An article examined how education policies developed in the European Union through the open method of co-ordination (OMC) were received in the United Kingdom. The UK's response could be understood mainly in terms of deflecting EU influence on the process and content of national education policy-making. Few organizational resources were made available for responding to the education OMC. There was limited communication between domestic policy teams and UK civil servants involved in international work. UK education policy-makers retained a commitment to the continued sovereignty of the UK over education policy and its role as a potential leader of education policy agendas in the EU.
Source: Nafsika Alexiadou and Bettina Lange, 'Deflecting European Union influence on national education policy-making: the case of the United Kingdom', Journal of European Economic Integration, Volume 35 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
An article said that despite a proliferation of new policies directed at reforming the education system, the claims to educational improvement made by policy-makers had been contested. Concerns about the unpredicted and damaging long-term effects of these policies could be linked to the limitations of systems thinking that underpinned much of this education reform. A significant flaw of systems thinking was the level of simplification at which policy-makers operated on abstract categories such as standards, as if they were reality. Based on case study research conducted in two primary schools, the article suggested that the systemic approach adopted by policy-makers might be contributing to an erosion of educational quality and placing potentially damaging expectations on children.
Source: Agnieszka Bates, 'Transcending systems thinking in education reform: implications for policy-makers and school leaders', Journal of Education Policy, Volume 28 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
An employers' organization said that the education system in England fostered a 'cult of the average', too often failing to stretch the most able or support those who needed most help. 35 years of education reform had focused on narrow measures of performance, such as exams and league tables, which had allowed too many young people to fall behind. The report outlined measures to address this 'conveyor belt of low performance', including: giving more freedom to teachers; moving the focus from league tables to delivering a more rounded education; a shift from GCSEs to making attainment at age 18 the focus of secondary education; and introducing vocational A-levels with the same standing as traditional A-levels.
Source: First Steps: A new approach for our schools, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Report | CBI press release | ASCL press release | NASUWT press release | NUT press release | RSS press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Notes: GCSE = General Certificate of Secondary Education; A = Advanced
Date: 2012-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs said that processes and decision-making within the Department for Education needed to be increasingly open. It also called for steps to be taken to ensure that early years education and childcare remained priorities within the Department's work.
Source: Governance and Leadership of the Department for Education, Third Report (Session 2012–13), HC 700, House of Commons Education Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Nursery World report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Nov
An article said that the usual account of social justice in formal education was too narrow, and should be more concerned with educational experiences as part of what makes a good life. The significance of joy in education should be recognized within education policy.
Source: Morwenna Griffiths, 'Why joy in education is an issue for socially just policies', Journal of Education Policy, Volume 27 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
A think-tank report said that the coalition government should take steps to encourage the growth of more and bigger academy chains. It said that academy chains could be even more effective at improving results than single academies, drawing on evidence of the effectiveness of school groups in other countries such as Canada, the United States of America, Hong Kong, and Sweden. Academy chains enabled the spreading of effective educational practice – such as good teacher training programmes or systems for monitoring pupil performance – as well as delivering economies of scale. 'Education management organisations' – including profit-making companies – should be brought in to run schools on performance-based contracts where transformation into an academy and subsequent placement into a chain had failed to improve outcomes.
Source: James O'Shaughnessy, Competition Meets Collaboration: Helping school chains address England s long tail of educational failure, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Summary | ASCL press release | ATL press release | NUT press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Oct
A new book (by a former Minister for Schools) said that the former Labour governments (1997-2010) had made 'reasonable progress' toward giving England a truly world-class education system – raising school standards, starting to eradicate failing schools, and boosting social mobility and social justice. Many comprehensive schools had been replaced by academies – a radically new form of independent state school that had become a 'national movement for educational transformation'. The book set out a manifesto for further reform designed to make teaching the foremost profession in the country and to break down the 'Berlin Wall' between private and state schools.
Source: Andrew Adonis, Education, Education, Education: Reforming England's schools, Biteback Publishing
Date: 2012-Sep
An article said that the coalition government's rhetoric concerning the freedoms to be given to schools and teachers was at variance with a centrally imposed, reductive view of the curriculum, continuing high-stakes scrutiny, and the forcing of schools towards academy status. The coalition's hastily constructed legislation revealed a view of education that bore the hallmark of pragmatic marketization, with such limited freedoms as might be enjoyed existing in the context of reward for the compliant and acquiescent.
Source: Jon Berry, 'Does Gove really want to set us free?', FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 54 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
An article said that the coalition government was engaged in the final demolition of public comprehensive education. Opportunity was being rationed, and education returned to its tradition of social selection and class subordination.
Source: Stewart Ranson, 'Governing education: remaking the long revolution', FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 54 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
A think-tank report said that although there was a role for the private sector in the education system, schools themselves should not be run for profit. Schools should be public institutions, situated at the heart of local communities and run in the public interest. There was no evidence that allowing schools to be run for a profit would boost education standards. Policy-makers should be focusing on strengthening school leadership, improving the quality of teaching, giving schools autonomy while holding them robustly to account, and systematically tackling inequalities between children from different class backgrounds.
Source: Rick Muir, Not for Profit: The role of the private sector in England s schools, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | Summary | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Aug
The Department for Education published its annual report for 2011-12.
Source: Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts 2011-12, HC 42, Department for Education, TSO
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Aug
An article examined the impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on education policy in Europe. It said that the Convention was having an impact on domestic education policy, and that the child rights framework could be harnessed further by those seeking to influence government.
Source: Laura Lundy, 'Children s rights and educational policy in Europe: the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child', Oxford Review of Education, Volume 38 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
An article examined the damage being done by the coalition government to schools in England, to the teachers who worked in them, and to the education that they provided.
Source: Derek Gillard, 'Half way to hell: what Gove is doing to England's schools', FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 54 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
A think-tank report said that private capital and the profit motive were needed to create widely replicated, low-margin, low-cost methods of education. The coalition government was wrong to exclude profit-making schools from its free schools programme, which might fail as a result.
Source: James Stanfield (ed.), The Profit Motive in Education: Continuing the revolution, Institute of Economic Affairs
Date: 2012-Jul
A paper examined the socio-economic impacts of the 1944 Education Act in England and Wales. The single most important reform was to provide free secondary education to children from all classes of society. However, there was a 'wide chasm' in the quality of secondary school provision as between grammar/technical schools and 'secondary modern' schools. Second, entry into secondary schools was based on a selection process tilted in favour of children from middle-class family backgrounds. The biggest gainers from the free education provision were children from relatively disadvantaged family backgrounds who gained competitive entry into the grammar school system. These constituted only about 15 per cent of all children. A large majority of the remainder were required to attend schools that generally stifled educational and post-educational development – in turn reflected in relatively poor subsequent labour market outcomes.
Source: Robert Hart, Mirko Moro, and Elizabeth Roberts, Date of Birth, Family Background, and the 11 Plus Exam: Short- and long-term consequences of the 1944 secondary education reforms in England and Wales, Discussion Paper 2012-10, Division of Economics, University of Stirling
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined policy reforms of schools in England, Germany, France, and Italy, from 1988 to 2009, with a focus on the introduction of market accountability. Pressing demands for organizational change in schools, shaped by the objectives of 'efficiency' and competition – introduced in England in the 1980s – had been adopted in other European countries, albeit at a slower pace and within the continuing need for domestic institutional conformity. Despite some evidence of convergence between different education systems, England remained the outlier: continental European countries had been much more reluctant to adopt choice and competition policies.
Source: Paola Mattei, 'Market accountability in schools: policy reforms in England, Germany, France and Italy', Oxford Review of Education, Volume 38 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jun
A new book examined the emergence of a 'revised' educational code centred on the concept of 'personalization', involving new flexibilities of structure and pedagogical process. Personalization had its intellectual roots in marketing theory, not in educational theory, and was the facilitator of 'education for consumption' – allowing the market to suffuse even more the fabric of education, albeit under the democratic-sounding call for freedom of choice.
Source: David Hartley, Education and the Culture of Consumption: Personalisation and the social order, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined the education-inequality nexus in the context of the European Union's 2020 strategy for inclusive economic growth. It highlighted the strategic and institutional measures that needed to be implemented for a 'smarter' social inclusion policy:
• A better balance between knowledge-intensive and knowledge-extensive policies.
• An extension of EU anti-discrimination law in the field of education.
• Integration of the open method of co-ordination (OMC) in education and training with the social OMC.
Peer learning focused on structural reform of employment and training systems.
Source: Ides Nicaise, 'A smart social inclusion policy for the EU: the role of education and training', European Journal of Education, Volume 47 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A new book examined the emergence, development, and application of European education policy up to the 2009 Lisbon Treaty and beyond. It charted the historical development of a Europe-wide education policy, and looked at how that policy had sought to address such issues as European citizenship, human rights, and bilingual schooling.
Source: John Sayer and Lynn Erler (eds.), Schools for the Future Europe: Values and change beyond Lisbon, Continuum International Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-May
A new book examined the emergence of European education policy. It looked at the early development and growth of research networks and agencies, and international and national collaborations.
Source: Martin Lawn and Sotiria Grek, Europeanizing Education: Governing a new policy space, Symposium Books
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-May
An article examined recent trends (1998-2009) in the number of years of schooling that a child aged 6 could expect to attend up to their 30th birthday, for European Union countries. All countries had seen an increase in the number of expected years of schooling, which was driven mainly by increased tertiary enrolment rates. The dispersion of expected length of education among countries had also decreased. In spite of this progress, some countries would find it difficult to meet their national targets for tertiary educational attainments for people aged 30-34 in 2020. This was largely because the tertiary education participation rates of young males had been falling behind those of females in many countries. It would be preferable to supplement the educational attainment target with an enrolment target for people aged 20-24.
Source: Mikkel Barslund, 'Recent developments in selected education indicators and their relation to Europe 2020 targets', National Institute Economic Review, Volume 220 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
An article drew on data from a study carried out on the evolution of specialist schools under the Labour governments (1997-2010) in order to illustrate changes in educational governance. Policy-making power had shifted away from traditional corporatist partners. A 'presidential' style of government had been accompanied by fast-growing policy networks, lending legitimacy to centralized policy ideas while intensifying connexions and blurring lines between state and non-state. However, although spaces and sites for policy activity had become more extensive, they had remained exclusive, with insiders and outsiders clearly defined.
Source: Sonia Exley, 'The politics of educational policy making under New Labour: an illustration of shifts in public service governance', Policy & Politics, Volume 40 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Apr
The Welsh Government published the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Bill, designed to strengthen school standards and reduce complexity and bureaucracy in the education system. Proposals in the Bill would:
• Provide a clearer process for school intervention and drive up school improvement through the introduction of statutory guidance.
• Reform the statutory process for school organization so that decisions were taken locally wherever possible.
• Remove the requirement for school governing bodies to hold annual parents' meetings and introduce a new right for parents to call meetings with school governing bodies.
• Give local authorities and schools greater flexibility over the pricing of school meals.
• Mainstream several grant-funded programmes to help streamline existing processes.
Source: School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Bill, Welsh Government
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Welsh Government press release | ASCL press release | Plaid Cymru press release | WLGA press release
Date: 2012-Apr
An article examined the response of the Labour party to the coalition governments policies for restructuring the school system. It identified two contradictory elements in Labour's thinking: one promised to enhance local democracy and community empowerment – whereas the other (dominant) strand accepted the new landscape of academies and free schools, and advocated new powers for local school commissioners and elected mayors in the school system. Neither strand offered a vision of enhanced local democratic accountability through the reinvigoration of local authorities.
Source: Richard Hatcher, 'Gove's offensive and the failure of Labour's response', FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 54 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
A new book examined the nature of contemporary education policy, its purposes, and its political formation. It charted the continuity of policy development along neo-liberal lines from New Labour to the emerging position of the coalition government. Contrary to popular belief about recent radical change in education policy, there had been strong similarities and nuanced disagreements between successive modern governments.
Source: Dean Garratt and Gillian Forrester (eds.), Education Policy Unravelled, Continuum International Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Mar
An article said that comprehensive reorganization was not a one-off policy reform but a complex, bottom-up campaign for equity and fairness in education, with varied consequences and outcomes. Recent battles over student fees, free schools, and academies showed that the quest for democratic education did not lead to a permanent achievement but to perpetual struggle with privileged groups who felt themselves threatened by social justice.
Source: Bernard Barker, 'Comprehensive schools and the future', FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, Volume 54 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
An article said that communities of educational researchers needed to have the confidence to become outward-looking, and to strengthen alliances with other disciplines as well as with practitioners and policy-makers.
Source: Mary James, 'Growing confidence in educational research: threats and opportunities', British Educational Research Journal, Volume 38 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
A think-tank report said that the government should set up pilot schemes to test the effectiveness of 'social enterprise' schools. These would initially be located in the most deprived areas of the country, to get round the problem that 'full on profit making' in schools would be 'politically difficult' to introduce immediately. The schools would be set up and run by private companies, with 50 per cent of any surplus being distributed as a dividend to shareholders on an annual basis, while the remaining 50 per cent would have to be reinvested in the school.
Source: Andrew Laird and Justin Wilson, Social Enterprise Schools: A potential profit-sharing model for the state-funded school system, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | ATL press release | NUT press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined the schools White Paper published by the coalition government in November 2010. The evidence for the proposed reforms and policy actions was 'at best tenuous'. Both the White Paper and its key sources of evidence were characterized by: a selective use of data; a propensity to 'mix and match' the sources of comparison; and an overall tendency to employ comparisons with high-performing systems elsewhere as a facade in order to legitimate preferred policy options.
Source: Paul Morris, 'Pick n mix, select and project; policy borrowing and the quest for "world class" schooling: an analysis of the 2010 schools White Paper', Journal of Education Policy, Volume 27 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
A paper said that despite significant increases in spending on childcare and education during the previous decade, educational performance appeared to have remained static, uneven, and strongly related to parents' income and background. Better targeted funding for disadvantaged children combined with strengthened incentives for schools to attract and support these students would help raise educational outcomes.
Source: Henrik Braconier, Reforming Education in England, Economics Department Working Paper 939, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Jan
