Marketisation of Education An attempt to improve education

Marketisation of Education An attempt to improve education by making schools and colleges compete for students in an 'education market'. Key policies: 1988 Education Reform Act, Specialist School status, Academies.

Marketisation…a bit more depth. �The process of applying market forces of consumer choice to education. �Create competition between suppliers of a service. �Reducing state control �Increasing parental choice and competition between schools.

The A to C Economy? �Schools under pressure to stream and select pupils – if they want a good league table position and attract pupils and funding. �This policy of publishing league tables creates an “A to C economy” (Gillborn and Youdell) – the schools ration their time and resources to focus on the students who are capable of getting 5 grade A to C to boost the league table position.

Name six factors that led to marketisation of schools �External factors…decisions made by government, typically in the 1980 s and 1990 s. Introduced: �Funding formula – gives a school the same amount of money per pupil. �Exam league tables – ranking each school according to exam performance �Increased competition between schools to attract pupils.

Competition and Selection �Marketisation can also explain why schools are under pressure to select more able and largely middle class pupils who will help the league table rankings. �This will increase popularity and therefore funding will increase as the school will not be under subscribed. �While popular schools can “screen” pupils others are obliged to take students which may lead to a fall in results and the school becoming less popular and attracting less funding…

Will Bartlett (1993) �The pressures from marketisation have lead to schools… �Cream-skimming – selecting higher ability students who gain the best results and cost less to teach. �Silt-shifting – offloading students which learning difficulties who are expensive and get poor results.

Signing a contract… �One way that WC students can be disadvantaged is through the home/school contract. Selective schools often require parents to sign demanding contracts. �Gewirtz – contract which contained everything from attending parents evening to having a well stocked pencil case – a governor thought that such contracts would bring the “right sort of parent” to the school.

The cost… �Ball (1994)…schools have had to spend more on marketing themselves to parents, often at the expense of spending in other areas such as SEN.

Political Background �These policies come from the NEW RIGHT �Starting point is the 1988 Education Act introduces by the Conservative government under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. �BUT �These policies were continued by New Labour post 1997 emphasising standards, diversity and choice.

A new three part system? �Sheila Macrae (1997) sees the same pattern in post sixteen education. �Top – selective 6 th form attracting middle class students providing highly academic courses leading to university �Middle – general further education colleges catering for WC students offering vocational courses �Bottom – government funded schemes providing low level courses leading to low paid jobs.

Why? New Right believe… �State control leads to low standards �Inefficiency �Lack of choice for parents �By introducing market forces schools will improve to attract more customers or go out of business.

Parentocracy �Miriam David (1993) describes this as a parentocracy as the power is moved away from the schools and the teachers and moved towards the parents. �Advocates believe that this creates greater diversity and choice for parents and that standards are raised through competition.

Policies �Publication of exam league tables and OFSTED reports �Business sponsorship of schools �Formula funding �Schools being able to opt out of LEA control

The Myth of Parentocracy �The system “looks” fair – parents have the choice to send their children to a range of school. �But…do all parents have the same freedom to choose? �Do all parents have the same cultural and economic capital? �The system creates a myth that education is fair and equitable.

Effects �The reproduction of inequality – middle class parents working the system �Ball (1994) – these polices legitimise inequality. �Middle class pupils get the best education – the schools want these pupils as they get the best results so will compete for them. �The funding formula means that the most popular schools will get the most money and provide better facilities.