Sociology - Educational Policy - 1988 (Education Reform Act)

Question 1

What government implemented the 1988 Education Reform Act?

Answer 1

Margaret Thatchers Conservative (New Right) Government

Question 2

What did this government favour?

Answer 2

A free market approach to education e.g it should operate like a market place

Question 3

What did they think would happen by making schools compete against eachother?

Answer 3

It would improve the standard of education in the UK

Question 4

What were the 4 main aims of the 1988 Education Reform Act?

Answer 4

1. Raising standards (by increasing competition)
2. Creating a more standardised education system
3. Make schools more accountable
4. Create a parentocracy

Question 5

What is the national curriculum?

Answer 5

A set curriculum that all state schools had to teach starting from Year 1, all the way to Year 11

Question 6

What was the aim of the introduction of the National Curriculum?

Answer 6

• to reduce the variations in the quality of education between schools
• to properly dictate to state schools what was to be taught and how it would be assessed in an attempt to control and drive up standards

Question 7

Strengths of the National Curriculum

Answer 7

• Provides a structured and organised learning path
• Clear alignment of educational goals
• Broader range of subjects

Question 8

Weaknesses of the National Curriculum

Answer 8

• Student achievement based purely on external tests
• Focuses on societal needs rather than being catered to the individual
• Doesn’t suit all children

Question 9

What are GCSE’s?

Answer 9

Academic qualifications that most students are taught as a part of the National Curriculum towards the end of their final few years of compulsory education.

Question 10

What was the aim of GCSE’s?

Answer 10

• To have a standardised way of measuring children’s progress, the government were able to compare how well their students were doing
• Creates parentocracy
• Raises standards
• Makes schools accountable

Question 11

Strengths of GCSE’s

Answer 11

• good for parents to be able to see where the school was at, and which school would be more suitable for their child
• gave the government a good idea of where the majority of children were at this key stage

Question 12

Weaknesses of GCSE’s

Answer 12

• brought the introduction of coursework, benefited girls as they were better at it
• didn’t suit everyones learning style

Question 13

What are SATs?

Answer 13

SAT’s are standardised assessments that administered by primary schools in England to children in Year 2 and Year 6 to check their educational progress at the end of the key stages
- test children’s attainment in maths, reading and SPaG

Question 14

Aim of SAT’s

Answer 14

• Check educational progress at the end of the key stages
• One example of a marker used by the government, and parents, to gain an understanding of the quality of education at a certain school

Question 15

Strengths of SAT’s

Answer 15

• provides an objective way to assess student progress in core subjects
• allows teachers and parents to track student development and identify areas where they may need extra supportW

Question 17

Weaknesses of SAT’s

Answer 17

• SAT’s may cause stress upon younger students which they should not have to experience at such a young age
• Difficult for students with learning difficulties and disabilities with test taking

Question 18

What are league tables?

Answer 18

League tables are ways of ranking schools based on criteria such as academic performance, student:teacher ratios and a school’s facilities

Question 19

Aim of League Tables

Answer 19

• Introduced so that British schools can be directly compared, consequently increasing competition
• Allows parents to make a choice of which school they would like ot send their child to based on these criteria.

Question 20

Strengths of League Tables

Answer 20

• Not good for the reputation of schools that are deemed to be under achieving in the league tables
• caused a lot of stress upon teachers to meet the demands
• created more inequality between social classes
• good schools were in more middle class areas, and mostly middle class parents would actually look at the league tables
• schools started to become more selective with “cream skimming” (taking the best) and “silt shifting” (sinking the children who were thought to do the worse and not be chosen)

Question 21

What is OFSTED?

Answer 21

• an organisation set up by the gov to manage how well schools are doing
• all schools have regular OFSTED inspections, and a report published about them online

Question 22

Aims of OFSTED

Answer 22

• enables parents to find out whether a school is ‘good’ or not, and helps them to decide which school they want to send their child to
• raises standards
• creates a parentocracy
• makes schools more accountable

Question 23

Strengths of OFSTED

Answer 23

• good as schools ‘have’ to be good and meet the demands and standards of what was needed to be deemed as a ‘good’ school by Ofsted

Question 24

Weaknesses of Ofsted

Answer 24

• penalised other schools, so the ones with middle class children would have a better report, and the schools without these students would begin to deteriorate

Question 25

What are city technology colleges?

Answer 25

• large companies would set up these colleges, for private money e.g. British Airways
• Independent schools in urban areas that are free to go to
• emphasis on teaching science and technology

Question 26

Aims of city technology colleges

Answer 26

• introduced to improve the quality of education within city centres
• to put emphasis on the teaching of science and technology

Question 27

Strengths of city technology colleges

Answer 27

• gave schools more money, could see where they needed more money, freedom meanr schools were better as a result
• vocational subjects = student choice

Question 28

Weaknesses of city technology colleges

Answer 28

• didn’t have an official reputation = not seen as proper schools
• more focused on making money than the education of the children -> like a business

Question 29

What are grant maintained schools?

Answer 29

• gov gave schools the opportunity to opt out of local authority meaning the local council no longer decided how the school should spend it money
• school would now get its money directly from the central gov

Question 30

Aim of grant maintained schools

Answer 30

• to provide schools with more freedom
• in theory, would allow them to improve

Question 31

Strengths of grant maintained schools

Answer 31

• makes schools more accountable and responsible
• raises standards
• gave schools more money -> could see where the money would be best spent -> meant schools were improved

Question 32

What are key stages?

Answer 32

• Gov introduced idea of key stages, so a child’s education followed a structured pathway from start to finish

Question 33

Aim of key stages

Answer 33

• Create a more standardised education system
• Make schools more accountable

Question 34

Strengths of key stages

Answer 34

• gave the gov an idea of where the majority of children were

Question 35

Weaknesses of key stages

Answer 35

• put a lot of stress onto the young children

Question 36

What is formula funding?

Answer 36

• gov introduced formula funding which was based on how many students attended the school
• the larger the amount of students, the more money they would receive

Question 37

Aim of formula funding

Answer 37

• to raise standards
• to increase competition

Question 38

Strengths of formula funding

Answer 38

• schools with larger amounts of students are now being provided with more money
• this means that they can invest this in their environment and attract more parents through the advertisement of the facilities and the high achievement that this brings

Question 39

Weaknesses of formula funding

Answer 39

• popular schools became oversubscribed and can therefore choose their pupils -> will choose high achieving, middle class students to ensure their success
• creates a class divide
• schools who achieve badly one time will get less popular and therefore receive less money