1.7 educational policies ❤️

— educational policies are initiatives brought in by governments that have a significant impact on the education system —

1944 education act (the tripartite system)

  • made secondary education universal and free (around 20%)

  • All pupils must do the 11+ exam, which would decide what school they go to (the tripartite system). 3 schools: grammar schools, secondary modern and technical schools

  • Believed that students either had academic, technical or practical intelligence

  • Few technical schools were built so rarely used

Grammar schools

  • For those who performed well in the 11+ exams

  • Provided a path for working class pupils to access excellent secondary education, gain qualifications which could be used to access university and professional occupations

Technical schools

  • Focused on ‘technical’ subjects and prepared students for work in relation to trades

  • Students were able to get specialist training, but few were built

Secondary modern

  • For those who failed the 11+ (around 80%)

  • Did not have 6th forms and generally assumed that students would leave these schools at 16 to go onto full-time employment

Evaluation

  • The idea that there are 3 different types of intelligence has been discredited

  • The 11+ exam was culturally biased (used elaborate code), found class inequalities were reproduced

  • Increased labelling for students, around 80% were labelled as failures and would no longer have access to the same quality of education or the same opportunities

  • Some working class parents would want their children to go to secondary modern schools because they want their children straight into work and earning money. Also would not be able to afford tuition.

Comprehensive schools

  • schools which did not select pupils based on academic ability (mixed ability schools)

  • No longer had an 11+, instead went from primary school to the local comprehensive school

Evaluation

  • comprehensive schools still used banding, setting and streaming, so there was still a selection. Which often replicated social divisions

  • Social divisions arised based on location, the local schools in middle class areas were typically of higher quality

  • It takes a ‘one size fits all’ approach

  • Is not meritocratic: geographical disadvantages, teacher labelling and assessed through coursework

  • Does not produce a workforce that the economy needs and does not prepare students for work

New vocationalism

  • focuses on vocational skills and preparing students for work. Such as BTEC’s, Tlevels and apprenticeships

Evaluation

  • mainly taken up by working class pupils, leading to a class divide

  • Not viewed as highly by employers and university

1988 education reform act

  • providing a ‘market’ for the education system, where parents had information about the schools and could have more choice

Include:

  • the national curriculum. This made it easier to compare schools using standardised tests and took control away from local education authorities

  • SAT’s. The tests provided essential information for parents, displayed in league tables.

  • League tables. Rankings of school performance, to create parentocracy (giving parents more choice)

  • Formula funding. The schools were funded based on how many pupils they attracted, this increased competition and standards

  • Local management of schools. Headteachers had to look after the school budget rather than the local authorities. This cemented marketisation, and took power away from local authorities

Evaluation

  • national curriculum is too restrictive

  • SATS and league tables are leading to more students being negatively labelled, and potentially neglected if they wont improve their rankings

  • Myth of parentocracy, schools are still slightly based around location, the best schools will be oversubscribed and schools show covert selection (tough and Brooks)

  • Reproduces class inequalities as upper class parents are more aware of the system and the information out there, so will most likely get their child into a higher ranking school

  • Increases inequalities between schools through formula funding. Oversubscribed schools will gain more funding, which will help them improve further. While undersubscribed schools fall behind

New labour education reform

  • marketisation of education

  • Introduced academies. State funded schools, funded directly from the government rather than the local education authority

  • The schools can set their own admissions policies and do not follow the national curriculum, primarily used as a way to improve educational standards in working class areas

  • Introduced tuition fees for university

  • Developed SureStart and pupil premium. The educational maintenance allowance (students paid for attending school post 16). Education action zones (brought together the local community, schools and businesses to sponsor and invest in the school)

Evaluation

  • not consistent, trying to bridge the gap between class inequalities but introduced university tuition fees

  • Whitty argued that the policies were down to politics, wanted to maintain the vote of the middle class by not doing anything radical

  • Educational maintenance allowance was scrapped to cut public spending. Felt that the money was not appropriate for 16 year olds

Marketisation and privatisation

  • being owned by private companies (e.g academies) while being funded by the government

  • Ball and Youdell identified endogenous and exogenous privatisation.

  • Endogenous means that schools are privatised from within, due to marketisation policies the schools must operate in a similar way to private companies. They advertise, they take over schools and parents are treated like consumers

  • Exogenous privatisation is the role of private companies

Evaluation

  • this was implemented in Sweden, and they have failure to raise standards

Globalisation and education policy

  • The idea that the world has become more interconnected

  • This means schools now compete on a global level and the types of jobs have changed, so education needs to change to ensure students are being prepared as there’s no longer a correspondence between school and work (Bowles and gintis)

  • Can implement policies from other countries, e.g free schools in Finland

Evaluation

  • not all sociologists agree that globalisation is really happening, also suggesting that the education system has always responded to changes in the worlds economy

  • Some educational policies and approaches may not work in different countries