Education Policies (Equality)

What are the three aims of education policy in the UK?

• Economic efficiency

• Raising educational standards

• Creating equality of educational opportunity

Aims of policy → Economic efficiency

Develop the skills of the young to improve the labour force. This involves making the education system meet the needs of industry and employers

What are the three aims of education policy in the UK?

• Economic efficiency

• Raising educational standards

• Creating equality of educational opportunity

Aims of policy → Economic efficiency

Develop the skills of the young to improve the labour force. This involves making the education system meet the needs of industry and employers

Aims of policy → Raising educational standards

UK education needs to compete in a global education market and is ranked against other countries eg PISA (

What is PISA testing?

International testing given to students assessing maths and English ability - used to compare education standards across countries (typically european countries)

*Eg Wales was performing low on scale so they went to the top performing country on PISA scores (Finland) to find out what they were doing well and therefore enforced a play based curriculum (however this didn’t work well due to funding)

Aims of policy → Creating equality of educational opportunity

Ensuring that all students get the best educational opportunities

What are the 4 aspects of educational equality identified by Gillborn and Youdell?

• Equality of access

• Equality of cirumstance

• Equality of participation

• Equality of outcome

Gillborn and Youdell → Equality of access

Every child should have the same opportunities to access educational provision of similar quality regardless of socio economic background

Gillborn and Youdell → Equality of circumstance

Children should all start school with a similar socio economic background so that they are all truly equal

*Advocate for free high quality preschool education eg middle class children are more likely to start education being able to read, therefore preschool education bridges the gap

Gillborn and Youdell → Equality of participation

All students have the chance to participate on an equal footing in the processes that make up school life eg ALL students access the same trips and experiences etc

Gillborn and Youdell → Equality of outcome

All students have the same chances of achievement in education regardless of socio economic background eg equal access to tutoring if needed

What are the 3 types of selection?

• Selection by ability (entrance tests)

• Selection by aptitude (talents)

• Selection by faith

What are the arguments against selection?

• Late developers don’t benefit

• Mixed ability classes foster social cohesion

• Reduced risk of labelling and therefore self fulfilling prophecy

What are the arguments in favour of selection?

• High achievers can act as a inspiration to other students

• Allows ‘high flyers’ to benefit

• Specialised and focused teaching can take place

Open enrolment policies and parental choice:

Open enrolment policies mean that parents can apply to any state school, in any area and if the school is undersubscribed they must take the child. However over subscribed schools fill up quickly so many parents don’t get their 1st choice

What are over subscription policies?

Priority to..

• Children in care

• Pupil premium

• Siblings (at discretion of local authority)

• Catchment area (closest first)

• Faith

Tough and Brooks: Covert selection

Backdoor social selection to cherry pick students. Discouraging parents of poorer students from applying in the first place through high uniform prices, making literature on websites/application (legalese) hard to understand, not advertising in poorer areas

Faith schools require a letter from a spiritual leader to gain insight to the potential students family and commitment to both the faith and the schools ethos

Policy increasing equality → 1988 Education Reform Act (National Curriculum)

All schools had to teach the same core curriculum

*Eval: Not suitable for all, suits ‘academic’ pupil more

Policy increasing equality → 1965 Comprehensivisation Act

Got rid of the 11+ exam and made it so all students would get ‘parity of esteem’ and ‘equality’ within education

*Eval: Comprehensives are large schools so lack individual attention

What is ‘parity of esteem’ in education?

The idea that different types of qualifications or learning pathways should be seen as equally valuable. Eg vocational qualifications (like BTECs) should be viewed as just as worthwhile as academic qualifications (like A levels)

Policy increasing equality → Schools admissions code

Forbids discrimination in admitting pupils on grounds of socio-economic backgrounds or ability

*Eval: Covert selection still takes place by both schools and parents (postcode lottery)

Policies that improve inequality in circumstances:

Pupil premium provides additional funding for those students from a poor socio-economic background. Compensatory education are programmes and policies designed to overcome w/c disadvantages through extra resources, support anf funding eg FSM, extra tutoring, literacy programmes and nursery education

*Eval: Kerr and West claim that there are too many other factors outside of school that impact achievement