XXX Educational Policies - XXX

Question 1

What year was the Butler Act introduced?

Answer 1

1944 (also known as the education act)

Labour government.

Question 2

What did the 1944 Butler Act create?

Answer 2

• free national education for all between 5 -14 (1947 leaving age 15)
• concept of ‘in loco parentis’ = in place of parents.
• government to oversee education.
• free school meals for low income families.
• free medical and dental services for all children.
• TRIPARTITE SYSTEM.

Question 3

What is the tripartite system (1944)?

Answer 3

Made secondary education free and compulsory for all.
3 different types of school:
- Grammar
- Secondary modern
- Secondary technical
To decide which students should attend which school, all students took the 11+ EXAM.

Question 4

Evaluation of 1944 Butler Act?

Answer 4

+ tried to create meritocracy - 11+ was introduced so everyone would get an equal opportunity.
+ designed to produce equality of opportunity - all students took same test at same time.
+ FUNCTIONALISTS division of labour - different schools designed for different needs in society.
+ parity of esteem - all schools equal just taught different things.

• 11+ actual a culture test - questions were based on a middle class culture (they had advantage, cultural capital)
• gender bias - girls often had higher grade boundaries to get into grammar schools than boys.
• geographical bias - different areas had different grade boundaries.
• class divide - mainly working class went to secondary modern and middle class went to grammar (afford tutoring).
• grammar was seen as better - if you went to secondary modern then you had ‘failed’.

Question 5

What is the 1965 comprehensive circular?

Answer 5

A result of the many critics of tripartite system.
A circular was sent to all the Local Education Authorities to SUGGEST they moved towards comprehensive schools.
Majority followed however 10 kept grammar school (e.g. Kent).

Question 6

How many grammar schools are still in the UK today?

Answer 6

164

Question 7

Evaluation of comprehensive schools?

Answer 7

+ Functionalists sees it as improving meritocracy - gives pupils more chances to show ability.
+ social solidarity - brings children of different social classes together.
+ division of labour - fair testing system so real division of labour.
+ more students get better education.

• Marxists ‘myth of meritocracy’ - reproduce class inequality through generations.
• streaming and setting - causes class inequality (labelling)
• postcode bias - selection by postcode means that middle class area will be better and houses around there will be more expensive.

Question 8

What is a comprehensive school?

Answer 8

School of all ability ages 11 - 16.
Schools have no selection - only need to live within particular catchment area.
Within schools students are put into sets/streams based on ability.

Question 9

What is vocational education and why was it introduced?

Answer 9

Labour
To learn job specific skills.
Introduced as employers said that education was not meeting their needs for a good workforce as students did not have the skills required.
CREATED NEW VOCATIONALISM.

Question 10

What schemes were involved with new vocationalism?

Answer 10

• youth training scheme (YTS) 1983 - 1 year work based training scheme; employer would train them while in work place and government would give them a small wage.
• vocational qualifications 1986 - set up for specific occupations. (GNVQ’s, job can be carried out at certain standard).
• apprenticeships
• BTEC qualifications.

Question 11

Evaluation of vocational education?

Answer 11

• more jobs are needed, not training (Finn 1987).
• source of cheap labour - employers took advantage and didn’t train them properly. (Phil Cohen 1984)
• channelled w/c into low status/paid jobs - m/c avoided it and did the traditional.
• class divide - seen as inferior and majority w/c did it.

Question 12

What is the 1988 Education Reform Act and what did it introduce? 7

Answer 12

More like businesses. (marketisation)
Forced schools to compete with each other for pupils and resources.
- formula funding - money allocated to the school per pupil (more pupils = more money)
- parental choice - parents could apply to school of their choice.
- National curriculum - all students study the same things.
- national testing ages 7, 11, 14 and 16 - external examinations.
- OFSTED
- league tables - schools judged on GCSE and A Level results and made public.
- ‘opting out’ - schools encouraged to leave local education authority control and receive all their money up front.

Question 13

Evaluation of 1988 Education Reform Act? 4

Answer 13

• reproduced class inequalities.
• formula funding - easier for popular schools to stay popular and visa versa, more formula funding therefore more money for better resources, teachers, facilities etc. = attract high achieving m/c.
• Gewirtz 1995 - parents cultural and economic capital affects how well they can use the choice of schools;
  2 types of choosers:
  – privileged skilled choosers - m/c professionals use their cultural and educational capital to choose best school.
  – disconnected local choosers - w/c parents choices restricted by lack of capital.
• if school is over subscribed then it is selection by postcode - best schools have extremely expensive houses near by.

Question 14

What were the ‘Labour years’?

Answer 14

1997 - 2010
Tony Blair spent lots of money on education focussing on marketisation, parentocracy and improving equality of opportunity.

Question 15

What coalition policies were introduced in the Labour years to improve marketisation, parentocracy and needs of the economy? 5

Answer 15

• home school agreements - aim to involve parents helping students to do their best.
• Literacy and numeracy hours in primary schools.
  !- CURRICULUM 2000
  !- TUITION FEES and STUDENT LOANS for uni.
• Connexions (careers advisers) - provided for all in school.

Question 16

What coalition policies were introduced in the Labour years to improve equality of opportunity? 7

Answer 16

• smaller classes - max 30 pupils.
• h/w clubs - help w/c material deprivation.
• Education Action Zones (EAZ)
• Social exclusion unit
• Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) - for further education, those with low income households were given £30 a week.
• Sure Start centres - give child best start to education.
• New Start - policy to give money to centres with disaffected teenagers.

Question 17

What are ‘Education Action Zones’?

Answer 17

Introduced in Labour years.
Aimed at highly deprived areas that were achieving poor exam results.
Money given to the schools to better pay teachers to attract the best ones.
– phased out and replaced with ‘Excellence in Cities’ (does same thing).

Question 18

What was the ‘Social Exclusion Unit’?

Answer 18

Introduced in Labour years.
Aimed to tackle causes of social exclusion.
Created position of ‘education welfare officer’ who had power to go to pupils homes and intervene when necessary.
Made truancy illegal - parents can be fined and imprisoned for child’s lack of attendance.

Question 19

What was Curriculum 2000?

Answer 19

Introduced in Labour years.
Split A level courses into AS and A2.
More students get more qualifications.

Question 20

What is privatisation?

Answer 20

Where services that were once owned and provided by the state are transferred to private companies.
E.G. Academies get all money up front and have to manage themselves like independent businesses
2 types:
- Endogenous (privatisation IN education)
- Exogenous (privatisation OF education)

Question 21

What are examples of endogenous privatisation?

Answer 21

Making school more like businesses (marketisation)
- Making schools compete for pupils so they become like businesses
- Giving parents choice so they become consumers
- Linking school funding to success rates (formula funding)
- Introducing performance related pay for teachers
- Allowing successful schools to take over and manage failing schools
E.G. Academies, free-schools

Question 22

What are examples of exogenous privatisation?

Answer 22

Private companies providing/manage/fund parts of education that were previously done by the state.

• school services - provided by private companies,
• management of schools - academies
• school inspections - OFSTED contract to Tribal Inspections to run inspections.
• building - built and owned by private companies.
• examination system - The UK’s largest examinations body ‘Edexcel’ is run by the Global Corporation ‘Pearsons’.

Question 23

Evaluation of coalition policies?

Answer 23

+ student premium
+ OFSTED targeted failing schools (improved equality of opportunity).
+ give teachers ‘power they need’

• EMA cut - replaced with bursaries (could be exploited by m/c)
• tuition fees increased
• Linear A levels reintroduced.

Question 24

Evaluation of privatisation?

Answer 24

+ more business like, efficient schools - more education for less cost.
+ more choice for parents
+ helps reduce class divide between schools - ‘failing’ schools help be improved.

• money may be drained from education system - take money from education for private sectors.
• may just help best schools - private companies ‘cherry pick’
• private companies may go out of business - leaves pupils with no school.
• reduce equality of opportunity and quality of education - low achievers will be excluded to maintain school image. (educational triage).

Question 25

How has globalisation impacted educational policies?

Answer 25

Creation of:
PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment
TIMSS - Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.
– tests in maths, science and reading in samples of 9 - 15 year old students across 50 - 65 different countries.
Data is put into league tables to show performance across countries.
— Countries then compare education systems and result in changes in policies.

Question 26

How has OFSTED used PISA and TIMSS?

Answer 26

Used comparisons to propose reasons for England’s poor performance (PISA 2012, England came 26th in Maths out of 65 countries).
- comes up with solutions from top performing countries such as Central Europe and Asia.

Question 27

What is the ‘PISA panic’?

Answer 27

Alexander (2012) - PISA and TIMSS have led to educational moral panics over state of British education.
- led to search for policies which will fix this.
CRITICS say that this is underpinning success of countries at top of table (this won’t solve British failure).

Question 28

What policies were introduced as a result of globalisation?

Answer 28

• national literacy and numeracy strategies - Labour 1992 - 2010, primary school required to to 2 hours of literacy and numeracy everyday.
• slimming down national curriculum - 2010-15 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition - changed to essential knowledge.
• raising academic entry requirement for trainee teachers (2012).
• ‘master teachers’ (2014) Labour

Question 29

Evaluation of globalisation?

Answer 29

+ useful to see whether education spending matches achievement - shows that spending is not being used effectively .
+ useful for comparison of standards - shows what children can be achieving.
+ helps improve own education system - helps create new policies.

• PISA and TIMSS based on narrow view of education - only measures maths, science and reading, ignored life skills (Kelly 2009).
• cannot compare countries in different circumstances - external factors affecting education e.g. culture, child labour, war.
• damaging effects on policies - Alexander 2012 , policies from other countries not useful for current country.