The Department for Children, Schools and Families published its 2008 autumn performance report, showing progress against public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2008, Cm 7507, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
A new book examined a decade of rapid and intensive modernization in education policy in England under New Labour, and drew out the lessons for those concerned with developing education systems.
Source: Christopher Chapman and Helen Gunter (eds.), Radical Reforms: Perspectives on an era of educational change, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Dec
The government announced (in the Queen's Speech) plans for a Children, Skills and Learning Bill. The Bill would provide for more flexible school inspections, and a new pay negotiation body for classroom assistants. Schools would be required to work together to tackle bad behaviour, and would be given powers to search pupils for alcohol, drugs, and stolen goods. There would be an apprenticeship place for every suitably qualified young person by 2013. Employees would be given a new right to request relevant training they needed to improve their skills, and to have these requests properly considered by their employer.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Debate 3 December 2008, columns 8-9, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DCSF press release | DIUS press release | NUT press release | ATL press release | AOC press release | EDCM press release | Catch22 press release | CBI press release | CIPD press release | UCU press release | LGA briefing | Guardian report | BBC report | Telegraph report | Community Care report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Dec
The Education and Skills Act 2008 was given Royal assent. The Act provided for an increase in the compulsory education participation age in England to 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2015.
Source: Education and Skills Act 2008, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | Explanatory notes | DIUS press release | NUT press release | CBI press release | People Management report
Date: 2008-Nov
A report called for the abolition of standard assessment tests (SATs), the schools inspectorate (Ofsted), and the national curriculum, on the grounds that they had become counterproductive and damaging to the all-round education of young people. Schools should be deregulated and depoliticized, and should be trusted to decide and act on the best interests of their children without interference by government or its agencies.
Source: Michael Bassey, Politics and Primary Schools: What parents should know before the next election, National Association of Head Teachers (01444 472472)
Date: 2008-Nov
A new book examined the common school and the comprehensive ideal. Contributors examined the role of common schools in multicultural societies; the relationship between common schools and religion; school choice and the comprehensive ideal; and common schools and inclusion.
Source: Mark Halstead and Graham Haydon (eds.), The Common School and the Comprehensive Ideal, Blackwell Publishing (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-Oct
The opposition Conservative Party published a plan for social reform. The education system would be 'freed up', to allow charities and other not-for-profit organizations to set up new schools in the state sector; and more resources would be diverted to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, ensuring they got the earliest possible opportunity to choose the best schools and the best teaching. Families would be strengthened through reforms to the tax and benefits systems to support marriage. People would be unable to claim unemployment benefits if they turned down 'reasonable' job offers.
Source: Plan for Social Reform, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Report | Conservative Party press release | Speech | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Sep
An article examined the use by central government of statistical evidence in educational policy matters. Particular attention was given to school league tables. The article was generally critical of government attitudes: but it suggested that there had been some progress towards rational decision-making.
Source: Harvey Goldstein, 'Evidence and education policy – some reflections and allegations', Cambridge Journal of Education, Volume 38 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Sep
A think-tank report said that academy schools were delivering significantly improved results, and called for the programme to be greatly expanded – including into the primary school sector.
Source: Julian Astle and Conor Ryan (eds.), Academies and the Future of State Education, CentreForum (020 7340 1160)
Links: Report | CentreForum press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jul
A paper examined the assumption that 'choice and voice' – the power to withdraw a child from a school, and the ability to have views about school quality heard – created user-driven incentives to increase educational quality. But it was found that choice and voice might complement each other only for middle-class parents.
Source: Deborah Wilson, Exit, Voice and Quality in the English Education Sector, Working Paper 08/194, Centre for Market and Public Organisation/University of Bristol (0117 954 6943)
Links: Working paper
Date: 2008-Jul
A 'capability review' of the Department for Department for Children, Schools and Families said that the DCSF Board had used the review process constructively, and made 'significant progress against a background of enormous change' since an initial review in 2006. The Department needed to clarify how it would develop over the following 5-10 years, and to understand its future skills needs.
Source: Department for Children, Schools and Families: Progress and Next Steps, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Report | Cabinet Office press release | DCSF press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jul
A report examined the key challenges facing the education system – a plateau in achievement; stubborn inequality; and increasing uncertainty over what schools were really for. Recommendations included: individual budgets and self-directed support plans for families at risk; breaking up large schools; a 'learning concierge' service; scrapping the 6-week summer holiday; and wider measures of progress and outcomes.
Source: Charles Leadbeater, What's Next? 21 ideas for 21st century learning, Innovation Unit (020 7259 1232)
Links: Report | Innovation Unit press release | Guardian report | New Statesman report
Date: 2008-Jul
A paper said that the government's 'Every Child Matters' agenda might fail because of too much emphasis on predetermined outcomes, leading educators to focus on narrow objectives at the expense of promoting the general well-being and development of children.
Source: Peter Moss and Graham Haydon, Every Child Matters and the Concept of Education, Institute of Education/University of London (020 7612 6050)
Links: IOE press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A think-tank report examined the future of educational reform, in the context of the changing needs, goals, and objectives of schools. It set out short- and long-term recommendations to address the barriers that prevented the school system from being world-class. At the heart of reform should be a vision of schools in which young people developed a broad set of skills – as independent learners, self-managers, enquirers, and team-workers, as well as the core skills of literacy, numeracy, and other individual subjects.
Source: Sonia Sodha and Julia Margo, Thursday's Child, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Summary | IPPR press release | BBC report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Jun
The government announced (in the draft Queen's Speech) plans to introduce an Education and Skills Bill during the 2008-09 legislative session, designed to promote excellence in schools and help ensure that every school became a good school; ensure a 'customer-driven' skills and apprenticeship system; and create a new regulator for qualifications and tests, and a development agency for curriculum, assessment, and qualifications. Central government would acquire new powers to force local authorities to intervene early where schools were seriously underperforming. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills would report on whether a statutory entitlement to training should be introduced in 2014-15, instead of 2010 as previously planned.
Source: Preparing Britain for the Future: The government's draft legislative programme, Cm 7372, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Draft Queens Speech | Amendments | DIUS press release | NUT press release | NASUWT press release | UCU press release | NCH press release | CBI press release | CIPD press release | REC press release | Guardian report | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | Community Care report | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-May
A new book examined the revival of support for meritocracy under New Labour, with particular reference to its implications for education. It considered the ways New Labour had interpreted the idea of active citizenship. It also provided an analysis of policy responses to the problems of multiculturalism, and their relation to immigration policy and ideas of a common civic culture.
Source: John Beck, Meritocracy, Citizenship and Education: New Labour's legacy, Continuum International Publishing (020 7922 0880)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-May
The Department for Children, Schools and Families published its annual report for 2007-08.
Source: Departmental Report 2008, Cm 7391, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-May
The Education and Skills Bill was given a third reading. The Bill was designed to raise the compulsory education participation age in England to 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2015. A government amendment gave the Schools Adjudicator the power to consider any potentially unlawful school admissions arrangements without first waiting for a complaint to be submitted.
Source: Education and Skills Bill, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 13 May 2008, columns 1218-1335, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | Guardian report
Date: 2008-May
An article examined the involvement of the private sector in publicly funded schools in England, and the effects of the blurring of public and private finance and delivery in relation to democratic accountability.
Source: Anne West and Peter Currie, 'The role of the private sector in publicly funded schooling in England: finance, delivery and decision making', Policy & Politics, Volume 36 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
A think-tank report said that there was little internal logic in the way goals and incentives were aligned in schools, and that there was far too much central government intervention at the expense of the role of teachers as professionals. A linked survey found that 64 per cent of the public believed that the national curriculum was manipulated to suit the aims of politicians. Only 31 per cent regarded the admissions system to secondary schools as 'fair' or 'quite fair'.
Source: Chris Davies and Cheryl Lim, Helping Schools Succeed: A framework for English education, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report | Summary | International comparisons report | Policy Exchange press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Mar
Four linked reports examined what primary education was for, what aims it should pursue, and the values by which it should be underpinned.
Source: John White, Aims as Policy in English Primary Education, The Primary Review/Faculty of Education/University of Cambridge (01223 767523) | Maha Shuayb and Sharon O'Donnell, Aims and Values in Primary Education: England and other countries, The Primary Review/Faculty of Education/University of Cambridge | Stephen Machin and Sandra McNally, Aims for Primary Education: The changing national context, The Primary Review/Faculty of Education/University of Cambridge | Hugh Lauder, John Lowe and Rita Chawla-Duggan, Aims for Primary Education: Changing global contexts, The Primary Review/Faculty of Education/University of Cambridge
Links: Report (1) | Report (2) | Report (3) | Report (4) | Review press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Jan
A journal special issue (entitled 'The Academy Fiasco') examined the Labour government's policy of encouraging academy schools.
Source: FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 50 Number 1
Links: Table of contents
Date: 2008-Jan
The Education and Skills Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to raise the compulsory education participation age in England to 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2015.
Source: Education and Skills Bill, Department for Children, Schools and Families, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 14 January 2008, columns 657-759, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | Barnardos press release | BBC report | Telegraph report | Personnel Today report | FT report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jan
A new book examined recent trends in education policy. It considered the politics of policy interventions since 1997, and how they had changed the face of education, 'joining-up' policy within a broader framework of initiatives, turning children into 'learners' and parents into 'consumers'. Schools were almost as segregated by social class as they were in the 19th century. Faith schools were primarily for the middle class, community schools increasingly for the working class, and private schools had been kept the preserve of the upper class.
Source: Stephen Ball, The Education Debate: Policy and politics in the twenty-first century, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary | IOE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jan
