social selection
Increased Choice - Voucher System – Chubb and Moe
explanation
Chubb and Moe support this view, examining schools in the USA. They compared the achievement of 60, 000 pupils from low-income families in 1,015 state and private high schools. There evidence shows that pupils from low-income families’ consistently do about 5% better in private schools than in state schools.
They call for the introduction of a market system in state schools, allowing the consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and improve quality and efficiency. To do this they propose a voucher system.
evidence
voucher system- vouchers to exchange for education. this would make schools compete for vouchers and if not given automatically be given funding
evaluation
Marxists Bowles & Gintis would criticise the idea of a voucher system as it would reproduce class inequalities. voucher system would create class inequalities as higher classes gain entry into the top schools because of higher results, they achieve higher results because they have better resources
Feminist Jackson would criticise Chubb & Moe as they don’t acknowledge that a voucher system would reinforce gender inequalities. In fact, girls are preferred in education due to the introduction of league tables, this is because girls statistically perform better than boys in education
Increased Competition – League Tables
explanation
In 1992 the Conservative government, influenced by New Right thinking, introduced league tables into the education system. Schools would now compete for a position in a ranking system which parents could access to make decisions about where they would like to send their children to.
David described this as a parentocracy. Those at the top of the league table would be highly sought after and would be oversubscribed. Alternatively, schools lower down the league table, would be less desirable as they do not appear to offer the same educational standards.
evidence
The New Right argued that this competition would benefit all, since no school would want to be at the bottom of the league table, all would strive to be the best they could be. Add, to the fact that the Conservative government also introduced a funding formula in 1988, meaning schools finance was linked to how many students they attracted, there was now a strong incentive for all schools to perform or they risked closure.
evaluation
Schools can be more concerned with their league table position than with the students themselves. For example, a large percentage of school budgets which should be spent on pupils is now spent on marketing. Gewirtz also suggests that not all parent have the cultural capital to make good decisions for their children.
Gorard and Smith highlight that policies which increase competition and selection have led a concentration of ethnic minorities in poorer schools. League tables are also seen to promote a spiral of decline where constant reduction in funding makes it difficult to improve.