Social Policy & Education

Question 1

List 4 educational policies since 1944

Answer 1

1944; Butler Act
1964; Comprehensive Schooling
1988; Baker Act
2010; Academies Act

Question 2

What made the Butler Act a ‘tripartite system’?

Answer 2

3 schools;

1) Grammar Schools
2) Secondary Moderns
3) Technical Schools

Question 3

5 Critiques of the Butler Act

Answer 3

1) Bipartite system as few technical schools existed
2) Tripartite system caused social division
3) 11+ Exam was culturally biased
4) Girl’s exam results lowered
5) 11+ Exam created a s.f.p

Question 4

3 functions of the Butler Act

Answer 4

1) Selection process
2) Meritocratic schooling
3) Free, compulsory education

Question 5

3 Pros of the Comprehensive Schooling Act

Answer 5

1) No social division
2) Enabled students to work at their own pace (Banding)
3) No labelling as failures

Question 6

3 criticisms of the Comprehensive Schooling Act

Answer 6

1) Schools too large and impersonal
2) Still social division as pupils only from immediate area
3) Intelligent pupils held back by less academic environment

Question 7

What 4 things did the Baker Act stand for?

Answer 7

Freedom
Choice
Standards
Quality control

Question 8

4 Critiques of the Baker Act + The National Curriculum

Answer 8

1) National curriculum too bureaucratic
2) National Curriculum ethnocentric
3) SATS still resulted in negative labelling
4) OFSTED reports invalid due to Hawthorne Effect

Question 8

Why did schools choose to opt out of LEA control?

Answer 8

More financial autonomy

Question 9

Outline 3 characteristics of ‘free schools’

Answer 9

1) Independent from governmental control
2) Specialise in specific subjects
3) Helped funded by charities

Question 10

3 Criticisms of academies + free schools

Answer 10

1) Inequality in finance (some get more funding from businesses)
2) Scared of independence (follow national curriculum)
3) Highly selective (only want top kids)

Question 11

2 criticisms of league tables

Answer 11

1) Ignores progress made by school

2) Ignores external factors (e.g home life) that affect achievement

Question 12

Why did the current government want to introduce free schools and academies?

Answer 12

So schools become less dependant on the government

Question 13

Outline the aim of New Vocationalism

Answer 13

To teach specific skills in education that will directly be utilised in specific jobs

Question 14

5 negative criticisms of New Vocationalism/YTS

Answer 14

1) Apprenticeships pay £2 per hour = unfair, slave labour
2) Creates more unemployment as employers prefer cheap school leavers
3) Apprenticeships often waste students times (running errands etc)
4) A Levels have more value
5) Apprentices labelled negatively