inspects schools every 4 years
what were the main educational policies 1944-1997?
1944- tripartite system
1965- comprehensive schools
1988- Education Reform Act
1997- New labour (respond to increased standards due to globalisation, more focus on equality of opportunity)
define neoliberalism
an economic and political ideology that seeks to transfer the control of economic factors from public sector to private sector
aims to raise standards and drive innovation
explain what privatisation is and evaluate
services that were once owned/provided by the state are transferred to private companies
Endogenous privatisation (in schools) eg performance related pay, local management
Exogenous privatisation- (out schools) eg branding of school, school services/inspections
+business like, efficient, more choice, raises standards
-money may be drained into other places out of education, cherry picking, out of business, equality of educational opportunity under threat
When were Education Action Zones set up?
What was their purpose?
1998
aimed to raise motivation and attainment in deprived areas
When was the first free school introduced?
2011
When was the Ebacc introduced? When was it made compulsory?
What is it?
students must take english, maths, science, history/geography and a foreign language
What is progress 8? When was it introduced? What is its aim?
progress 8 is a progress measure which was introduced in 2016
predicts GCSE results based on KS2 performance
pros/cons of selection by ability
A
+high flyers are stretched
+functionalist – meritocratic society, anyone can get it if they work hard
-high flyers can be stretched in mixed ability schools, Smyth et al (2006) - mixed ability teaching benefits everyone
-mixed ability encourages social solidarity and cohesion
-selection by ability encourages self fulfilling prophecy, may cause low self esteem
-classist , those who can’t afford things like tutors end up disadvantaged- marxist argue class problem
