Educational policy and equality of educational opportunity and outcome

Question 1

in 1944 the government established

Answer 1

free and compulsory secondary education

Question 2

Key aims of educational policy

Answer 2

• Economic efficiency - developing skills for work - Dolphin (2014) suggests that a strong workplace-based vocational education system contributes to a smoother transition from school to work and reduces youth unemployment levels
• Raising educational standards
• Creating equality of educational opportunity in a meritocratic society

Question 3

Gillborn and Youdell (2000) identify 4 dimensions of equality of educational opportunity

Answer 3

• equality of access - every child should have the same opportunities to access education, such as schools of similar quality without unfair selection
• equality of circumstances - children should all be of a similar socio-economic status when they start school to allow them the same starting point
• equality of participation - everyone having the same chances to participate in school processes
• equality of outcome - everyone having the same chances of sharing in the benefits of schooling

Question 4

Gillborn and Youdell suggest that the dominant meaning given to equality of educational opportunity is

Answer 4

in regard to equality of access, with all students having the same access to a high-quality education

Question 5

Halsey, Heath and Ridge (1980) suggest that one of the tests of the success of policies aimed for equality of educational opportunity

Answer 5

is the extent to which there is equality of outcome

Question 6

Policies to improve equality of opportunity in access to education - the shift away from the tripartite system

Answer 6

• the 1944 Education Act (making secondary education free and compulsory) established 3 types of schools - grammar, technical and secondary modern
• children were sorted by ability following the 11+ exam
• the 15-20% with the best results went to grammar schools and most children went to secondary modern schools
• hardly any secondary schools were established
• during the 1960s the tripartite system began to be seen as unfair, as the 11+ was unreliable and inaccurate, which disadvantaged children from working class backgrounds and damaged the self-esteem and opportunities of students not in grammar schools
• since the 1970s, most grammar schools have shut down, and most children now attend comprehensive schools, which accept pupils of all abilities

Question 7

Policies to improve equality of opportunity in access to education - Comprehensive schools

Answer 7

• nearly all state secondary schools are comprehensive (only 163 grammar schools out of 3000 state funded secondary schools)
• still some evidence of selection by ability through hidden or covert admissions selection

Question 8

Policies to improve equality of opportunity in access to education - Changes to the School Admissions Code

Answer 8

• forbids discrimination in admitting pupils to schools on the grounds of ability or socio-economic status of parents
• changed in 2014 to allow schools to discriminate in favour of disadvantaged students by giving priority to pupils eligible for pupil premium

Question 9

Pupil premium

Answer 9

Extra money given to schools to help the most disadvantaged pupils (eg those eligible for FSM or children who are in care)

Question 10

Policies to improve inequality of circumstances

Answer 10

• Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government 2010-5 generally took the view that raising schools’ standards would be enough to give every child equality of educational opportunity, but also had some policies of positive discrimination eg through the changes to the School Admissions Code in 2014
• Kerr and West (2010) - while the evidence shows that schooling can lessen the impact of deprivation, its influence is limited by factors outside of school, and that children’s performance at school cannot be separated from their lives outside school