Policies Flashcards
1944 Tripartite system
selective education - diff education dependent on ability (sift into right school)
- 11+ test (grammar schools)
- three types of schools
D -> - unfair for late bloomers
- gender bias in 11+ and subject choice
- secondary moderns were inferior
1965 Comprehensive schools
equal opportunity - one type of school for all
- abolition of 11+
- go nearest school
- non selective education
- equality of opportunity
D -> - banding and streaming reproduced class inequality
- parents had too little choice
1988 Conservative: Education Act
introduced free market principles (more comp)
increase greater parental choice
raising standards
- marketisation (school = business)
- parentocracy
- league tables
- OFSTED
- formula funding
- national curriculum
D -> - competition increased standards
- cream skimming (best schools had best students)
- teaching to the test
Marketisation
Schools advertise themselves to “attract” students and compete for pupils’ parents like consumers (shoppers)
Education started to become like a business and parents and students became consumers/customers
A -> better performing schools will attract more pupils and more funding to be able to expand
D -> The schools that don’t perform as well go out of business and either close down or get taken over by a new management who will run things more efficiently
Parentocracy
Parents “choose” the best school for their children
1st time parents were allowed to choose their children’s schools
A -> parental choice directly affects the school budget - every extra pupil means extra money for the school
D -> minimal competition for funding the policy won’t work unless parents a choice over which school to send their pupils to
League tables
Published information about schools
putting the schools in order of best to worst from top to bottom, most of them were grammar schools
A -> allows parents to easily access which schools which schools in their local areas are the best
D -> forces schools to raise standards because no parent would want to send their child to a school at the bottom
OFSTED
Regulate and inspect schools.
Schools were inspected and results were public. Made a big fuss of grades
A -> drives up standards, aim of the policy is to raise standards
D -> poor inspection could result in management being imposed on underperforming schools
National Curriculum
Government directed policies on what schools should teach so they all study the same basic subjects
All schools should teach the same basic subjects (maths, english, science)
Access to girls
Rise in feminism - girls were forced to do science and boys were forced to do english
A -> made it easier for parents to compare and choose between schools (parentocracy), and GCSE and SATs meant every student, and more importantly, every school was assessed using the same type of exam
Formula Funding
funding based on number of actual pupils in the school rather than the size of the school
only got money from the students in school (number of students) not the capacity. More money if you have so many disabled children.
Made marketisation urgent
A -> school funding is determined by pupil numbers and nothing relating to class
D -> undersubscribed schools where fewer parents chose to send their children would decrease in size and possibly close, while an oversubscribed school could, if properly managed, expand.
Hidden curriculum
everything that isn’t officially taught (assemblies, expectations, dress code)
wc habitus is rejected and the mc habitus is pushed
1997 - 2009 New Labour policies
respond to increased comp due to globalisation
raising standards
focus on equality
increasing choice and diversity
- academies
- aim higher programmes (encourage ppl to go to uni)
- sure start
- higher education tuition fees
D -> - Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was a little too late
- later academies weren’t better than LEA schools
- tuition fees put wc off university
Connexions service
introduced to offer personal support to young people, particularly those at risk of social exclusion. It brought together a range of services such as career and youth services.
introduction of ‘specialist schools’
(e.g. ICT, music) let these schools build on their own strengths and so raise the standard of achievement. They were also allowed to pick students that had particular skills based on their specialism, e.g. good at ICT
The promotion of faith schools
catholic schools do the best (gov thought religious schools were good for society and children)
City Academies
New Labour introduced the idea of city academies - Willesden High -> gov took control of the school and had private investors to improve the school
