Educational Policies

Question 1

Educational Policies

Answer 1

Educational policies are initiatives brought in by governments (or proposals by other political parties) that have a significant impact on schools or other aspects of the education system.
Significant policies include the 1944 Education Act, the implementation of comprehensive schools, the marketisation policies of the 1988 Education Reform Act.

Question 2

Policies

Answer 2

Are created by the government, and are carried out by schools, colleges, universities & local education authorities (LEAs)

Question 3

1979 to Today

Answer 3

• All three governments since 1979 acknowledge that a major cause of underachievement is poorly achieving schools.
• Conservative policies have been heavily criticised for increasing existing inequalities
• New Labour policies reflected their efforts to reduce inequalities in education, but they used marketisation to try to drive up standards. Their policies recognise not just class inequalities but ethnic and gender-based differences also
• The Coalition government of 2010 to 2015 developed marketisation policies and return to a more traditional education system with less coursework and a narrower range of subjects, which will advantage middle-class, male students.

Question 4

Educational Policies before 1979

Answer 4

• 1870 Education Act (First Edu Act. Commitment to make Edu available nationwide)
• 1918 Education Act (Age of compulsory Edu raised to 14)
• 1944 Butler Act (Age to 15/Free Edu/Tripartite System)
• 1965 Expansion of Comprehensive Schools (Schools with no entry requirements)

Question 5

Effect of Educational Policies Before 1979

Answer 5

-These policies intended to widen
participation in education and equality between different social groups.
-Varying degrees of success.

Question 6

The Butler Act 1944 - Tripartite System (Conservative government)

Answer 6

• Aim was to be meritocratic.
• All the students sat the 11+ exam to decide which high school they went to.
• There were 3 types:
  1. )Grammar schools for those who passed the 11+ taught an academic curriculum to prepare for higher education and non-manual work.
  2. ) Secondary moderns for those who failed the 11+ taught a practical/vocational curriculum to prepare for manual work.
  3. )Technical schools for those good at science/engineering, few were built
• Reproduced class inequalities. MC students were more likely to pass the 11+ due to having more cultural capital (knowledge)& economic capital (money to pay for private tutors) & go to grammar schools & get a better education,
• WC children went to secondary moderns - got a lower standard of education. Also reproduced gender inequalities - girls needed higher marks to pass the 11+ than boys.
• For example, despite setting out to provide a range of equally valued schools, a ‘parity of esteem’, the Butler Act meant that grammar schools became dominated by middle-class students

Question 7

1965-Expansion of Comprehensive Schools

Answer 7

• The aim was to be meritocratic and remove the class inequalities of the tripartite system.
• All students went to one type of school (comprehensive) & received the same education.
• Places at schools were based on catchment areas.
• Developed as a result of policies of Labour government. By 1979 80% of children attended comprehensive schools.
• Comprehensive schools aimed to; break down class divisions by ensuring that people from all class backgrounds were educated in the same sort of school, and create more equal opportunities as no-one would be disadvantaged by being sent to second-class schools.
• However, due to teacher labelling & setting/streaming, it still reproduces class inequalities. The tripartite system still exists in some areas. M/C students overwhelmingly occupied higher sets and achieved more highly. Comprehensives lowered standards by undermining excellent academic education offered in grammar schools. The ablest did not have their ability stretched and the poor behaviour of the less able dragged down those who wanted to work hard and succeed.
• Poor discipline which made progress for all children problematic/Less successful than grammar schools in offering academic education to talented working-class children/ working-class got more chance to be ocially mobile through attendance at schools with an academic emphasis.

Question 8

Conservative Policies 1979 to 1997 Background

Answer 8

• Conservative party set out an agenda for changing the education system
• Up until the 1980s virtually all state schools were funded and controlled by local education authorities linked to local councils. -Most secondary schools were comprehensive schools
• Both political parties had broadly accepted the framework of education established after the Second World War which was largely based on social democratic ideas of equality of opportunity for all children.
• In 1979 a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher was elected.
• They rejected the post-war consensus on education and instead aimed to apply the ideas of the New Right to education as well as other public services.

Question 9

Marketisation of Schools (Conservative 1979-1997)

Answer 9

• According to TNR services delivered by the state are expensive. Ones delivered by MF are efficient and respond to consumer demand
• Schools and Colleges still funded by the state but became more like private businesses competing for customers so they had to ensure they were efficient and profitable
• Introduced OFSTED reports, league tables and Formula funding so funding was largely based on the number of enrolments. Successful schools attract more pupils so got more funds.
• LEAs was seen as ineffective and the Conservatives aimed to give greater control to schools while making them more accountable to the central government for their performance
• Created an education market by reducing state control over education & increasing competition between schools & parentocracy
• Other policies included- open enrolment (successful schools being able to recruit more students), , academies & free schools. These link to New Right ideas of trying to raise standards and create parentocracy.

Question 10

Marketisation of Schools Evaluation

Answer 10

-Ball argues parents have been increasingly encouraged to become consumers of education known as parentocracy.
Parentocracy is an educational free-market where all parents are assumed to have a free choice of school. Parent choice contributes to the reproduction of s/c inequalities by empowering m/c parents. League tables mean top schools can be selective over their intake, they ‘cream-skim’ (pick the best students mc) and ‘silt-shift’ (don’t take ‘bad’ students WC) so they go to poor schools
-Formula funding means top schools get more money, can improve their facilities and pick MC students while WC students go to failing schools with bad facilities. Creates ‘sink schools’ schools that can’t improve due to low enrollment caused by poor facilities.
-Parentocracy is a myth as MC parents use their cultural capital & economic capital to get their children into the best state schools.
-Gerwitz: Found differences in capital created class differences in how much choice parents had over which schools to send their children to. She identified 3 types of parents: privileged-skilled choosers (MC, use capital to get children into best state schools), disconnected-local choosers (WC, lack capital, so send to local schools) & semi-skilled choosers (ambitious WC, but lack capital to get children into best schools, have to rely on others social capital).

Question 11

Vocationalism (Conservative 1979-1997)

Answer 11

-Education did not produce YP with the skills required by industry.
-Comp schools were focusing too much on academia and not vocational skills which could be used in the workplace.
-In early 1980s youth unemployment was increasing fast and the government blamed this on the lack of employment skills
-So they introduced the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) in 1983
-YP undertook training with an employer and also received vocational training in colleges and training centres, though these did
not necessarily lead to qualifications or guarantee permanent jobs.
-Introduction of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) from 1986 onwards. Designed to offer a more coherent set of qualifications relating to skills in the workplace (engineering). Unlike GCSEs and A levels, NVQs were designed so trainees could be assessed by demonstrating their competencies or skills under workplace conditions.
-GNVQs in areas such as Health and Social Care was broader than NVQs and assessed a mixture of academic and vocational skills.
-Later replaced by Vocational A Levels.
NVQs and GNVQs aimed to raise the status of vocational qualifications and make them equivalent to academic qualifications.
-Level 2 NVQs are seen as on a par with GCSEs and Level 3 with A levels.

Question 12

Evaluation of Vocationalism

Answer 12

-Critics of YTS argued that the scheme simply offered second class training for trainees
and cheap labour for employers.
-Schemes YP were not counted as unemployed so was also seen by opponents as a way of reducing youth unemployment statistics.
-Critics argue there is still an academic- vocational divide in education with vocational qualifications being seen as second best. Not worth the same as GCSEs and A-Levels
-Finn (1987)- provides cheap labour rather than meaningful training, depresses wages for young workers, artificially reduces youth unemployment statistics, removes youth from the streets, w/c students get “trained” whereas m/c students get “educated”
-Cohen (1984)- real purpose is social control. Create good behaviour and discipline rather than actually training for work. Young people who refuse to take part are “punished” by having benefits withdrawn.

Question 13

Labour Government Policies 1997–2010 Background

Answer 13

• Came into power in 1997
• Blair’s priority was ‘education, education, education’
• Blair had rebranded his party as New Labour and followed the ‘Third Way’ which did not involve free-market policies of the (Con) or the socialist approach of old Labour.
• Labour’s education policies were a mixture of social democratic and New Right ideas

Question 14

Labor’s Social Democratic Approaches

Answer 14

-Wanted to tackle social exclusion
-Focused on less advantaged groups such as
the poor, the unemployed and ethnic minorities who were excluded from opportunities available to more privileged members of society.
-The aim was to improve educational opportunities for them

Question 15

Labor’s Social Democratic Approaches (Sure Start)

Answer 15

-Started in 1999 providing pre-school children and families in disadvantaged areas with a variety of support, including play centres, home visits, help with childcare and courses for unemployed parents to get them back to work.
-Introduced as a form of compensatory education through clinic and nursery support to improve deprived children’s educational
prospects while they were still at preschool
-An evaluation by the DfE (2010) found that mothers in Sure Start areas reported a more stimulating home environment and better physical health for their children but concluded that the benefits were ‘modest’.

Question 16

Labor’s Social Democratic Approaches (Education Action Zones and Excellence in Cities)

Answer 16

• EAZs set up in 1998 to raise attainment in lower income inner city areas.
• Representatives of parents, schools and businesses in 72 of the EAZs were given £1 million to spend on whatever they prioritised to improve education, for example homework and breakfast clubs
• Excellence in Cities (EiC) gradually replaced EAZs and gave extra funds to education authorities in inner-city areas to boost attainment for students from low income, programmes for gifted students and low-cost home computers.
• EiC achieved some success
• The % of pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades increased by 11% in EiC schools compared to around 5 percentage points in other schools.
• Particularly focusing on raising the aspirations of boys and the w/c.
• received extra resources such as learning support units (LSU) to tackle truancy and exclusions

Question 17

Labor’s Social Democratic Approaches (Academies)

Answer 17

• introduced academies a new type of school partially funded by local businesses to tackle underperforming schools.
• Set up to replace ‘failing’ comprehensive schools in inner-city areas
• Seen as following social democratic ideas in that they attempted to boost the attainment of children in the most deprived areas and narrow class and ethnic inequalities in education.
• Could also be seen as a continuation of the Conservatives’ policy of moving more schools outside the control of LEAs and replacing standard comprehensives with a greater choice of secondary schools.

Question 18

Labour’s New Right Approaches (Univerity Fees)

Answer 18

Meaning that there was a means-tested fee for university courses. This had the effect that the university was only available to those who could afford it.

Question 19

Labour’s New Right Approaches (Performance Targets and Leauge Tables)

Answer 19

• Continued testing via SATs and inspection by OFSTED started by Conservatives
• Set targets in order to improve to raise standards
• Continued to use league tables to assess schools’ performance, though the league tables based on examination results only were replaced with ones which included measures of value added, for example measuring how far pupils progress between starting at a school and leaving.

Question 20

Tuition Fees Evaluation

Answer 20

• New Labour had said prior to being elected that they would not introduce tuition fees but increased them in 1998
• An added burden and potentially disadvantaged the w/c as they may see no possible way of dealing with debt
• Working class also disadvantaged as those who may have been bright enough to go to degree level study may opt not to and get a job instead (immediate gratification)

Question 21

Sure Start Evaluation

Answer 21

• Tried to address the alleged difficulties faced by economically deprived parents in providing pre-school educational activities for their children.
• Argued in broad terms that Sure Start has improved overall pre-school educational opportunities
• However, difficult to reach those most disadvantaged and only provided limited educational benefits

Question 22

Evaluation of Labor Policies

Answer 22

• Whitty (2002) see a conflict between Labour’s policies to tackle inequality and the development of marketisation. For example, while compensatory policies such as Education Maintenance Allowances may have encouraged working-class students to stay on until they are 18, tuition fees for higher education may deter them from going to university. Concludes that some of Labour’s policies are ineffective and just provide an illusion of equality without actually reducing class inequalities.
• Did not remove Private school despite being opposed
• McKnight et al (2005)- overall standards have risen, improvements in GCSE, A-Level and Key Stage tests, and a small reduction in class differences in achievement at school.
• Tomlinson (2005)- the reintroduction of selection through specialist schools; favoured middle class who were better able to get children into oversubscribed schools. An overemphasis on targets and league tables; narrow focus within education. Hide Damaging info to boost favourable figures
• Trowler (2003)- New Labour underestimated the degree to which inequality in society prevents equality of opportunity in education.

Question 23

Coalition Government Policies 2010-2015

Answer 23

• In 2010 a coalition government came to power (Conservative and Liberal Democrat)
• Six government ministers in the DoE, five were Conservatives so the Conservatives were the dominant influence on education policy
• Controversial Changes. Removal of many New Labour policies and introduction of new initiatives. Emphasis brought back to competition and choice.

Question 24

Free Schools (Coalition Government)

Answer 24

• Charities, businesses, teachers and parents could start their own state-funded schools to compete with existing schools.
• These include faith schools; which have faced heavy criticism themselves due to the obviously selective nature and the ethos of the school (parents have been told their child will have to attend a faith school as their choices were oversubscribed)
• David Cameron has recently announced that 500 new free schools will be opened if the Conservatives win the next election, despite heavy criticism from different angles.
• In 2018 the UK free school charity, New Schools Network, there are currently 393 free schools open, with 316 in the process of opening. When open, it is estimated these will create more than 400,000 new school places
• Represent an even more radical form of marketisation than academies in that they are in effect independent schools funded by the state. Free schools have even greater freedom to design their own curriculum and teaching styles than academies and do not even have to employ qualified teachers. Although free schools are subject to Ofsted inspections they do not have to follow the national curriculum but have to teach English, maths and science.

Question 25

Increase in Tuition Fees (Coalition Government)

Answer 25

• In 2012 the Coalition raised the maximum tuition fees which universities could charge from £3,290 to £9,000 per year.
• Argued this was necessary to fund the growing number of students going on to higher education.
• In June 2012 applications to English universities were down by 10% compared to much smaller falls in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where home students were not required to pay fees.
• Applications may have fallen partly because of a fall in the number of 18 and 19 year olds in the population.
• The Independent Commission on Fees (2012) concluded that many young people were put off applying to university because of fear of debt.
• According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies in 2017, the average student in England will graduate with debts of over £50,000 those from poorer backgrounds will incur more, with more loans available to them.
• The Liberal Democrats have faced heavy criticism over this policy as they stated they would oppose an increase in tuition fees and then did a u-turn when they got into government with the Conservatives
• Whilst the increase in tuition fees has not made a noticeable difference in enrolment numbers in England, HOWEVER, the amount of student debt expected to be written off in 30 years time is expected to be 10 times greater.
• This will create more of a debt burden on the country.

Question 26

Evaluation of Coalition Policies

Answer 26

-Caused controversy. The cuts in of funding, such as compensatory education, will have undoubtedly led to the increase in inequalities in educational outcome.
-Reducing coursework likely to disadvantage girls, who have been so successful in this form of assessment to date.
-Reflect postmodern ideas about increasing choice in the schools available; however, as previously stated, choice benefits those who are able to utilise it and this normally excludes working-class parents. M/C and better-educated parents will be better equipped to take advantage of a system based on choice to secure places at the best schools for their children while changes such as scrapping EMAs and increasing university tuition fees seem to be at odds with the coalition’s expressed desire to improve opportunities for poorer students.
- LEAs not in control means that democratically elected councils no longer govern schools. Instead, free schools and academies are run by a range of charities, businesses and religious groups which
are not subject to the same accountability to local communities. In theory giving schools greater freedom to run their own affairs can be seen to be democratic but in practice, the Secretary of State for Education in London increasingly decides educational policy which critics argue means that power in education is actually more centralised rather than devolved down to schools and teachers.

Question 27

Contemporary Application

Answer 27

-Marketisation policies that began in 1979 have been continued by the following governments. Acknowledge
that there is some overlap in educational policies
-There are many changes going on in education today, with a focus recently on using ex-military staff in schools to drive up standards in behaviour. This has received a mixed response as many critics feel that people supervising students should be trained teachers.
-Labour accuses Conservatives of ‘turning the clock back on social mobility’. Labour would put on hold all A-level reforms due to be introduced and scrap the central plan to abolish AS-levels. Designed to toughen up A-levels, moving away from coursework towards end-of-course examinations. But the move has been deeply unpopular with university admissions officers, teachers and students. There were also claims that scrapping AS-levels disadvantaged comprehensive-school students in university admissions because they were the most likely to make rapid progress between getting their GCSE and AS results. According to many Labour politicians, David Cameron’s regressive policy to end the current AS-level qualification will close the window of opportunity for many young people wanting to go to university.

Question 28

Conservative government 1979–1997

S/C, Gender and Ethnicity

Answer 28

1. ) S/C: Marketisation widens inequalities/ NC means less value placed on vocational education with its ‘one-size-fits-all’ curriculum/ M-C parents move into catchment areas with better schools creating a polarisation between high-performing schools and failing ‘sink’ schools. Better schools get more funding, which means that the gap is widened
2. )G: Girls improve due to NC as can’t opt out of science and maths/Coursework/Specific policies designed to get girls into science and technology (GIST and WISE)
3. ) E: Increaing parental choice puts some at a disadvantage as can’t play the system

Question 29

New Labour 1997–2010 (S/C, Gender and Ethnicity)

Answer 29

1. ) S/C: Continues Marketisation.EMA and Sure Start to try to tackle material and cultural deprivation. Focus on W/C boys
2. ) G: Coursework focus helps girls. Compensatory policies aimed at encouraging boys to improve their literacy.
3. ) E: EAZs in inner cities with a high proportion of ethnic minorities as well as the introduction of academies to raise standards in failing schools in poorer areas.

Question 30

Coalition government 2010– Conservative government 2015 (S/C, Gender and Ethnicity)

Answer 30

1. ) S/C: Focus on driving up standards and the continuation of marketisation, which results in further inequalities/Education Maintenance Allowance is cut; student premium replaces other forms of funding for materially and culturally deprived students/University fees are uncapped meaning that universities can charge more, making it too expensive for some students/ A focus on traditional curriculum with a narrow range of subjects, benefits the middle class.
2. ) G: Reduction of coursework and more emphasis on written exams, which has been proven to suit boys’ style of learning more
3. ) E: Emphasis placed on marketisation, further disadvantaging some ethnic groups, and less funding for poorer students, which includes some ethnic minorities.

Question 31

Functionalism

Answer 31

• Educational policies as benefiting the individual and society.
• They argue that policies are there to create a meritocratic education system, meaning that all students have an equal opportunity
• But persistent inequalities in results between different groups suggests that educational policies do not result in a meritocratic system.

Question 32

The New Right

Answer 32

• Reflected in many Conservative and Coalition government policies, the New Right believe in policies which enable marketisation in education, selective schooling, increased parental choice and a focus on traditional styles of learning.
• Caused greater inequalities and benefited m/c only

Question 33

Marxism

Answer 33

-Any of the mainstream political parties support the capitalist economy and ideology. ---Argue that the education system and the people creating educational policies are ruling class and therefore policies benefit
the ruling class and maintain working-class underachievement. 
-There are policies focusing on the poor and underachieving. Do allow mobility for some.

Question 34

Feminism

Answer 34

• Liberal feminists argue that policy changes have resulted in the greater educational outcomes for girls at school.
• Radical feminists argue that there needs to be a more substantial change in society to really eradicate patriarchy. They would point out that most policy writers in education are men, thus policies reflect patriarchal ideology.
• Women are performing better in all areas but are still paid less

Question 35

Postmodernism

Answer 35

• Policies reflect the greater choices and individualism in society. They also explore the ways in which learning now takes place as part of a life-long process in a global context.
• No explanation for persistent inequalities as a result of policy or offer alternatives