Educational Policy

Question 1

What percent of children do state schools educate

Answer 1

93%

Question 2

What are most state secondary schools

Answer 2

Comprehensives which mean that they take children of all social backgrounds and do not select on the basis of ability

Question 3

What schools do select by ability

Answer 3

Grammar schools, making children sit tests to see whether on not they can get in

Question 4

What schools did the conservative government set up, when and why

Answer 4

In the 1980s they set up City technology colleges. Based on a partnership between government and private businesses and aimed to offer an education based on the national curriculum with a strong emphasis on maths

Question 5

Conservative reforms of education ________

Answer 5

1979-1997

Question 6

What thinkers had a big influence on conservative educational policy since 1979

Answer 6

New right thinkers

Question 7

What was education like up to 1979

Answer 7

There existed a political consensus with regard to education. Most secondary schools were comprehensive schools which practised equality of opportunity

Question 8

What did the New Right argue about the education system in 1979

Answer 8

It was failing to produce young people with the skills required by the British industry. Comprehensive schools were criticised for being too academic.

Question 9

What was the conservative governments solution to this

Answer 9

To introduce the Youth Training Scheme in which employers were paid to train school leavers for one year

Question 10

What was another vocational initiative the conservative government created

Answer 10

The introduction of the National Vocational Qualifications which were designed to offer pupils a set of qualifications related to skills in specific types of work

Question 11

What are critics of vocationalism

Answer 11

It has been argued that it is another aspect of educational inequality because the qualifications are rarely taken up by middle-class children and tend to be taken up by the working class.

Question 12

What did Finn argue

Answer 12

That the real function of the Youth Training Scheme was to depress the wage levels of young workers and to keep young people off the streets

Question 13

What did the 1988 Education Reform act do

Answer 13

It aimed to introduce competition, diversity and choice as well as raise educational standards.
- It extended parental choice
- It created diversity in secondary education provision
- It introduced the national curriculum
- It attempted to create free market competition between schools by introducing league tables and ofsted

Question 14

What did the 1988 act introducing open enrolment mean

Answer 14

That parents were given the right to choose their childs school. School budgets became dependant on how many pupils they could attract.

Question 15

What new school did the 1988 act introduce

Answer 15

Grant maintains schools (the og academies) - which were allowed to opt out of local governments control and given the freedom to manage their own budgets

Question 16

What did the 1988 act introducing the national curriculum do

Answer 16

It dictated to teachers what they needed to teach to children at each key stage and then end the school year with testing - it included core subjects and foundation subjects

Question 17

What does Taylor observe about the national curriculum

Answer 17

It was vocational in that it stressed the importance of those subjects seen as necessary to work. It marginalised arts and humanities subjects because they were seen as less relevant in the world of work

Question 18

What did the 1988 act introducing league tables do

Answer 18

They published league tables every year from 1992 onwards which ranked schools in terms of exam results. The intention was to promote competition between schools which would raise standards

Question 19

What did the 1988 act lead to introducing Ofsted do (in 1993)

Answer 19

In order to rigorously inspect schools and colleges. These resulted in inspection reports which could be used to help parents choose the best schools for their children

Question 20

What was the most important effect of the 1988 act

Answer 20

To encourage schools to be more like businesses competing for customers.

Question 21

How as the national curriculum criticised

Answer 21

By teachers as overly prescriptive in terms of what should be taught, and putting to much pressure on children in exams

Question 22

What happens to popular schools

Answer 22

Fill up too quickly restricting parental choice.

Question 23

What did Gewirtz study and find

Answer 23

Studied 14 London schools and found that parentocracy is a myth because parental power is not equally distributed across all parents. Middle-class parents have more power than working class parents because they have more capital.

Question 24

New labour and education _________

Answer 24

1997-2010

Question 25

What were new labours educational policies influenced by

Answer 25

The social democratic and new right approaches to reduce inequality by improving equality of opportunity, raise standards, and increase parental choice

Question 26

What did New labour invest into

Answer 26

Sure start centres - a scheme that provided children and mothers from poor families with extra support aimed at improving their early years of education (the scheme was cut post 2010)

Question 27

What did the New labour government set up

Answer 27

Education action zones to raise the motivation and attainment of pupils living in deprived inner-city areas. This was replaced by Excellence in cities which gave extra funds to local authorities in deprived areas to help the gifted students from poor backgrounds

Question 28

What did the New labour introduce

Answer 28

Educational maintenance allowances to help students from poorer families to study A levels

Question 29

What did the New labour do about higher eduction

Answer 29

Made it more accessible in an attempt to get more working class backgrounded students into universities. To fund these extra places it introduced tuition fees and student loans.

Question 30

What does evidence suggest about labours policies

Answer 30

They only had a modest effect in helping those from poorer backgrounds to achieve in education

Question 31

What was a negative view on the expanding access of higher education

Answer 31

Had a negative effect in the number of working-class students entering university. Most places were taken by middle-class students

Question 32

What does Ball argue

Answer 32

That the middle-class parents and pupils benefited most from labours expansion of academies

Question 33

Coalition education policies _______

Answer 33

2010-2015

Question 34

What did coalition policies aim to do

Answer 34

Improve competition, diversity and choice, and to raise educational standards

Question 35

What is the 2010 academies act

Answer 35

Allowed all existing faith and state comprehensive schools which had achieved ‘outstanding’ with ofsted to become academies.

Question 36

What did the 2010 academies act do

Answer 36

Authorised the creation of free school. By 2014, 331 free schools had been opened

Question 37

What did the 2010 academies act encourage

Answer 37

The further privatisation of the education system because it positively encouraged businesses to invest in and run academies.

Question 38

What did the Liberal Democrats introduce

Answer 38

Pupil premium (2011) - schools with high numbers of pupils eligible for free school meals were given extra educational resources to be spent on extra support for disadvantaged children

Question 39

What three problems did Paul Taylor identify with the coalition governments policies

Answer 39

• They seem more concerned with ideology rather than education
• The control of education has increasingly been taken away from democratically elected governments and given to businesses.
• The movement to more academies and free schools has mainly benefitted middle class students with parents who hold quite a bit of capital

Question 40

Conservative government ______

Answer 40

2015 onwards

Question 41

What did the Conservative government continue to support

Answer 41

(and also increase) levels of marketisation, diversity, selection and choice by encouraging setting up more free schools. The government actively encouraged parents to set up free schools in partnership with private companies

Question 42

What Plans did Theresa May announce and when

Answer 42

In 2016, plans for a new generation of grammar schools which she argued will be ‘engines of social mobility’ for bright working-class children.

Question 43

When was Theresa’s plan dropped

Answer 43

In 2017, after she got a lot of resistance from her own party as well as opposition parties