State Policy and Education Flashcards
What Act was introduced in 1944?
The Butler Act
Name 2 ways in which the Butler Act tried to alleviate the poor in school?
1) Providing a hot meal at lunch time; families of low income are provided with a free school meal.
2) Introducing free milk.
Roughly how many children got into a grammar school?
20%
What functionalist key term did the Tripartite system hope to achieve by splitting kids up into a school that suited them?
Role Allocation.
Give 3 Negatives of the Tripartite System.
1) It was culturally biased; suiting the middle class more than the working class.
(It legitimised social class inequality by having it incorporated into a system).
2) Secondary moderns were full of working class children.
3) Secondaries unable to meet the children’s educational needs and so didn’t fulfil their potential.
4) 11+ selected at an arbitrary age: can’t predict potential and ability.
5) Many saw the 11+ failure as a failure in life.
6) Few technical schools were built.
7) Supposed to have ‘parity of esteem’ - but the grammar schools were seen as the best.
Under which PM was the Comprehensive Circular sent out, and in what year?
Harold Wilson, 1965.
Give 2 Positives of the Circular
1) There’s no 11+, so 80% of the school population don’t get labelled as failures.
2) High-ability pupils generally still do well with this system.
3) Lower-ability pupils do better in comprehensive schools than bin the old secondary moderns.
4) It gave pupils a longer period in which to develop and show their abilities.
5) They weren’t being failed by the system.
6) Helped unite people from different class backgrounds.
In 1976 James Callaghan made a speech saying that British Education and industry was in decline because schools didn’t do what?
They didn’t teach people the skills they needed in work.
When was the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) introduced?
1983
Give a Negative of Vocational Education.
1) Vocational qualifications aren’t regarded as highly as academic qualifications by universities and employers.
2) Vocational education aims to teach good work discipline, not skills. (Up for interpretation!)
3) Cohen (1984) argues that YTS rarely provided good quality training: the children were trained to be subordinate to authority.
4) Strathdee (2003) argues that vocational subjects legitimates inequality as they are rarely chosen by middle class students or supported by middle class parents, they tend to be given low status.
When was the ERA introduced?
1988.
Give 3 elements of the ERA
1) Formula Funding = money allocated to the school per pupil.
More pupils = more money = increased competition.
2) Parents no longer had to send their child to the local school, they could apply to the school(s) of their choice.
3) National Curriculum: all students had to study the same subjects, including Maths, English and Science until they were 16.
4) The introduction of Ofsted.
5) The introduction of League Tables: exam results available online. Secondaries are judged on their GCSE and A level results.
6) GCSEs were introduced for first teaching in 1986, and examination for the first time in 1988.
7) Schools were encouraged to ‘opt out’ from local education authority control.
Received all finances upfront, being able to spend the money how they wanted.
Who defined the term ‘parentocracy’ ?
Miriam David.
Name the 3 types of ‘choosers’ that Gewirtz identified?
1) Privileged-skilled choosers.
2) Semi-skilled choosers.
3) Disconnected skilled choosers.
Give a negative of the ERA
1) Whitty (1998) argue that m/c parents have an advantage in the educational market; they have greater cultural and financial capital.
2) Constant testing can be stressful for students, and can encourage labelling and self-fulfilling prophecies.
3) Ball (1995) claimed that the National Curriculum was the ‘curriculum of the dead’ as its emphasis on the core subjects is Outdated.
4) Judd (1997) suggests that between 25-50% of parents do not get children into their choice of school.
