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 1980s and 1990s. 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 6th 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.