Sociology - Educational Policy - 1988 (Education Reform Act) Flashcards

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1
Q

What government implemented the 1988 Education Reform Act?

A

Margaret Thatchers Conservative (New Right) Government

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2
Q

What did this government favour?

A

A free market approach to education e.g it should operate like a market place

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3
Q

What did they think would happen by making schools compete against eachother?

A

It would improve the standard of education in the UK

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4
Q

What were the 4 main aims of the 1988 Education Reform Act?

A
  1. Raising standards (by increasing competition)
  2. Creating a more standardised education system
  3. Make schools more accountable
  4. Create a parentocracy
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5
Q

What is the national curriculum?

A

A set curriculum that all state schools had to teach starting from Year 1, all the way to Year 11

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6
Q

What was the aim of the introduction of the National Curriculum?

A
  • to reduce the variations in the quality of education between schools
  • to properly dictate to state schools what was to be taught and how it would be assessed in an attempt to control and drive up standards
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7
Q

Strengths of the National Curriculum

A
  • Provides a structured and organised learning path
  • Clear alignment of educational goals
  • Broader range of subjects
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8
Q

Weaknesses of the National Curriculum

A
  • Student achievement based purely on external tests
  • Focuses on societal needs rather than being catered to the individual
  • Doesn’t suit all children
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9
Q

What are GCSE’s?

A

Academic qualifications that most students are taught as a part of the National Curriculum towards the end of their final few years of compulsory education.

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10
Q

What was the aim of GCSE’s?

A
  • To have a standardised way of measuring children’s progress, the government were able to compare how well their students were doing
  • Creates parentocracy
  • Raises standards
  • Makes schools accountable
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11
Q

Strengths of GCSE’s

A
  • good for parents to be able to see where the school was at, and which school would be more suitable for their child
  • gave the government a good idea of where the majority of children were at this key stage
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12
Q

Weaknesses of GCSE’s

A
  • brought the introduction of coursework, benefited girls as they were better at it
  • didn’t suit everyones learning style
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13
Q

What are SATs?

A

SAT’s are standardised assessments that administered by primary schools in England to children in Year 2 and Year 6 to check their educational progress at the end of the key stages
- test children’s attainment in maths, reading and SPaG

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14
Q

Aim of SAT’s

A
  • Check educational progress at the end of the key stages
  • One example of a marker used by the government, and parents, to gain an understanding of the quality of education at a certain school
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15
Q

Strengths of SAT’s

A
  • provides an objective way to assess student progress in core subjects
  • allows teachers and parents to track student development and identify areas where they may need extra supportW
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16
Q
A
17
Q

Weaknesses of SAT’s

A
  • SAT’s may cause stress upon younger students which they should not have to experience at such a young age
  • Difficult for students with learning difficulties and disabilities with test taking
18
Q

What are league tables?

A

League tables are ways of ranking schools based on criteria such as academic performance, student:teacher ratios and a school’s facilities

19
Q

Aim of League Tables

A
  • Introduced so that British schools can be directly compared, consequently increasing competition
  • Allows parents to make a choice of which school they would like ot send their child to based on these criteria.
20
Q

Strengths of League Tables

A
  • Not good for the reputation of schools that are deemed to be under achieving in the league tables
  • caused a lot of stress upon teachers to meet the demands
  • created more inequality between social classes
  • good schools were in more middle class areas, and mostly middle class parents would actually look at the league tables
  • schools started to become more selective with “cream skimming” (taking the best) and “silt shifting” (sinking the children who were thought to do the worse and not be chosen)
21
Q

What is OFSTED?

A
  • an organisation set up by the gov to manage how well schools are doing
  • all schools have regular OFSTED inspections, and a report published about them online
22
Q

Aims of OFSTED

A
  • enables parents to find out whether a school is ‘good’ or not, and helps them to decide which school they want to send their child to
  • raises standards
  • creates a parentocracy
  • makes schools more accountable
23
Q

Strengths of OFSTED

A
  • good as schools ‘have’ to be good and meet the demands and standards of what was needed to be deemed as a ‘good’ school by Ofsted
24
Q

Weaknesses of Ofsted

A
  • penalised other schools, so the ones with middle class children would have a better report, and the schools without these students would begin to deteriorate
25
Q

What are city technology colleges?

A
  • large companies would set up these colleges, for private money e.g. British Airways
  • Independent schools in urban areas that are free to go to
  • emphasis on teaching science and technology
26
Q

Aims of city technology colleges

A
  • introduced to improve the quality of education within city centres
  • to put emphasis on the teaching of science and technology
27
Q

Strengths of city technology colleges

A
  • gave schools more money, could see where they needed more money, freedom meanr schools were better as a result
  • vocational subjects = student choice
28
Q

Weaknesses of city technology colleges

A
  • didn’t have an official reputation = not seen as proper schools
  • more focused on making money than the education of the children -> like a business
29
Q

What are grant maintained schools?

A
  • gov gave schools the opportunity to opt out of local authority meaning the local council no longer decided how the school should spend it money
  • school would now get its money directly from the central gov
30
Q

Aim of grant maintained schools

A
  • to provide schools with more freedom
  • in theory, would allow them to improve
31
Q

Strengths of grant maintained schools

A
  • makes schools more accountable and responsible
  • raises standards
  • gave schools more money -> could see where the money would be best spent -> meant schools were improved
32
Q

What are key stages?

A
  • Gov introduced idea of key stages, so a child’s education followed a structured pathway from start to finish
33
Q

Aim of key stages

A
  • Create a more standardised education system
  • Make schools more accountable
34
Q

Strengths of key stages

A
  • gave the gov an idea of where the majority of children were
35
Q

Weaknesses of key stages

A
  • put a lot of stress onto the young children
36
Q

What is formula funding?

A
  • gov introduced formula funding which was based on how many students attended the school
  • the larger the amount of students, the more money they would receive
37
Q

Aim of formula funding

A
  • to raise standards
  • to increase competition
38
Q

Strengths of formula funding

A
  • schools with larger amounts of students are now being provided with more money
  • this means that they can invest this in their environment and attract more parents through the advertisement of the facilities and the high achievement that this brings
39
Q

Weaknesses of formula funding

A
  • popular schools became oversubscribed and can therefore choose their pupils -> will choose high achieving, middle class students to ensure their success
  • creates a class divide
  • schools who achieve badly one time will get less popular and therefore receive less money