An article examined the impact of devolution on education policy in Northern Ireland
Source: Derek Birrell and Deirdre Heenan, 'Policy style and governing without consensus: devolution and education policy in Northern Ireland', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 47 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Dec
An article examined developments in the mechanisms for realizing policy on education and social mobility over the previous ten years. Despite similarities in the process of policy formation before and after the General Election of 2010, the changing nature of the policy levers chosen by the coalition government represented a move from a rationalist, directing state towards a more hybrid but nevertheless neo-liberal model. The government still intended to 'steer' the education system through data: but in a more developed market system with little supervision, its effects would be less predictable.
Source: Richard Riddell, 'Changing policy levers under the neoliberal state: realising coalition policy on education and social mobility', Journal of Education Policy, Volume 28 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Dec
A special issue of a journal examined education and social mobility.
Source: British Journal of Sociology of Education, Volume 34 Issue 5-6
Links: Table of contents
Notes: Articles included:
A.H. Halsey, 'Reflections on education and social mobility'
Fiona Devine and Yaojun Li, 'The changing relationship between origins, education and destinations in the 1990s and 2000s'
Carol Vincent, Stephen Ball, Nicola Rollock, and David Gillborn, 'Three generations of racism: Black middle-class children and schooling'
Date: 2013-Dec
A report examined progress against Europe 2020 targets for education in the European Union member states.
Source: Education and Training Monitor 2013, European Commission
Links: Report | Summary | Individual country reports | European Commission press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A new book examined educational policies from a philosophical standpoint. Contributors explored policies relating to higher education and faith-based education, assessment, the teaching of reading, vocational and civic education, teacher education, the influence of Europe, and the idea of the Big Society .
Source: Richard Smith (ed.), Education Policy: Philosophical Critique, Wiley
Links: Summary
Date: 2013-Sep
A new book examined the strengths and weaknesses of the education system in England. It said that England had some of the best teachers in the world, but one of the most muddled systems. The author proposed radical changes to help all schools became good schools. They included: a system of schools receiving a fair balance of pupils who learned easily and those who did not; ensuring a more even spread of effective teachers; a ban on league tables; outlawing selection; opening up faith schools; and integrating private schools into the state system.
Source: Peter Mortimore, Education under Siege: Why there is a better alternative, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2013-Aug
An article examined the history of raising the school leaving age.
Source: Tom Woodin, Gary McCulloch, and Steven Cowan, 'Raising the participation age in historical perspective: policy learning from the past?', British Educational Research Journal, Volume 39 Number 4
Links: Abstract | IOE press release
Date: 2013-Jul
A report summarized a set of five papers that examined the policies of the former Labour government (1997-2010), charting their impact on the distribution of outcomes, and on poverty and inequality. Labour had set out an ambitious agenda to improve outcomes overall, narrow socio-economic gaps, and modernize public services:
• Public spending went up from 39.5 to 47.4 per cent of national income. This was a large rise: but until the 2008 global crisis, spending levels were unexceptional by historic standards.
• The extra spending went mainly on services. Health and education both increased as a proportion of all public spending.
• Nearly all the extra cash spent on benefits went on children and pensioners. Benefits for working-age people unrelated to having children fell as a proportion of national income.
• Access and quality in public services improved, including waiting times for health services and pupil-teacher ratios.
• Outcomes improved and gaps closed on virtually all the socio-economic indicators targeted, such as poverty for children and pensioners, and school attainment.
• But there was no progress in some areas that were not subject to explicit targets: poverty for working-age people without children rose; there was no real change in levels of income inequality; and disparities in regional economic performance persisted.
Source: Ruth Lupton (with John Hills, Kitty Stewart, and Polly Vizard), Labour s Social Policy Record: Policy, spending and outcomes 1997-2010, Social Policy in a Cold Climate Research Report 1, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (London School of Economics)
Links: Report | Supplementary paper | Nuffield Foundation press release | Guardian report
Notes: Details of individual papers:
Polly Vizard and Polina Obolenskaya, Labour s Record on Health (1997-2010), Social Policy in a Cold Climate Working Paper 2
Ruth Lupton and Polina Obolenskaya, Labour s Record on Education: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 1997-2010, Social Policy in a Cold Climate Working Paper 3
Kitty Stewart, Labour s Record on the Under Fives: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 1997-2010, Social Policy in a Cold Climate Working Paper 4
John Hills, Labour s Record on Cash Transfers, Poverty, Inequality and the Lifecycle 1997-2010, Social Policy in a Cold Climate Working Paper 5
Ruth Lupton, Alex Fenton, and Amanda Fitzgerald, Labour s Record on Neighbourhood Renewal in England: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 1997-2010, Social Policy in a Cold Climate Working Paper 6
Date: 2013-Jun
A paper examined attempts to co-ordinate national policies and institutions in the European Union in the field of education and training, and the reasons for their limited success. The inconsistency between short-term fiscal consolidation and long-term social investment seemed to be one difficulty. There needed to be a more coherent set of incentives favouring long-term investments, and if necessary greater use of structural funds to support it.
Source: Chiara Agostini and David Natali, The European Governance of Education: Progresses and challenges, European Trade Union Institute
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Jun
An article reviewed the evidence on New Labour's educational achievements (1997-2010), focusing on educational standards. Methodological weaknesses in the available statistics meant that no firm conclusion could be drawn on whether standards had risen or not: they had probably merely kept pace with those in other countries. However, there was evidence of increased participation in post-compulsory (16-18) education, and of narrowing inequalities in achievement at the end of compulsory schooling. The introduction of fees for higher education did not appear to have made inequalities worse.
Source: Anthony Heath, Alice Sullivan, Vikki Boliver, and Anna Zimdars, 'Education under New Labour, 1997-2010', Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 29 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jun
A new book examined New Labour's policy towards secondary education over the period 1994–2010, highlighting the 'steady abandonment' of the comprehensive ideal.
Source: Clyde Chitty, New Labour and Secondary Education, 1994–2010, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2013-Apr
A report summarized recent research on a wide range of education issues in developed countries.
Source: Education Today 2013: The OECD perspective, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Date: 2013-Jan
An article examined the take-up of behavioural economics in education policy-making. Behavioural economics suggested that a reliance on rational choice was insufficient, and that individuals needed to be 'nudged' to make good choices. This marked a revision of the neoliberal idea of a rational chooser as the aim of policy-making.
Source: Alice Bradbury, Ian McGimpsey, and Diego Santori, 'Revising rationality: the use of "nudge" approaches in neoliberal education policy', Journal of Education Policy, Volume 28 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on governance and leadership in the Department for Education. It disputed the claim that the Department had failed to give sufficient priority to children's services.
Source: Governance and Leadership of the Department for Education: Government Response to the Third Report of the Committee, Third Special Report (Session 2012–13), HC 919, House of Commons Education Select Committee, TSO
Links: Response
Notes: MPs report (November 2012)
Date: 2013-Jan
