Government and Education Flashcards
What were the aims of the New Labour gov between 1997-2010?
- Focus was to reduce inequality
- Provide an education system that gave everyone an equal chance of success
- Compensatory policies to help disadvantaged pupils
What were the 7 educational policies New Labour implemented?
- Education Action Zone (EAZ)
- Aim Higher
- National Literacy Challenge
- City Academies
- Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA)
- Sure Start
- Specialist Schools
What was EAZ?
AO1
- Inner city schools in deprived areas received extra funding for resources
- Aimed to help close the gap by providing schools with resources they need
What was Aim Higher?
AO1
Aimed to raise the higher aspirations for those underepresented within education
What was the National Literacy Challenge?
AO1
- Set literacy and numeracy hours introduced in primary schools
- Reduced max class size to 30 for 5-7 year olds
How can we analyse National Literacy Challenge?
AO3
Mainly benefits boys as they are the people who typically underperform in reading tasks
What are city academies?
AO1
- Introduced in 2000
- Schools that are state schools but are independent of LEA and receive funding directly from gov
- Also have private sponsors
How can we analyse city academies?
AO3
Mossbourne Academy was once a failing school but after becoming a city academy they became outstanding. Thus relevant as city academies are rising in number and success
What is EMA?
AO1
- Educational Maintanence Allowance introduced to encourage disadvantaged pupils to stay in school post 16
- £30 a week as long as they went to all lessons
How can we analyse EMA?
AO3
Not relevant today as staying in education until 18 is now compulsory
How can we evaluate EMA?
AO3
PRO: Benefits WC as they are able to pay for travel and equipment
CON: Only avaliable to those over 16 years old
What is Sure Start?
AO1
Compensatory education policy - preschool children could receive early support and intervention. They provided:
- family support e.g. access to specialist parenting advice and language therapy
- post natal support
- information and guidance on breastfeeding
- healthcare and nutrition guidance e.g. help stop smoking
What are specialist schools?
AO1
- Focus on a chosen subject area
- Private funding from sponsors and additional funding from gov
- Were allowed to choose 10% of pupils based on aptitude in chosen subject area
- This aimed to improve standards
How can we analyse specialist schools?
AO3
In line with New Right Theory of marketisation and raising standards through being selective and privatised
How does Benn evaluate the New Labour policies?
AO3
- New Labour Policies were contradictory - ‘New Labours Paradox’
- Aimed to reduce inequality through policies like EAZ but also raised inequality by increasing tuition fees - fee pay schools are the ones MC parents opt for
What were the aims of the 2010 Conservative gov?
- To encourage competition, excellence, and innovation
- Free schools from the ‘dead hands of the state’
Ball and Exley: to mix the old with the new - combined parental choice with new types of schools and implemented policy to help disadvantaged pupils
What changes did the 2010 Conservative gov make to education?
- Outstanding cademies
- Free schools
- Pupil Premium
- Linear exams
- Progress 8
- Scrapped Sure Start and EMA
- Cut funding of schools by 60%
- Increased university tuition to £9,200
How did academies impact education?
AO2
- In 2010 schools rated Outstanding by OFSTED were encouraged to leave LEA control and receive funding firectly from gov and were given full control over their curriculum
- This lead to the academisation of schools by gov
- By 2017 68% of schools had been converted to academies - some received private funding others from the gov
- By 2022 80% of schools were academies or free schools
How can we evaluate academies?
AO3
- Ball: Fragmentation - comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of private companies which leads to greater inequality
- Hall: academies are an example of public services being handed over to private capitalists/companies e.g. educational businesses
- Marxists: claim that privatisation and competition raises standards is a myth used to legitimise making education another source of profit for bouregeoisie
- Machin and Vernoit: academies are significantly more advantaged than state schools as they have less FSM pupils
How did Free Schools impact education?
AO2
- School 21 are able to form their own curriculum e.g. boxing projects in PE and coaching to build self-esteem
- Funded directly by group that set it up rather than LEA thus giving them more control over finances
How can we evaluate free schools?
AO3
Disadvantage FSM pupils as they often carry out social selection - in 2011 in Bristol only 6.8% of pupils at free schools wre FSM which is much less compared to 22.5% in the city
How did Pupil Premium impact education?
AO2
- Schools receive additional funding per term for pupils eligibly for FSM
- Changed school admissions code in 2014 so students of Pupil Premium were given priority in school applications
How can we evaluate Pupil Premium?
AO3
In 2012 OFSTED found that pupil premium was often not spent on the students it was meant to help - only 1/10 said it made a difference
How did EBACC impact education?
AO2
- Driven by the belief in ‘real subjects’ - made students studying EBACC a feature of school league tables in 2010
- National Curriculum was reformed with more push for subjects like English, Maths, Sciences, languages, computing, history, and geography with more demanding National Curriculum Tests
How can we evaluate EBACC?
AO3
Not taken up by the majority of students - only 38.7% in 2021
How did linear exams impact education?
AO2
- Eliminated coursework for most subjects
- All students had to take end of year exams
- Aimed to raise srandards and make A Levels more demanding
How did Progress 8 impact education?
Introduced in 2016:
- Measured pupils progress in 8 subjects repleacing 5 A*-C including maths and English
- Made it harder for schools to raise standards
How can we evaluate the coalition gov policies?
AO3
STRENGTHS:
- Academies gave outstanding schools more power over finances - could invest into specific needs to further raise standards
- Increased competition raises standards and pupil attainment
WEAKNESSES:
- Higher uni tution fees disadvantages WC pupils from entering higher education thus limiting their life chances
- Ball: education has become a commodity
- Only improves standards for schools that can afford to compete
