tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/nicky-morgan-11530/articlesNicky Morgan – The Conversation2016-07-07T13:26:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/621932016-07-07T13:26:20Z2016-07-07T13:26:20ZWhy MPs were right to question Nicky Morgan’s choice to head Ofsted<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129696/original/image-20160707-30676-9hurga.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C10%2C1198%2C705&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amanda Spielman at her pre-selection hearing on June 29. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Parliament tv</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/education-secretary-recommends-new-chief-inspector-of-ofsted">Nicky Morgan announced</a> that her preferred choice for the next head of the schools inspectorate Ofsted was Amanda Spielman, she described her as having “extensive experience at the frontline of the education system, making her uniquely qualified to take up this important role.” </p>
<p>But now the secretary of state for education has had to defend her choice after <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmeduc/170/17002.htm">a report from MPs</a> on the Education Select Committee raised grave doubts about her suitability for the post’s vast remit following a pre-selection hearing. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jun/21/teacher-ofsted-amanda-spielman-lack-classroom-experience">Spielman is the current chair of exam regulator Ofqual</a> and former director of research and policy at the academy chain Ark Schools. Although she has won the support of some in the <a href="http://behaviourguru.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/long-live-queen-why-spielman-is-best.html">education sector</a>, <a href="https://next.ft.com/content/5f6ea704-2f29-11e6-a18d-a96ab29e3c95">many believe that she is not the right person for the job</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmeduc/170/17002.htm">MPs said</a> “we are unable to give our support to her appointment”. Although this a rare move, it is <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/amanda-spielman-rejected-by-cross-party-mps-for-ofsted-chief-inspector-role/">not unprecedented</a>. </p>
<p>However in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535873/160707_Letter_Nicky_Morgan_to_Neil_Carmichael_HMCI_appointment.pdf">letter</a> in response to the report, addressed to its chair Neil Carmichael, Morgan stated she was “surprised and disappointed” by the MPs’ response but has decided to “proceed in recommending ” Spielman’s appointment. </p>
<h2>A huge remit</h2>
<p>The role and remit of head of Ofsted, a role also known as Her Majesty’s chief inspector of schools, was vastly expanded following the 2003 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/273183/5730.pdf">Lamming Report</a> into the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/273183/5730.pdf">death of Victoria Climbié</a>. This highlighted a number of failings in the care system, most notably in the lack of a joined-up approach in safeguarding children. The report resulted in multi-agency collaboration which left Ofsted not only responsible for inspecting education but social care and childminding, too.</p>
<p>Since then, the agency’s work has been further complicated by <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/44067/3/Baxter%20March%202015.pdf">the sweeping and rapid changes</a> to the education system in England. In the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/jacqueline-baxter/smart-proposals-for-education">Trojan Horse affair</a>, in which schools in Birmingham were accused of promoting extremism, Ofsted’s role as an aegis of robust independence from government was left in doubt. The aftermath of the affair placed a considerable emphasis on the agency to ensure that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439598/prevent-duty-departmental-advice-v6.pdf">the counter-extremism Prevent strategy</a> is being implemented across all settings within its remit.</p>
<p>Although <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmeduc/170/17004.htm">experience of teaching is not a requirement of the post</a> – the specification asks for senior experience in education – it is difficult to imagine how someone without that experience could successfully inspire the respect and credibility with the profession that is core to the current role. </p>
<p>Over the last six years, Ofsted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/18/headteachers-ofsted-inspectors-accountability">has done an enormous amount</a> to build that relationship. They have employed current headteacher as inspectors – in spite of possible implications such as the risk of them becoming “too cosy” with the profession they inspect. They have also ensured that all recruitment has been <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10863610/Ofsted-pledges-to-drive-up-standard-of-school-inspections.html">brought in house</a> rather than being contracted out to agencies as was previously the case. </p>
<p>These changes aim to place inspection as central to the ideal <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/david-h-hargreaves-thinkpieces-on-the-self-improving-school-system">of “self-improving” schools</a> which exist not in silos or pockets of excellence, but which collaborate together to raise standards in teaching and learning – so improving the lives of young people.</p>
<h2>Passion key to success</h2>
<p>There is little doubt that any chief inspector must, at their core, be possessed of passion: a passion for education and a deep and abiding passion to improve standards in education and social care. While some former chief inspectors were <a href="https://policypress.co.uk/school-governance">unpopular due to their pugilistic rhetoric</a>, others have expressed their commitment by their deeds rather than their ablity to make headlines.</p>
<p>Research shows <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/29793/47/Public_service_professional_identities_a_review_of_the_literature_2012.pdf">that practitioners in all fields covered by Ofsted</a> enter their professions motivated by a deep and abiding passion to improve the lives of the young people in their care – a passion that gives them the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aJO3lKa1EacC&oi=fnd&pg=PT35&dq=ozga+teachers&ots=LcHqBOvmsR&sig=IPHohq708a80O7yyxj9_v6W90_0#v=onepage&q=ozga%20teachers&f=false">professional resilience to carry on when the going gets tough</a>. Yet <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmeduc/170/17004.htm#_idTextAnchor012">it was this passion that appeared to be absent during Spielman’s interview</a> in front of MPs, articulated in their report as a parroting of Ofsted’s mission statement without any real substance as to how she would translate this into practice.</p>
<h2>In search of a vision</h2>
<p>Research <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/business-school/about/academic-departments/public-leadership-and-social-enterprise">at The Open University Business School</a> has illustrated that vision represents a core element of successful leadership – this <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/jfh248.html">combined with the ability to form and shape that vision into strategy</a>. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304989716_School_inspectors_operational_challenges_in_National_Policy_Contexts">work</a> with colleagues into implementation of inspection policy across seven OECD countries shows that inspectors and inspectorates have a very powerful effect on education policy. They are not only policy implementers but policy shapers, too, so it is vital that anyone leading such an organisation is fully cogent of the need to build bridges and create an environment that is conducive to improvement. </p>
<p>According to the MPs’ report, Spielman failed to convince them of this vision. This would be concerning at the best of times, but is even more so given the uncertain political climate that has prevailed since the UK’s vote to leave the EU. A climate <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/eu-referendum-2016">marked by</a> feelings of insecurity, instability and fear of change. This combined with the deeply contentious education reforms that have taken place since 2010, makes for a particularly volatile environment.</p>
<p>I have written on many occasions about my firm belief that Ofsted is spread far too thin to be effective partly because of its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304989716_School_inspectors_operational_challenges_in_National_Policy_Contexts">vast and ever-growing remit</a>. As the committee of MPs recommends, it is time for government to recognise this and look seriously at the structure and organisation of the agency, reflecting this in the leadership structure. </p>
<p>Any future Ofsted chief inspector needs the understanding, wisdom and vision to take a cold hard look at this many-headed beast and all of its facets. They should be able to articulate a clear vision and an operational awareness of where exactly inspection should feature within the complex landscape of educational accountability and how best to achieve that vision. If they don’t have this ability then they are clearly not the right person for the job.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Baxter is affiliated as an elected member of The Council of The British Education, Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELM
AS)
</span></em></p>A committee of MPs says it is unable to support the appointment of Amanda Spielman as head of the schools inspectorate.Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Public Policy and Management, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546262016-06-15T09:35:14Z2016-06-15T09:35:14ZBeware the digital entrepreneurs who are opening their own schools<p>To children who love computer games, it could be a dream come true. In early February, Nicky Morgan, secretary of state for education, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/games-workshop-founder-and-entrepreneur-to-open-2-free-schools">announced plans</a> to open two new free schools focusing on computer programming skills in 2017. The schools – in London and Bournemouth – are founded by Ian Livingstone, a video-games entrepreneur, who was also a major player in the recent introduction of computing as a subject in the English national curriculum.</p>
<p>Livingstone’s involvement in schools shows once again how <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19460171.2015.1052003">education policy is being influenced</a> by high-profile business people. In the process, they are transforming the role of the school: making it more like a business than a democratically governed public institution.</p>
<p>Alongside the controversial Department of Education <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508447/Educational_Excellence_Everywhere.pdf">white paper</a> proposal to encourage all schools to join multi-academy trusts and replace parent governors with professionals, the two new schools – called Livingstone Academies – are typical of the future direction of school governance: more private influence, and <a href="http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=20584">less democratic community engagement</a>. </p>
<h2>Lobbying education</h2>
<p>Livingstone is known best for his role as a video-games entrepreneur who launched the successful Tomb Raider franchise while executive chairman of Eidos. Wired magazine named him one of the most <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/07/features/wired-100-the-list/page/2">influential people</a> in the UK’s digital economy.</p>
<p>In 2011, Livingstone co-authored a report called <a href="http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/next-gen">Next Gen</a> with researchers from the charity <a href="http://www.nesta.org.uk/">Nesta</a>, which supports growth in the digital sector. Their report demanded more “rigorous teaching of computing in schools” and recommended putting computer science into the national curriculum for schools in England. Commissioned by Ed Vaizey, then minister for culture, communications and the creative industries, it was intended as a review of the skills needs of the video-games and visual effects industries, long seen as economically valuable sectors of the UK economy. </p>
<p>The subsequent formation of a <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/23/ict-curriculum-ian-livingstone">Next Gen Skills lobbying coalition</a> including Nesta, Google, and Microsoft, finally convinced the Department for Education to support the development of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study">a new computing curriculum</a> in 2013. Livingstone himself remains chair of the group, working with Nesta to create partnerships between industry, policy and educators.</p>
<p>Livingstone’s Academies extend his influence from demand-side policy lobbying to direct supply-side management of educational institutions.</p>
<h2>Start-up schools</h2>
<p>Planned to open in partnership with the <a href="http://www.aspirationsacademies.org/">Aspirations Academies Trust</a> – a successful multi-academy trust that is itself partnered with the US-based <a href="http://www.qisa.org/about/">Quaglia Institute</a> – the Livingstone Academies focus on the “creative application of digital technologies”. Their <a href="http://www.livingstone-aspirations.org/">aim</a> is to equip students with: “The skills and qualifications required to play an active and successful role in today’s knowledge-based, interdependent, highly competitive, fast-changing digital world.”</p>
<p>The schools’ website says that the schools will be run in “partnership with the digital industry to ensure that students gain the skills and knowledge that are central to a successful life as a digital citizen in modern Europe”. In practice, the schools feature specialist facilities such as science labs, design studios, and even on-site “business hubs for start-up and tech businesses”.</p>
<p>The emphasis on preparing young people for work and citizenship in the digital economy reinforces many of the key demands that Livingstone himself has been making while overseeing Next Gen. </p>
<p>This is clearly a successful campaign from a political perspective. In the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/games-workshop-founder-and-entrepreneur-to-open-2-free-schools">government press release</a> announcing the new schools, Morgan said: “The free schools programme is proving to be a vital outlet for our society’s most creative and innovative people to spread their excellence to future generations.”</p>
<p>Livingstone said he hoped his move would: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Encourage other digital entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity offered by the free schools programme in helping to give children an authentic education for the jobs and opportunities of the digital world.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Policy entrepreneurs</h2>
<p>The establishment of the Livingstone Academies is part of a wider education reform movement both in the UK and the US. Businesses and entrepreneurs are currently jumping on new schools policies to push their own interests in education, often through charitable foundations and trusts as well as lobbying organisations. Impatient with the slow pace of educational change, US entrepreneurs from computing companies such as Google and IBM have even created their own alternative <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17508487.2016.1186710">start-up schools</a> instead. The Livingstone Academies demonstrate how free school policies and multi-academy trust proposals are now making entrepreneurial influence more possible in English schools.</p>
<p>In this political context, charitable business people such as Livingstone are becoming important policy entrepreneurs. They are able to influence national policy through lobbying, and run schools according to private interests at the same time. As with the computing curriculum more generally, the Livingstone Academies are being set up to meet government agendas around the digital economy. These agendas are being steered by entrepreneurs such as Livingstone, and will be met by running schools more like businesses where pupils are taught to become little digital entrepreneurs of the future. </p>
<p>Current policies make it increasingly possible and desirable for business entrepreneurs to both demand and supply educational reforms. Working via charitable trusts and foundations, private hands appear poised to displace democratic discussion and collaboration in schooling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54626/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article is based on research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (reference ES/L001160/1). </span></em></p>The influence of private interests in English schools is on the up.Ben Williamson, Lecturer in Education, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/595482016-05-31T09:54:02Z2016-05-31T09:54:02ZDebunked: links between term-time holidays and lower grades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123558/original/image-20160523-11017-h3do8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> ISchmidt/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/father-jon-platt-wins-the-right-to-take-his-children-on-holiday-in-term-time-this-is-what-that-means-a7029446.html">recent victory</a> for parent Jon Platt means that <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/756/contents/made">the 2013 ban</a> on parents taking their children on holidays during term-time is now out of step with English law. </p>
<p>Platt’s case has become something of a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/05/14/term-time-holidays-thousands-could-have-fines-refunded-after-lan/">cause célèbre</a> after he argued that he should have the right to take his daughter away for six school days to Disney World in Florida without permission from her school because no evidence could be produced that she had failed to attend school “regularly”. The court did not define what “regularly” meant, but ruled that he had no case to answer for refusing to pay a £120 fine. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/401467/parental_responsibility_measures_for_school_attendance_and_behaviour.pdf.pdf">government’s guidance</a> on attendance states that parents are “responsible for making sure that their children of compulsory school age receive a suitable full-time education”, which can be by “regular attendance at school”, an alternative provision, or home schooling.</p>
<p>The significance of the case has been amplified by wider concerns about the <a href="http://parentswantasay.co.uk/school-truancy-is-unfairly-criminalising-families-across-england/">number of parents being fined</a> and the impacts on particular groups including <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/11356153/Soldiers-should-be-able-to-take-children-on-holiday-during-term-time-says-peer.html">military personnel</a>. </p>
<p>Quite apart from the <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/staggering-price-difference-between-holidays-11347305">financial incentives</a> to take family holidays during school terms, Platt’s central claim chimes with concerns about the protection of <a href="http://www.local.gov.uk/children-and-young-people-board/-/journal_content/56/10180/7536656/NEWS">the right to a family life</a>. It has also provoked <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/02/27/stop-fines-holidays-term-time/">libertarian demands</a> that it should be for the parent and not the state to make decisions, within the law, about what is in their children’s best interests. </p>
<p>The response of the Department for Education (DfE) has been to double-down. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/short-breaks-damage-young-peoples-futures">Nicky Morgan</a>, secretary of state for education, repeated the claim that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/16/father-overturns-120-fine-taking-daughter-term-time-holiday">even a week missed from school</a> impacts on attainment. </p>
<p>It would seem that the DfE is minded to <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/government-plans-to-change-term-time-holiday-law/">change the law</a> to specify what “regular attendance” means and to bear down on any day missed other than for <a href="http://www.naht.org.uk/welcome/news-and-media/key-topics/parents-and-pupils/naht-issues-new-guidance-on-authorised-absence/">unavoidable causes</a>.</p>
<p>But this policy is out of step with the evidence used to support it. It is based on the myth that each missing day of school, including days missed for holidays, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/just-one-day-off-can-hamper-childrens-life-chances">has a measurable impact on educational achievement</a>. That myth, and the numbers used to support it, have become something of a meme in the educational community, cited by <a href="http://www.rusheymead-sec.leicester.sch.uk/parents-area/attendance.php">schools</a> and <a href="http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schoolsnet/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=56898">Local Education Authorities</a>. </p>
<h2>Out to get truants</h2>
<p>The first intimations of the policy came in 2011 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183445/DFE-RR171.pdf">when the DfE reported that there was a clear link between absence and attainment</a>. The report was rooted in comparisons between those who were persistent absentees (higher than 20% absence) and the rest, making no attempt to distinguish between the relationship between grades and levels of absence of less than 20%. Its authors warned for caution surrounding claims in this area because of the reality that the majority of absences are caused by a minority of pupils. </p>
<p>Under Morgan’s predecessor, Michael Gove, attention continued to focus on the persistent absentees, changing the definition of this to refer to those with more than 15% absence <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/509708/Guide_to_absence_statistics.pdf">(the definition is now 10%)</a>.</p>
<p>Since 2012, there has been a focus on evidence to support the claims that all patterns of attendance explain attainment and that the attainment impact can be tracked to ever-smaller units of relevant attendance. It is within this context that the term-time holiday rule was brought in, even though holidays <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/509989/SFR10_2016_text.pdf">accounted</a> for around 7.5% of all absence compared to 60% for illness.</p>
<p>The primary source of evidence to support this relentless focus on attendance was a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/412638/The_link_between_absence_and_attainment_at_KS2_and_KS4.pdf">February 2015 DfE report</a>. It is this report which led to the headline claims that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>44% of pupils with no absence in Key Stage 4 (normally aged 16) achieve the English Baccalaureate – the gold standard package of GCSE qualifications that includes English, maths, science, history or geography and a language – opening doors to their future. But this figure falls by a quarter to just 31.7% for pupils who miss just 14 days of lessons over the two years that pupils study for their GCSEs, which equates to around one week per year, and to 16.4% for those who miss up to 28 days.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123379/original/image-20160520-4466-1y7vwgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of pupils achieving stated qualifications at the end of KS4 in 2012-13 academic year by percentage of sessions missed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/412638/The_link_between_absence_and_attainment_at_KS2_and_KS4.pdf">Department for Education</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Difficulties with the data</h2>
<p>There are a number of problems with the data and the claims. First, attainment at the end of Key Stage 4 – GCSE level – is only considered in relation to attendance in five terms over Years 10 and 11 when children are 14- to 16-years-old. This is despite data for the whole of secondary school being available through the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-pupil-database">National Pupil Database</a>. </p>
<p>Second, “success” in the English Baccalaureate subjects is not available to students not taking those subjects – they are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-reforms-to-raise-standards-and-improve-behaviour">not yet compulsory</a>. It may well be the case that pupils who don’t take the English Baccalaureate have poor patterns of attainment or are not engaged with schooling. </p>
<p>Third, the attendance bands are very broad – over 50% of pupils are absent only 0-5% of the time. As the 90-95% attendance band covers absences of between 16 and 32 missed days over the five terms in Year 10 and Year 11, this grossly lumps together quite disparate patterns of attendance.</p>
<p>The government makes no distinction between types of attendance and the data cannot be used to support claims that all types of absence, including days missed for holidays, contribute uniformly to a pupil’s grades. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the claims linking poor attendance to poor school performance continue to be made. With the percentage of pupils who were absent for at least one session of school because of a term-time holiday <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524081/SFR13_2016_Text.pdf">increasing from</a> 4.9% in autumn 2014 to 5.2% in autumn 2015, the struggles between parents, schools, the DfE and the courts look set to continue. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Picking over the government’s claims that missing class to go on holiday impacts on attainment.Peter Jones, Lecturer in Education, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/584622016-04-29T09:30:03Z2016-04-29T09:30:03ZForcing all schools to turn into academies is not education’s biggest problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120606/original/image-20160428-28040-1e8pl0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Out of the classroom and onto the streets. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theweeklybull/26167936335/sizes/l">The Weekly Bull/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nicky Morgan faced a grilling from MPs on the <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news-parliament-2015/nicky-morgan-education-white-paper-15-16/">House of Commons Education Select Committee</a> on April 27 to answer questions – some positive and intended to be helpful and some hostile – about the government’s recent education <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508550/Educational_excellence_everywhere__print_ready_.pdf">white paper</a>. The secretary of state for education had faced an earlier <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/tory-backbenchers-ask-nicky-morgan-look-again-academisation-plans">bruising Commons encounter</a> with backbenchers, and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35883922">teacher demonstrations</a> against compulsory academisation. </p>
<p>The greatest opposition to the white paper is to its proposal for the compulsory conversion of all schools in England to academy status by 2022. Some, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-a-u-turn-on-academies-do-to-conservative-education-policy-58380">members of the Conservative party</a>, are asking for a reversal of the compulsory element of the programme. Others, such as those on the demonstration, just want it reversed.</p>
<p>But it is worth considering just how significant compulsory conversion is and whether it is the most important matter facing English schools.</p>
<h2>No one model</h2>
<p>I have <a href="http://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/books/schools-and-schooling/equity-trust-and-the-self-improving-schools-system/">argued elsewhere</a> that six years after the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/32/contents">2010 Academies Act</a> there is no longer one set of arrangements – successful or otherwise – that constitutes “the academies model”. Despite this, Morgan continued to refer to such a model in front of the select committee – and much sterile discussion followed. </p>
<p>According to Morgan, there are already 973 Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), non-profit organisations which run groups of academies. The vast majority have fewer than ten schools, but this can vary enormously.</p>
<p>Different MATs contain different combinations of primary and secondary schools, and run schools with a different geographical spread. The trusts also vary in the amount of autonomy they give to schools. And that’s leaving aside the free-standing academies, some of which the white paper said would remain outside a trust for now. </p>
<p>Some trusts, including ones where I have conducted interviews, are centrally managed. This means there is one governing board in charge of all the trust’s schools, the performance of principals at each school is managed centrally by an executive team, and staff are moved between schools, often to their benefit. </p>
<p>Other MATs pride themselves on retaining the individuality of their schools. Each of the schools in these trusts retains its local governing body and the central board just oversees strategy and the performance of the central team where there is one. </p>
<p>Some academies I have visited, including convertor academies (those good or outstanding schools choosing to convert from 2010 onwards) in loose local arrangements, have not changed at all since conversion. They have the same governors, name and continuing commitment to the communities they serve. The people who I have encountered leading and teaching in these schools have exactly the same passions and commitment to children as those in schools still maintained and run by local authorities. </p>
<h2>Democratic deficit</h2>
<p>There are good reasons to oppose academy status, such as the lack of local democratic oversight that comes with the system change. Some chains are remote, with their offices further away than the local council HQ, making local input from parents and the community potentially harder – though not impossible. And academisation only “works” if it enables good leadership with a focus on what is important – good teaching leading to good outcomes for children.</p>
<p>But in reality, this lack of any real oversight is also the case now for maintained schools. The old local authority system (never really one of “supervision”) is passing away, through a combination of budget cuts, strategic choice by local authorities and now central direction. If schools need support, they look to other schools in their networks, local MATs or more widely still. </p>
<p>So if the critics of the white paper have their way and the government decides not to force all schools to become academies, schools that remain maintained and run by a local authority would face an uncertain future. They will be isolated with diminishing support and disappearing local arrangements. </p>
<p>Things are moving very rapidly now. Many schools – who had waited to see the result of the election last year – resumed discussions about becoming academies and forming MATs before the end of the 2015 summer term. </p>
<h2>The bigger question: reducing inequality</h2>
<p>But MPs on the select committee also asked a really significant question of Morgan: how can academy conversion help schools that are already good or outstanding? The answer has to be the same: only in what it enables them to do. And that includes addressing a much more fundamental problem: how low attainment remains inextricably linked <a href="https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/books/education-policy/research-and-policy-in-education/">“to life chances in England”</a> and remains a principal mechanism for the transmission of poverty between <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/report/funding-for-disadvantaged-pupils/">generations</a>.</p>
<p>There have been successes in reducing attainment gaps, but the era of nationally imposed education strategies and solutions is also slowly being superseded by moves towards a self-improving schools system that holds promise for <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03054985.2014.979014">reducing such inequity</a>. The deeper reflection required on what happens in classrooms – and how learning is sometimes organised in ways that limit children’s potential – depends on much more routine relations of mutual trust between schools, heads and teachers. And the government and parents must trust them more, too – reducing external burdens that get in the way of their passions and commitment. </p>
<p>This includes Ofsted – our education should rely less on data from the schools inspectorate. There have already been some timely reductions in inspection requirements for good schools and they have earned our trust. More are to come. The white paper proposed, for example, that schools with new heads or those implementing improvement plans will face no inspections for three years. </p>
<p>All of this goes some of the way towards achieving what the head of a MAT said to me recently: that we should be “avoiding quick fixes”. Instead, how all schools – including good and outstanding ones – address inequity must be our key focus.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Riddell has received funding from the British Academy.</span></em></p>Dealing with inequality should be the main priority.Richard Riddell, Senior lecturer, Education Studies, Bath Spa UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/581792016-04-28T11:31:04Z2016-04-28T11:31:04ZFuture of religious education under threat from drive to make all schools academies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120375/original/image-20160427-30967-p620eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rules for schools could change. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Skalny/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religious education is no stranger to controversy. Determining which religions should be studied, and how and why, is often a fraught process, particularly where the teaching of certain religious beliefs over others is concerned, or if children are being indoctrinated into a particular faith. </p>
<p>Despite the importance of making sure young people today have a good level of <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-need-to-do-more-to-improve-childrens-religious-literacy-51926">religious literacy</a>, the recent Department for Education white paper, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere">Educational Excellence Everywhere</a>, makes no reference to religious education (RE). But its proposal that every school in England should become an academy by 2022 has important ramifications for the subject. </p>
<p>Since 1944, local education authorities (LEAs) have been required to produce agreed syllabuses for RE in state-maintained schools without a religious affiliation. These are agreed unanimously by representatives of different religious persuasions, alongside teacher associations and the LEA. Since 1988, LEAs have also been required to establish Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACRE) to advise the local authority on matters connected with RE.</p>
<p>But academies and free schools, whether with a religious affiliation or not, do not currently have to follow an LEA-agreed syllabus for RE. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many such schools are continuing to do so, even though there is no statutory requirement. It is possible, however, for other schools to exploit the available freedom and develop their own syllabuses. In such cases, we would not know what aims, methods and content for RE each school is selecting for its lessons. This presents a risk.</p>
<p>The white paper calls for the establishment of a clearly defined role for local government in education more generally, but says nothing about RE. This is a glaring omission.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120377/original/image-20160427-30982-10ax2lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120377/original/image-20160427-30982-10ax2lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120377/original/image-20160427-30982-10ax2lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120377/original/image-20160427-30982-10ax2lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120377/original/image-20160427-30982-10ax2lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120377/original/image-20160427-30982-10ax2lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120377/original/image-20160427-30982-10ax2lv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Still at the centre of British life?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John D F/www.flickr.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Religious powerbroking</h2>
<p>For more than 150 years, the position of religion in publicly-funded schools has been a matter of profound controversy – so much so that a dual system of church and state schools emerged. When the 1902 Education Act created LEAs and gave them responsibility for funding church schools through local rates, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Shifting_Alliances.html?id=F-qeAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">it met with opposition</a> from non-conformists and secularists. This was vociferous enough to dissuade the government from attempting significant educational reform for the next 40 years.</p>
<p>Later, in the period between the two world wars, when LEAs sought to establish secondary schools, they met with opposition from Anglicans who were <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Church_and_state_in_English_education_18.html?id=yCY1kJyWZBUC&redir_esc=y">worried about</a> the RE that secondary school pupils would receive. In certain areas of the country, the support of Anglicans was obtained once they had been given the opportunity – alongside non-conformists, teachers and local councillors – to determine the RE syllabus provided in LEA primary and secondary schools. So locally agreed syllabuses emerged as a political means of managing religious sectarianism to enable educational reform to occur.</p>
<p>This was never more appreciated than in World War II, when the population <a href="https://www.routledge.com/products/9780754666929">became galvanised</a> around a vision of social, educational and spiritual progress. It was in <a href="https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10036/16633">this context</a> – in fear of communism, fascism and Nazism abroad – that daily collective worship and weekly RE lessons were made statutory in LEA schools in the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/7-8/31/contents/enacted">1944 Education Act</a>. </p>
<p>A lot has changed since that act was passed. England <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2011.620013#.VyDqRD-PBWc">has experienced</a> religious pluralisation and a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2012.761733#.VyHKqj-PBWc">de-Christianisation of society</a>. At the same time, there has been a centralisation of educational policy, devolution of powers to schools and the establishment of non-Christian faith schools.</p>
<p>But there have also been continuities in the form of the established Church and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10770425/David-Cameron-says-Christians-should-be-more-evangelical.html">political rhetoric</a> around “Christian Britain”. Nor has religious controversy disappeared, especially around the powder keg of religion in schools – as the allegations over extremist teaching at schools in Birmingham in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/trojan-horse">Trojan Horse affair</a> illustrated. So it is still vital that politicians negotiate religious differences with caution and careful consideration.</p>
<h2>Risk of alienating faith groups</h2>
<p>If agreed syllabuses and SACRE are now to be replaced by a new statutory structure for determining the RE curriculum, then those responsible for planning these new arrangements will have to show the same political nous and fervour as the architects of the 1944 Education Act. If no such statutory structures are put in place – to provide checks and balances for the RE curriculum – then there is a risk that individual schools might ignite religious controversy in the way they teach the subject. </p>
<p>Even if religious groups no longer continue to have a statutory voice in determining the RE curriculum, it is probably wise to develop a new local or national mechanism. Through this, religious and other communities with a vested interest in the subject could enter into dialogue with those with responsibility for determining the subject’s aims, methods and content. </p>
<p>The alternative is to disenfranchise and marginalise faith communities, creating less mutual understanding and more disagreement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Freathy has received funding from a variety of organisations: The British Academy; History of Education Society (UK); Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; Culham St Gabriel’s Trust; Westhill Endowment Trust; Bible Society England and Wales; All Saints Educational Trust; Hockerill Educational Trust; Sarum St Michael Educational Charity; and The Challenger Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen G. Parker has received funding from the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, Westhill Endowment Trust, St. Peter's Saltley Trust, Culham St Gabriel's Trust. </span></em></p>Local education authorities have mediated the RE syllabus for decades. Now, there might be a free-for-all.Rob Freathy, Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research and Deputy Director of the University of Exeter Doctoral College, University of ExeterStephen G. Parker, Professor of the History of Religion and Education, University of WorcesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572922016-04-08T13:17:18Z2016-04-08T13:17:18ZTrue cost of plan to turn all schools into academies remains opaque<p>In its recently published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere">white paper on education</a>, the government wants to ensure that “discredited ideas unsupported by firm evidence are not promoted”. Yet the Conservatives – who like to think of themselves as “the party of choice” – plan to force all schools to become academies by 2022. The secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/nicky-morgan-no-reverse-gear-academisation">said</a> the academies policy has “no reverse gear”. </p>
<p>This has <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/26/national-union-of-teachers-backs-ballot-on-strike-action-brighton">invoked a strike ballot</a> by the National Union of Teachers, condemnation by Labour and even some <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/24/conservative-councillors-angry-academy-plans-nicky-morgan">Conservative councillors</a>. </p>
<p>Over the last five years, <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-16/31449/">the direct cost</a> to the Department for Education (DfE) of conversions to academy status has been about £320m for 4,897 schools – about £66,000 per school. </p>
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<p>With 16,800 schools, including special schools and pupil referral units, to be converted to academy status – the <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/news/73401/labour-claims-academies-plan-will-cost-%C2%A313bn">Labour party estimates</a> that the total conversion cost to the DfE will be £1.1bn, plus another £200m for estimated legal costs for local authorities. The government <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/education-35945542">contests these figures</a> and claims that around £600m has been allocated for academy conversion and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-schools-are-funded-in-england-is-ripe-for-reform-heres-why-55909">new formula</a> for allocating schools funding – but it is unclear exactly how the money is to be split between these two items. </p>
<h2>Thousands of conversions</h2>
<p>By March 2016, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development">DfE data showed</a> that 2,949 primaries (17% of total state-funded schools) and 2,007 secondaries were academies – so the Labour Party’s scaling up of the future direct costs of converting the remainder is a useful estimate. But it is only a ballpark figure. </p>
<p>There <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015">are</a> 16,766 primaries and 3,381 secondaries in England so there are many more primaries to convert. Many primaries are small – hence they cannot be stand-alone academies – and they will have to become part of existing multi-academy trusts. This means the cost of conversion per school could be lower than previously thought.</p>
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<p>Yet the costs are likely to be on-going rather than one-off. And there are potential hidden costs – time taken up by teachers, governors and local authorities in the conversion process, and then adapting to the “new rules” that come with academy status. </p>
<p>The pace of change may exacerbate these hidden costs. Even in that bastion of free enterprise, competition and innovation, the United States, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/09/17/7-key-facts-about-charter-school-quality">only about 6%</a> of the school population are in “charter schools”, a form of academy, 25 years after their introduction. </p>
<p>When you look at the details of conversion, monitoring standards, funding and accountability of academies – the costs of running the system look certain to be high. This will involve the DfE funding arrangements and dealing with appeals against academies and failing schools. In 2015, the Education Select Committee <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/258/258.pdf">recommended</a> that more support is also needed for <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group">Regional Schools Commissioners</a>, who are now charged with overseeing academies. </p>
<p>Multi-layered responsibility and oversight invite difficulties and PR disasters – particularly when it comes to accountability to parents of primary school children. Transparency and accountability are the antidote, but this costs money. In the US, the monitoring regime for charter schools is more open and stringent (contracts are for three to five years rather than seven in the UK) – partly because conversion has been voluntary or new schools have been established as charters. </p>
<h2>Is it worth the cost?</h2>
<p>All might be well if the switch to academies produced clear cut, positive results across all pupils, which outweighed the transition costs and any higher running and monitoring costs to the state.</p>
<p>The “gold standard” of analysing the success of schools that have been given more autonomy has come from the US by way of a coin flip. <a href="http://users.nber.org/%7Eschools/charterschoolseval/how_NYC_charter_schools_affect_achievement_sept2009">Studies</a> using entry via a lottery mean that students at US academy-type schools, known as charters, can be “randomly matched” with state-maintained schools – so researchers can compare “apples with apples”. </p>
<p>In the UK, we don’t have admission by lottery and so researchers compare pupils who voluntarily choose to go to academies or free schools with pupils who go to state-maintained schools. It’s of course possible that the children at academies may do better or improve faster, simply because they start with higher academic attainment levels, better home environments, better neighbourhoods, greater motivation and maybe, better academic genes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.5.4.1">Entry-lottery studies</a> are the best method of ensuring that some of the unobserved differences between academy and state-maintained pupils, which may be the cause of future pupil performance, are not wrongly attributed to the change to academy status.</p>
<p>This is the weakness in the white paper’s analysis – the methodology is often not comparing apples with pears, but apples with elephants.</p>
<p>In the UK, there are plenty of unanswered questions about the effectiveness of academies. For example, we don’t know yet whether giving schools more autonomy helps disadvantaged minority pupils – or “average” or “exceptional” pupils. Nor do we know what truly causes improvements in a school’s results – better teachers, higher salaries, longer academic year, support from other schools or children’s services, or conversion to another set of administrative structures. </p>
<p>What is clear is that the evidence does not support rushing through the forced conversion of all schools into the academy structure by 2022 and that the costs of the policy are still far from clear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Cuthbertson is an ordinary member of the Labour Party </span></em></p>The government’s plans could come with many hidden costs.Keith Cuthbertson, Professor of Finance, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/564762016-03-23T14:02:19Z2016-03-23T14:02:19ZSex education is letting British teenagers down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115583/original/image-20160318-4415-kqgn6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Voyagerix/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government has been heavily <a href="http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/02/19/nick-clegg-says-pm-has-abandoned-duty-by-blocking-sex-education/">criticised</a> after rejecting a recommendation for statutory inclusive sex and relationship education in schools. This comes after <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/11/30-of-female-victims-under-16">Office for National Statistics figures</a> recently revealed that in the 12 months to March last year, 30% of female rape victims were aged under 16, a quarter were 14 or younger, and nearly 10% were nine or younger. </p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/17/sex-education-mandatory-all-schools-mps-demand">MPs’ calls</a> for sex and relationship education to be mandatory in all schools, its “<a href="https://www.pshe-association.org.uk/curriculum-and-resources/curriculum">non-statutory</a>” status – couple with the fact that many schools are emerging via the process of “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/22/teachers-osborne-academies-schools">academy-isation</a>” – means that currently schools embrace sex education with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Consequently, it is almost impossible for the subject to be taught at a <a href="http://mancunion.com/2016/03/15/lets-talk-about-sex/">consistent level</a> across the UK. </p>
<p>The case for making sex education compulsory seems to be <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34470205">more compelling</a> than ever. And in the wake of high-profile child abuse cases in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/24/child-sex-abuse-rotherham-guilty-gang-hussain">Rotherham</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35499700">Rochdale</a>, calls have been for a greater discussion of issues of <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/649315/Sexual-consent-education-campaign-viral-videos-genitals">consent</a> for all young people, and young women in particular. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">How should sex education be taught in schools?</span></figcaption>
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<p>Issues highlighted in recent research undertaken by the <a href="http://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/">Sex Education Forum</a> into young people’s experience of sexual education shows there needs to be more focus on the safety around the exchanges of digital images between pupils – with discussions needed on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35858169">impact “sexting”</a> has on young people.</p>
<p>It is also important to evolve the understanding of “relationships” to include <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/sex-education-lessons-ignore-gay-and-lesbian-relationships-research-says-a6745351.html">same-sex</a> relations – with young gay and bisexual men particularly poorly served by school sex education classes, in part due to low levels of knowledge around safer behaviour and HIV.</p>
<h2>Facts of life</h2>
<p>Prior to the government’s decision on sex and relationship education, four different chairs of House of Commons Committees – education, health, home affairs and business – wrote to education secretary <a href="http://www.nickymorgan.org/">Nicky Morgan</a>, saying personal, social, health and economic education, which includes sex education, was a “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/02/10/nicky-morgan-refuses-to-make-pshe-compulsory-in-schools_n_9201786.html">crucial part of preparing young people for life</a>”. </p>
<p>“It can provide them with the knowledge and confidence to make decisions which affect their health, well-being and relationships, now and in the future,” said the joint letter. </p>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/499338/Nicky_Morgan_to_Education_Select_Committee_-_10_Feb_2016--.pdf">reply to Neil Carmichael</a> – chairman of the education select committee – Nicky Morgan defended the lack of change. She implied schools are either not ready, or do not have the expertise to deliver such classes – with Ofsted <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/413178/Not_yet_good_enough_personal__social__health_and_economic_education_in_schools.pdf">finding</a> that 40% of personal, social, health and economic education teaching in schools is less than good. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115646/original/image-20160318-4446-k47v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115646/original/image-20160318-4446-k47v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115646/original/image-20160318-4446-k47v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115646/original/image-20160318-4446-k47v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115646/original/image-20160318-4446-k47v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115646/original/image-20160318-4446-k47v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115646/original/image-20160318-4446-k47v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sex education often ignores gay and lesbian relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dragon Images/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But strangely, governments have never held back on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13274090">introducing educational initiatives</a> in the past. In fact, the mandatory nature of the changes often provides a powerful imperative for implementation. A good example is the <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/timeline.html">curriculum reforms</a> in the 1990s, which foregrounded literacy and numeracy.</p>
<h2>Beyond the banana</h2>
<p>In a lot of ways, sex education is still stuck in the past – when it <a href="http://www.academia.edu/4104142/teaching_pleasure_and_danger_in_sexuality_education">sought to</a> “regulate the moral and sexual behaviour of citizens in accordance with reoccurring social agendas”. This <a href="https://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2008/elliotts19091/elliotts19091.pdf">includes</a> encouraging a heterosexually envisaged future, stable family life, the prevention of “promiscuity”, and stemming sexually transmissible infections and “unplanned” pregnancies. Unfortunately, this isn’t really representative of the age we live in now.</p>
<p>Influenced by the ideas of the eugenics movement, early sex education also sought to encourage “<a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/ethical-sex-relations-or-the-new-eugenics/author/whitehead-c-s-hoff-charles-a/">good breeding</a>” to “strengthen the nationhood”.</p>
<p>As the situation stands, it seems as though Nicky Morgan is caught in a trap between her own personally supportive position and the potential challenges which might emerge from certain <a href="http://www.christian.org.uk/news/school-sex-ed-not-the-answer-to-teen-sexting/">faith groups</a> – who have a vested interest in protecting a more conservative concept of “sexuality”. So if sex education was to become compulsory it could create confrontation and a conflict of values.</p>
<p>We need to look deeper at our society and the moral meanings that are attached to sexuality, sexual behaviour and sex and relationship education. Because it is society at large and young people specifically who continue to pay the price for inadequate, patchy sex education. Instead of being seen as “contaminating knowledge”, sex education should be seen as a facilitator of individual growth and empowerment. Sexuality, arguably, is a central experience of being human after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max Biddulph receives funding from National Healthy Schools initiative. </span></em></p>It’s old-fashioned, out of date and varies massively from school to school.Max Biddulph, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/563832016-03-18T12:01:34Z2016-03-18T12:01:34ZExplainer: what raft of education reforms mean for England’s schools<p>The Conservatives show no sign of slowing down the pace of education reform in England and made a flurry of new announcements on changes to the school system. After the headlines about George Osborne’s budget announcement that all schools must be on track <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35815023">to becoming an academy by 2022</a>, more detail on this and a raft of other reforms have been published by Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508447/Educational_Excellence_Everywhere.pdf">in a new white paper</a>. </p>
<p>The key principles of these changes is to increase schools’ autonomy to make their own decisions, and focus on the quality of education by monitoring the outcomes of pupils. </p>
<p>By transforming all schools in England into academies, the Conservatives aim to totally transform schools by the time the next election comes along – finally taking <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-obituary-farewell-to-your-local-education-authority-56387">local authorities out of running schools</a> altogether. The majority (61%) of secondary schools <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35815023">are already academies</a> – 2,075 out of 3,381. But the picture in primary is quite different – only around 15% of primary schools are currently academies. Converting all of them will be a huge task, not least for the Department for Education in managing the process. </p>
<p>The academies policy also creates a big challenge of governance. It’s unclear whether we can find enough high quality governors to run all our schools well. One way of solving this problem might be to get schools to join together in multi-academy trusts (MATs), otherwise known as academy chains. The white paper suggests that “most schools will join or form MATs”. </p>
<p>But this will only partially solve the problem. While some academy chains such as Harris or ARK have been highly effective, <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Chain-Effects-2015.pdf">others have had major issues</a> in terms of quality of performance. </p>
<p>The white paper suggests a strong role for the eight existing Regional Schools Commissioners in monitoring the quality of academy chains and intervening where necessary. In addition, measures have been proposed to increase the role of parents, who will be allowed to petition to have a school moved to another chain. </p>
<p>There will also finally be the publication of accountability and performance measures for MATs, something <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-dont-operate-in-a-vacuum-so-why-inspect-them-as-if-they-do-33693">that was overdue</a> in a system in which they play such a central role. </p>
<h2>Too much, too soon?</h2>
<p>All this is happening at a time when the overall evidence on whether academies have an overall positive effect on standards is mixed. The first generation of academies, the so-called “sponsored” academies set up in disadvantaged, primarily inner-city areas to take over from struggling schools, have shown <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-wave-of-academy-schools-created-under-labour-boosted-grades-39665">positive effects</a> on attainment. The picture <a href="http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/IMPB02/IMPB02.pdf">is less clear</a> for the more recent “converter” academies, successful schools that could convert to academy status. </p>
<p>Full academisation of English schools also marks the end of the National Curriculum, a flagship policy of a previous Conservative government, as academies can set their own. In practise, however, the exam and accountability system – including performance measures such as the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc">English Baccalaureate</a> – leaves government with a strong lever to direct what schools teach.</p>
<p>Osborne also announced additional funding for a quarter of secondary schools to extend their school day. This can be a useful strategy to improve attainment in particular for disadvantaged students. But as with academisation, the evidence is mixed: it is what schools do with the extra time that really counts. In particular, activities <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/extending-school-time/;%20http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED461695">need to be academically focused</a>, but sufficiently attractive to make sure students actually attend them.</p>
<h2>Closing the gap</h2>
<p>The schools inspectorate Ofsted recently <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-nation-divided">identified a gap in school standards</a> between the north and south of England, with the former under-performing. In response to this, the government announced a strategy, partly copied from the successful <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/184093/DFE-RR215.pdf">London Challenge</a>, to improve them. The model is based on outstanding schools and leaders supporting their less successful neighbours. </p>
<p>There is evidence that this strategy can be successful, but <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09243453.2013.840319#abstract">it doesn’t work in all cases</a>. Some critics have claimed that the success of the London Challenge was not down to the strategy at all, but to changes in demographics, such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-why-do-students-in-london-do-better-at-school-34090">growing number</a> of non-white British working class pupils. Others have pointed to the additional funding received for each pupil by London schools. </p>
<h2>Teacher training revamp</h2>
<p>The white paper proposes to further increase the proportion of teacher training offered by schools rather than universities. The “best” universities will still offer teacher training, often in “centres of excellence” based on their “world-leading research and subject expertise”. This suggests that difficult times may be coming for those universities that provide teacher training that does not fit the criteria. </p>
<p>Schools are also to be given an increased role in accrediting new teachers. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/qualified-teacher-status-qts">The current system</a> will be scrapped and replaced by “accreditation based on a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, as judged by great schools”. Headteachers will play a key role. </p>
<p>The existing school-led teacher training system has come in for a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/jan/19/school-direct-is-choking-university-teacher-training-courses">lot of criticism</a>, but in reality there is no real evidence of its effectiveness or otherwise. In part, this is because the impact of teacher training on student outcomes <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272710001696">is hard to measure</a>. Still, the government’s emphasis on improving teachers’ subject knowledge and ensuring the content of their initial training is based on evidence is welcome, and will hopefully debunk some of the myths and poor practices that <a href="http://swcarpentry.github.io/instructor-training/papers/de-bruyckere-urban-myths-2015.pdf">still crop up in education</a>. </p>
<h2>Fairer funding</h2>
<p>The final major reform that will have a large impact in many schools is the change to the school funding formula. The government has set aside £500m to ensure that 90% of schools are funded under the new “fair funding” formula by 2020 to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-schools-are-funded-in-england-is-ripe-for-reform-heres-why-55909">eliminate current discrepancies</a> in per pupil funding around the country. </p>
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<p>The new formula simplifies funding by using four levers: a basic amount per pupil, a payment based on additional needs such as low prior attainment, school costs (the extra costs for serving rural communities), and area costs (more funding will go to areas with higher costs). </p>
<p>This is likely to decrease some of the differences in funding between schools in different areas. What is fair is of course in the eye of the beholder and those schools and areas losing out under the new formula will no doubt quickly point out any inequities the new system may contain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Muijs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unpacked: academy ramp-up, new teacher qualifications and school funding formula.Daniel Muijs, Director of Research and Deputy Head of Southampton Education School, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/559092016-03-08T10:48:24Z2016-03-08T10:48:24ZThe way schools are funded in England is ripe for reform – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114124/original/image-20160307-31269-1px8322.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New formula needed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">XiXinXing/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government has moved to iron out inequalities in how much money schools in different parts of the country can spend on each of their pupils. Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, has launched a <a href="https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula">consultation</a> on replacing the system of funding schools in England through the development of a new school-level national funding formula.</p>
<p>The detail of the proposal for how the distribution of the £40 billion schools budget will be reformed is quite technical. A major component of the proposed change for the 2017-18 school year involves replacing something known as the schools block unit of funding (SBUF) with a central schools block (CSB). </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/331375/Schools_revenue_funding_2015_to_2016_technical_note.pdf">SBUF</a> is currently allocated to local authorities by central government, but is done so in a way that is heavily influenced by historical allocations of spending within each authority. It has been a major reason why some areas in a local authority can receive more money than others.</p>
<p>The new CSB is intended to remove these inequities. It will do so by applying a national formula to allocate a lump sum to schools, and a national mechanism will also deal with “sparsity” – the extra costs faced by small schools in areas that are thinly populated. The formula will continue to have some local variation in order to allow for cost factors such as business rates that differ from place to place. </p>
<p>The CSB will continue to be distributed to schools via local authorities for the first two years, but after 2019-20 it will be allocated directly to schools from central government.</p>
<h2>An unequal distribution</h2>
<p>The latest data shows substantial differences in how schools in different parts of the country are able to spend per pupil. </p>
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<p>Outside London, the highest figure in mainland England is in Tameside (£5,729) while the lowest is in Blackpool (£3,363). Both of these local authorities are in the same region – the north-west. </p>
<p>In the capital, several authorities have per pupil expenditures that are greater than those seen elsewhere. The highest of all is in the City of London (£6,920). In Birmingham, the average spend is £5,008, while in nearby Coventry it is just £4,458. </p>
<p>The differences can be rationalised to some extent by looking, for example, at differences in the proportions of pupils with special needs. But the disparities are so wide that it is hardly surprising that the system of allocating funds to schools has been described as <a href="http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/education/more-than-100-mps-sign-letter-to-david-cameron-calling-for-fairer-schools-funding-1-7530568">irrational and unfair</a>.</p>
<p>School leaders have been warning for some time that funding across much of the sector has the characteristics of a “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11473308/School-funding-is-a-postcode-lottery-head-teachers-warn.html">postcode lottery</a>”, with some schools at the bottom end of the funding distribution consequently facing serious financial challenges. Pressure has also come from groups such as <a href="http://www.f40.org.uk/">f40</a> – a campaign run by 40 local authorities.</p>
<h2>What a new formula should look like</h2>
<p>The exact model of the formula will be published after the government’s consultation ends in late April. It is easy to identify what characteristics a new school funding model should have. Allocations should be based on pupil numbers, weighted to reflect variations in cost of teaching in different year groups. They should also allow for cost variations across subjects at the more advanced levels of education.</p>
<p>Most observers would agree that there should be further funding to support schools whose pupils have extraordinary requirements – arising, for instance, from location in an area of social deprivation or an unusually high concentration of pupils with special educational needs.</p>
<p>Special allowance should also be made for schools operating in areas where costs are unusually high – for example due to high costs of renting space in London. </p>
<p>Precisely how any new formula should operate, and how much (if any) discretion should be retained by local authorities, are, however, more contentious issues. As Lucy Powell, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has said, the “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35726883">devil will be in the detail</a>”. Ironing out inequities across authorities – without more money overall – means that schools in some places will receive less than they do now, and that is likely to generate controversy.</p>
<p>One thing is for certain: the imposition of a new formula will affect schools around the country differently. That is the whole point. It will also provide economists with unusually “clean” data with which to analyse the impact of resources on pupil performance. This is a question that has, until now, been surprisingly contentious – while we know that schools have an effect on pupil outcomes (for example through the quality of teaching) <a href="http://educationnext.org/what-matters-for-student-achievement/%22%22">much less is known</a> about how exactly this effect operates. A new national formula should be able to help answer these questions in the longer term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geraint Johnes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government is consulting on proposals for a new schools funding formula.Geraint Johnes, Professor of Economics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/549292016-02-18T11:43:00Z2016-02-18T11:43:00ZWhat does the head of Ofsted do?<p>Ministers <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12156541/Ministers-looking-abroad-for-new-chief-inspector-of-schools.html">are thought to be looking</a> to the US, Canada and northern Europe in their search for the next chief inspector of schools. With the current head of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, due to step down in December at the end of his term, secretary of state Nicky Morgan is reportedly keen to find someone with a track record of pushing through education reform against resistance from unions. </p>
<p>The idea that a new head of Ofsted brought in from a totally different cultural context will somehow be able to wave a magic wand over English education is not only both misguided and myopic, but shows a fundamental ignorance of what Ofsted was set up to do.</p>
<p>Being the head of Ofsted has never been an easy role. The chief inspector must both protect the agency’s robust independence and negotiate the tricky path of government policy. This has led to considerable tension within the job ever since Ofsted was established in 1992.</p>
<p>Deciding on a new chief inspector would be a little more straightforward if the government could decide what Ofsted is actually for. Set up as one of the quangos that formed part of John Major’s Citizen Charter, it <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?k=9781447326021">was designed to arm</a> parents with more accessible information on schools in order for them to choose where to send their children. </p>
<p>Its central tenet is to “inspect without fear or favour”, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/mar/21/michael-wilshaw-ofsted-speech-ascl">a mantra</a> that has been used over the years to stress its separation from government and lack of political or pedagogical partiality when it comes to teaching methods or approach.</p>
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<p>Since 1992, government pressure has seen it vacillate between being a regulatory body, school improvement agency and more recently, as the implementer of <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-on-the-frontline-against-terror-what-should-schools-do-about-radicalisation-43942">counter-terrorism policy</a>. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted/about">It has a vast remit</a>, tasked with regulating all services that care for children and young people, such as children’s centres and childminding, along with education and skills providers for learners of all ages.</p>
<h2>Pulled in many directions</h2>
<p>During Wilshaw’s tenure at the head of Ofsted he has been the subject of intense media scrutiny. He began the role in January 2012, appointed with optimistic zeal by then secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-chief-inspector-to-be-appointed">and fêted</a> as a personification of outstanding educational leadership. Wilshaw had been praised for his ability to create an outstanding school in an area of high deprivation – the Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney. </p>
<p>He began by introducing a far more “rigorous” inspection framework, combining this with a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jul/22/school-inspections-ofsted-must-improve">re-modelling of the inspection workforce</a> to include more headteacher as inspectors. This was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/18/headteachers-ofsted-inspectors-accountability">a move aimed to counter accusations</a> that many inspectors were out of touch as they had been out of school for a number of years. </p>
<p>At first, he appeared to align with much government policy and became accused of being <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/jan/23/chief-inspector-schools-michael-wilshaw">“far too” cosy with government agenda</a>. But a series of very public spats between Wilshaw and Gove proved him to be far more obdurate and less pliable than the media originally portrayed him to be. </p>
<p>These arguments, which reached a crescendo <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25900547">with a vitriolic attack</a> on Ofsted by a right-wing thinktank, were largely the result of Wilshaw’s growing discontent with <a href="http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447326021&dtspan=0:90&ds=Forthcoming%20Titles&m=12&dc=47">the very limited accountability</a> of free schools and academies – the government’s flagship education reform to give more autonomy to schools. This was a discontent that proved to be well-founded following the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/473/47304.htm">report into the Trojan Horse Affair</a> over extremist influence in Birmingham schools, which detailed just how dire and fragmented educational accountability in England has become.</p>
<h2>Bellwether of educational change</h2>
<p>The role of chief inspector is as powerful as the agency it represents, functioning as “the voice” of the organisation, speaking to both teaching profession and public. Some of Wilshaw’s predecessors embraced the public aspect of the role more than others – none more so than the late <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/23/sir-chris-woodhead">Chris Woodhead</a>. He positioned the role at the epicentre of all educational debate, creating a larger-than-life media persona characterised by a pugilistic style of rhetoric, while pursuing “educational excellence” with quasi-religious zeal.</p>
<p>Others, such as Sir David Bell, carried out their work in a far less overt manner. But in spite of their very different styles, all had one thing in common: they were familiar with the culture and contexts of education in England and all came from the UK.</p>
<p>Ofsted was not set up to push through education reforms against resistance from unions, nor was it established to push any particular party political agenda. It was set up to provide information to parents in an increasingly marketised environment.</p>
<p>The chief inspector is there to ensure that this is done in an impartial and unbiased way. Carrying out this work, particularly in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-vision-for-education-is-difficult-to-swallow-heres-why-53349">fragmented and opaque system of educational accountability</a> that exists in England today, demands the type of cultural and nuanced understanding of the English system that individuals outside of the UK are unlikely to possess.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Baxter is affiliated as an elected member of The Council of The British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) an independent voice supporting quality education through effective leadership and management. I</span></em></p>The government’s search outside the UK for the next chief inspector of schools is misguided.Jacqueline Baxter, Lecturer in Public Policy and Management , The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/502252015-11-05T11:19:46Z2015-11-05T11:19:46ZWe’ve tested seven-year-olds in schools before – here’s why we stopped<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100797/original/image-20151104-29070-j43ip9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could seven-year-olds be sitting SATs again?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nicky Morgan’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-one-nation-education">announcement</a> that seven-year-olds at state-maintained schools could have to sit national, standardised tests could re-open a can of worms that was shut when such tests were phased out in 2005. But the move is not surprising and echoes the current political rhetoric of school accountability and Whitehall’s micro-management of teachers. </p>
<p>Some tests are useful and valuable. For example, I want to know how my child is progressing as a reader or I want to be sure that the pilot who is flying me on holiday is capable and appropriately trained. So I have no principled objection to testing per se; rather my concern about this new proposal is the legitimacy of its goals. </p>
<p>Schools are still required to provide assessment of their pupils at the end of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/key-stage-1-and-2">Key Stage 1</a>, when children are seven-years-old, but teachers administer the process and schools choose when it is carried out. Yet Morgan seems to be suggesting that this is not enough – or not good enough – and will consult on the reintroduction of national standardised tests. In a speech at the Policy Exchange think-tank she <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-one-nation-education">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To be really confident that students are progressing well through primary school, we will be looking at the assessment of pupils at age seven to make sure it is as robust and rigorous as it needs to be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She argues that tests administered by an external body will drive up standards, yet there is very little evidence to support this idea. It is more likely that such test results will be used primarily as an accountability stick rather than as a carrot to improve achievement. </p>
<p>The tests themselves are not a bad thing – it is the way that the results are used that could undermine their validity.</p>
<h2>Tests first introduced in the 1980s</h2>
<p>Tests for seven-year-olds were introduced as the National Curriculum began to take shape in the late 1980s. These were the first national, standardised tests (commonly known as SATs) in primary schools and were introduced for seven-year-olds due to the fact that Key Stage 1 is the shortest key stage, lasting from age five to seven. But it was acknowledged at the time that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131880902891222">this was also a problem</a> as the large-scale testing of children at this age was unknown territory. </p>
<p>While teachers were adept at assessing pupils and reporting to parents on a relatively informal basis, the new system meant negotiation of a compulsory and universal testing regime. Development and administration of the tests was run by three external consortia, comprising universities (including the Institute of Education), publishers and local authorities.</p>
<p>The original intention was a positive one, to provide a broad system that allowed an individual child to “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131880902891222">demonstrate their best”</a> – but this proved to be too challenging in such a large-scale testing situation. </p>
<p>The process of developing these tests provided unique data sets on infant classroom assessment and it changed many teachers’ perceptions of how to assess children. But problems with managing them, and the increasing concern about the effects of the tests on <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/0141192990250305/abstract">children</a> and their <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/01411920600775225/abstract">teachers</a> ultimately precipitated their demise. </p>
<p>The pressure from the testing regimes resulted in some resistance and notable demoralisation among the teaching profession, with unions declaring that the new systems reframed the role of teachers as coaches whose job it was to ensure their pupils passed standardised tests. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100800/original/image-20151104-29079-1tudnd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Testing culture came under pressure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mukhina Viktoriia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The impact of this was <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Changing_English_primary_schools.html?id=hRlKAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">clearly described in reports</a> from the early 1990s that found stressed teachers, stressed pupils and what was supposed to be a broad national curriculum being narrowed to ensure pupils were adequately prepared for the subjects that were most important: English and mathematics. The time allocated to preparing pupils for testing in these two subjects increased, and as a consequence reduced time allocated to other subjects.</p>
<h2>Teachers back in charge</h2>
<p>Public debates about the nature of school assessments in the 2000s revealed growing concern about the effects of testing in schools and this was deemed important enough for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to commission <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/4980/">research</a> into new assessments for seven-year-olds in 2004. </p>
<p>The results of trials for different assessment practices reversed the system, putting the emphasis back on teacher assessment, rather than national tests. This proved successful, so from 2005 this “new” system was <a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/The-role-of-teachers-in-the-assessment-of-learning.pdf">used in all primary schools</a>. This was not simply a return to how it had been in the early 1980s, rather schools had to use approved tests and procedures as part of the assessment process, which was conducted by teachers. It has continued until <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-1-assessment-and-reporting-arrangements-ara/end-of-key-stage-1-assessment-arrangements">today</a>.</p>
<p>Bearing in mind the fraught history of national standardised testing at a tender age, it seems perplexing that we may well see something similar reintroduced into state-maintained schools for seven-year-olds. While there is some evidence that the test results at the end of Key Stage 2, when children are 11, can provide <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmeduc/writev/gcse/Q39%20-%20PREDICTING%20GCSE%20OUTCOMES%20Paper.pdf">a reasonable indicator</a> for future academic success at GCSE, there is no such evidence that advocates such a regime at the end of Key Stage 1.</p>
<p>Morgan is <a href="https://theconversation.com/squad-of-super-teachers-is-an-uncertain-cure-for-englands-failing-schools-50159">keen to recruit</a> more excellent teachers at a time when unprecedented numbers are <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-teachers-suffering-from-a-crisis-of-motivation-48637">thinking of leaving the profession</a>, many because they feel de-professionalised. If yet more layers of accountability and public judgement are inserted into our primary schools via tests for seven-year-olds, then teaching may become an even less appetising career choice. </p>
<p>It will also narrow the learning experience for our youngest pupils at the very time that it should be becoming broader. The bottom line is that teaching for a test is not a strong model for nurturing a love of learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Richardson receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>A decade after they were phased out, the government could reintroduce national tests for seven-year-olds.Mary Richardson, Senior Lecturer in Educational Assessment, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/501592015-11-04T10:45:45Z2015-11-04T10:45:45ZSquad of super teachers is an uncertain cure for England’s failing schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100661/original/image-20151103-16550-12n6gso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coming to a classroom near you?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Halfpoint/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The education secretary Nick Morgan has announced the launch of a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-one-nation-education">National Teaching Service (NTS)</a> that will ensure we “get the brightest and best to schools that are struggling.” But she provided no evidence that schemes such as this work to help struggling schools – <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nicky-morgan-no-tolerance-of-areas-where-majority-of-pupils-fail">many in</a> the North of England and coastal areas – to attract the best teachers. </p>
<p>As somebody now involved with the training of teachers after 15 years of working in secondary schools, ten of which would be on Morgan’s list, I want to see all pupils in good schools. This can only happen with excellent teachers. But we seem to be rushing into a model which is costly and time-limited, that only provides a sticking plaster approach to larger problems around <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-is-a-teacher-shortage-looming-34990">teacher recruitment</a>. </p>
<p>We have seen similar policies before, with the launch of <a href="http://www.teachfirst.org.uk/">Teach First</a> 12 years ago, which also offers fast-track opportunities to the brightest. Teach First, a charity, offers the potential for rapid promotion for those with a <a href="http://graduates.teachfirst.org.uk/application-selection/requirements">2:1 degree and 300+ UCAS points at A-level</a>, despite a lack of evidence that either degree classification or UCAS point scores have a correlation with being a “good” teacher. </p>
<h2>A good package</h2>
<p>The proposed NTS appears, from the information available so far, to be adopting a similar model to Teach First. The NTS will give “teachers that take part fast-track development opportunities” as well as a “package of support including a clear path to promotion and leadership roles”. The goal is to have 1,500 outstanding teachers and leaders in the service by 2020, kicked off by a pilot to start in the North West in September 2016. </p>
<p>Like Teach First, participants will sign up to a time-limited commitment, and schools who request help from the service will be assigned a “teacher or leader who will work with them for a period of up to three years”. </p>
<p>But is this really about new teachers, new support and new impact? The Department of Education already makes use of the <a href="http://www.future-leaders.org.uk/programmes/">Future Leaders Trust</a>, which offers a range of options including a talented leaders programme for head teachers or senior leaders who make a commitment to a new school for three years. </p>
<p>Additional support for schools comes in the way of mentoring and ongoing support from experienced head teachers, tailored training and expert coaching from the <a href="http://www.future-leaders.org.uk/support-for-headteachers/">Future Leaders Trust’s Headship Institute</a> and a £50,000 <a href="http://www.future-leaders.org.uk/programmes/talented-leaders/">Leadership Sustainability Fund</a> to help the school improve and build a strong leadership pipeline. This is in addition to up to £15,000 worth of support for relocating leaders involved in the programme.</p>
<h2>Is Teach First the best model?</h2>
<p>Morgan launched the proposed NTS with the endorsement of Teach First chief executive Brett Wigdortz. He was <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nicky-morgan-no-tolerance-of-areas-where-majority-of-pupils-fail">quoted</a> as saying that he looked forward to “working with the Department for Education” to explore how the NTS could help teachers to enable “young people from low-income backgrounds to realise their full potential.”</p>
<p>But if Teach First is taken as a model for the NTS, we cannot escape questions about the cost of the training model and the scheme’s retention rates. The first point raises a significant question in the current austerity climate when the training costs for a Teach First trainee <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmeduc/1515/151502.htm#evidence">have been estimated</a> to cost central government £27,443 compared to the £16,470 cost of a university-based post-graduate trainee.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/GTTG12.pdf">Evidence also suggests</a> that 75% of teachers who trained at a university-based courses will still be teaching after five years compared to Teach First where 93% will be teaching after one year, dropping to 40% after five years. Notwithstanding the intention of Teach First that, as the name suggests, participants teach before moving on to something else, it is an expensive way to train teachers.</p>
<p>Questions still remain about why teachers aren’t already flocking to coastal towns. In a <a href="http://www.future-leaders.org.uk/insights-blog/combatting-isolation-coastal-schools/">report</a> on why schools in coastal towns are failing, the Future Leaders Trust said there were a number of factors, including: “declining industry, limited transport infrastructure, low-paid work and few opportunities”. It could be that successive governments have let these areas become run down with few prospects for young people. </p>
<p>Reshaping the Future Leaders Trust or Teach First as the National Teaching Service won’t solve these more structural problems. We need to see more clearly the detail of the evidence base used to set up the new programme.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gren Ireson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nicky Morgan has announced a scheme to give incentives for the best teachers to go to struggling schools. Will it work?Gren Ireson, Professor of Science Education, Research Coordinator within the School of Education, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/492482015-10-16T12:15:24Z2015-10-16T12:15:24ZWhy do grammar schools remain so popular?<p>The education secretary Nicky Morgan has announced <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34535778">her decision to allow</a> a grammar school in Kent to build a new “annexe” providing additional places for 450 girls. </p>
<p>There are 163 existing state-run grammar schools in the UK, which admit pupils based on academic selection – but legislation was passed in 1998 prohibiting the opening of any new grammar schools. Morgan’s long-awaited, but controversial <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2015-10-15/HCWS242/">decision</a> will allow Weald of Kent Grammar School in Tonbridge to expand by opening a satellite school nine miles away in Sevenoaks. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/education/articles/story/grammar-school-extension-open-floodgates-labour">criticised</a> about the decision, she <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/15/nicky-morgan-denies-grammar-school-kent-open-floodgates?CMP=share_btn_tw">claimed</a> it would not “open the floodgates” for more grammar schools. </p>
<p>Grammar schools continue to be popular among the general public. A poll published in April 2015 by <a href="http://comres.co.uk/polls/ngsa-grammar-schools-poll/">ComRes found 51% of British adults</a> support allowing new grammar schools to open. Their appeal seems to endure, despite strong research evidence showing that grammar schools <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2014/abstract323.html">generate inequality</a> and <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v93y2009i7-8p965-973.html">perpetuate privilege</a>. But why?</p>
<p>A key part of the myth surrounding grammar schools is that they are good for social mobility. We know that <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-do-grammar-schools-boost-social-mobility-28121">this is not true</a> – that pupils from affluent families are much more likely to get into grammar schools. But it seems to need just one or two public figures to say that they grew up in a poor family, went to grammar school, and, well, “look at me now”. These anecdotes “prove” that grammar schools help social mobility in the same way that knowing someone who smoked 50 cigarettes a day and lived to be 90 years old “proves” that smoking doesn’t kill you.</p>
<h2>Discipline and respect</h2>
<p>Another part of the reason for the apparent popularity of grammar schools is that they are only half of the story. For ever “winner” who attended a grammar school, there are two or three “losers” who were sent to the old <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/new-grammar-school-decision-how-secondary-moderns-are-responding/">“secondary moderns”</a> where people who failed the 11-plus entrance exam went. I suspect that public opinion would be different if people were asked whether they favoured opening more secondary modern schools. It is inherent in selective systems that you can’t have one without the other – and yet the discussion is only ever about the rosier part of the story.</p>
<p>It may also be that the appeal of grammar schools lies in an image they <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30483031">conjure up</a> of good classroom discipline, tidy desks and respectful pupils. But such an atmosphere is by no means restricted to grammar schools. This is part of the success story of some of the top-performing comprehensive schools. Famously <a href="http://www.mca.mossbourne.org/the-academy-2/welcome/">Mossbourne Community Academy</a> in Hackney has that ethos, alongside a number of the best academy chains. </p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/19/why-no-excuses-charter-schools-mold-very-submissive-students-starting-in-kindergarten/">No Excuses</a>” charter schools in the US take a similar approach while catering for some of the most disadvantaged children in the country and delivering excellent results. There are no selection exams – admission is by lottery (they are very popular).</p>
<h2>The impact of school selection</h2>
<p>Grammar school systems reduce social mobility, raise inequality and make family background much more important for school attainment. The international evidence is clear on this. Comparing across countries, assigning children to different schools by an exam early on in life <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w11124">raises inequality</a>. </p>
<p>Also, this assignment, or “tracking” as it is called in most other countries, from an early age across schools <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp2348.pdf">reinforces the impact of family background</a> on attainment and labour market outcomes and so reduces social mobility. </p>
<p>A number of studies have recently looked at the long-term effects of a switch to a comprehensive school system – without selection based on attainment – in the Nordic countries in the 1950s to 1970s. <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v54y2010i4p483-500.html">Researchers found</a> that the switch to a comprehensive system led to a weakening of the influence of <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/ifs/ifsewp/04-10.html">family background</a> on attainment. Others <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v93y2009i7-8p965-973.html">found that</a> the elimination of a two-track system based on attainment in Finland substantially reduced the dependence of children’s future income on their parents’ circumstances. </p>
<p>Evidence from the UK says the same. Research at Bristol’s Centre for Market and Public Organisation <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/cmpo/migrated/documents/gregg.doc">shows</a> that there are few children eligible for free school meals in grammar schools and that while the marginal pupil (who just passed the exam) in grammar schools does better, the marginal pupil (who just failed) in a comprehensive school does worse. Others have also found <a href="https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/publications/working-papers/iser/2014-05.pdf">positive effects</a> on the attainment of those who pass the 11-plus exam and mixed results on longer-term outcomes such as earnings. Other <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2014/abstract323.html">research</a> from the UK has shown that children growing up in grammar school areas – where some would have gone to a grammar and some to a comprehensive – face much higher earnings inequality later in life than those growing in areas without grammar schools.</p>
<h2>Legal challenges likely</h2>
<p>It seems possible that the Sevenoaks annexe decision will face legal challenge. If it stands, what will it mean? Probably the actual impact in the local area will not be large. If pupil numbers in Kent were static, then more grammar school places would necessarily mean more “winners” and fewer “losers”. In this instance, presumably the pass mark to get into the grammar school would have been lowered so that the classes weren’t short of pupils – this would actually have been good news, evening things up a bit. But pupil numbers are actually rising in Kent – meaning there is competition for places – so this increase in grammar places merely perpetuates the inequality. The <a href="http://www.educationdatalab.org.uk/Blog/October-2015/So-who-will-get-to-go-to-a-grammar-school-if-the-S.aspx#.Vh-oW36rSUl">impact on the local pupils’ chances</a> will not be large.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"654557040631791616"}"></div></p>
<p>The big picture is surely that the present situation cannot last. As Sam Freedman, research director of TeachFirst, said <a href="https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/654557040631791616">on Twitter</a>, it is still against the law to open a new grammar school. Having an “annexe” nine miles distant from the main school is so obviously an abuse of the spirit of this that if more are to follow, surely the law will need to be changed.</p>
<p>And the fact that a decision on the annexe was initially rejected by the former education secretary Michael Gove and was then <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-32786033">pushed back</a> beyond the election date suggests that everyone knows how controversial it was going to be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Burgess receives funding from ESRC and the DfE. </span></em></p>A new grammar school has been given the go-head in Kent, despite evidence that selective education increases inequality.Simon Burgess, Professor of Economics, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451322015-07-24T05:23:00Z2015-07-24T05:23:00ZWhy aren’t all academy chains boosting results for their poorest students?<p>There is an increasing polarisation between how the best and worst chains of academies in England are helping their poorest pupils to achieve and progress at school. Our <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/chain-effects-2015/">new research</a> has found a growing gap between the most effective chains, where the results of the most disadvantaged students continue to improve, and the least effective chains, which have got worse. </p>
<p>The sponsor academies programme was intended to alter the fortunes of struggling schools in some of the nation’s poorest communities. Started by Labour in 2000, it was intended that helping these schools with the support of philanthropic, educational and business partners would improve the educational outcomes and future lives of young people from the least privileged backgrounds.</p>
<p>Since then, the size of the academies programme has increased dramatically. Five years ago there were about 200 academies, today there <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development">are more than 4,000</a>. With the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hundreds-of-coasting-schools-to-be-transformed">post-election pledge by Nicky Morgan</a>, the secretary of state for education, to turn many “coasting” schools into academies, the new government shows no sign of slowing down its expansion. </p>
<p>The Sutton Trust charity has just published <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/chain-effects-2015/">Chain Effects 2015</a>, a report that I have written with lead-author Merryn Hutchings, and Philip Kirby, looking at how well 34 different chains of academies are doing in providing for their disadvantaged pupils.</p>
<h2>Best got better, worse got worse</h2>
<p>The report includes an index comparing the chains’ 2014 performance for disadvantaged pupils on the most important attainment measures. These include the percentage achieving five A*-C grade GCSEs or equivalent (including English and maths) and the percentage making expected progress in English and maths. It also includes the students’ performance in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ebacc-effect-pushes-pupils-into-more-academic-subjects-thats-a-good-thing-29931">English Baccalaureate</a> – five core academic subjects – and their overall performance on their best eight GCSEs. This index updates the version we published in our first report on <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/chain-effects-july-14-final-1.pdf">academy chains in 2014</a>. </p>
<p>The good news is that in 2014, 11 of the academy chains we analysed outperformed the national average. Across the sponsored academies – those sponsored by business or charities rather than deciding to convert to academy status to gain more autonomy – the proportion of disadvantaged students achieving five good GCSEs is at least 15 percentage points higher than the average for disadvantaged students in mainstream schools. </p>
<p>However, the impact of the other 23 academy chains is patchy at best. Our findings show that 44% of the academies analysed were below the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coasting-schools-illustrative-regulations">government’s new “coasting” level</a> in 2014 and 26 chains had at least one “coasting” school, illustrating the capacity issue to be addressed should the government pursue this measure. The difference between the best-performing and worst-performing chains seems to be increasing too: some of those chains identified as having low results and no improvement in our 2014 report falling back further in the last year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89518/original/image-20150723-22811-1gnonsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of disadvantaged pupils achieving 5A* in English and maths, 2012 and 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/chain-effects-2015/">Sutton Trust, Chain Effects 2015</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to raise the bar</h2>
<p>Struggling schools should be supported by a range of suitable improvement agencies, including successful academy chains, maintained school federations, an outstanding local school partner where one exists, or successful local authority provision. Success against robust criteria should be the basis for appointment to provide school improvement, rather than the type of provider. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmpublic/educationadoption/memo/educ07.htm">Data from the Department of Education</a> shows that only 25 out of 704 applications to become a sponsor of an academy had been declined as of November 2014, or 3.6% of the total. Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that far from all are thriving. We need tighter and more transparent criteria for commissioning sponsorship of a school. </p>
<p>I suggest that the criteria for an academy chain to take on a new school should be four-fold. First, quality – in terms of attainment, and what schools offer to students is key. Second, the chain’s capacity is important. Third should be the strength of a chain’s track record against transparent criteria. Fourth, a chain’s strategic model and educational vision should also be clear, including the governance model, school improvement strategy, regional coherence, and envisaged rate of expansion.</p>
<p>Clearly, for those sponsors that are new and don’t have a track record, it would be especially important that the other three elements are particularly robust and well scrutinised.</p>
<p>As greater numbers of sponsors enter the system, it will also be vital that the mechanisms to remove failing sponsors also become more robust and systematically applied. Our evidence highlights this is necessary to ensure school improvement, and this will be especially vital if sponsorship is to be the main vehicle through which the government plans to improve schools.</p>
<h2>Five-year, not seven-year contracts</h2>
<p>The current seven-year contract, or funding agreement, between academy chains and the Department for Education should be reduced to five years. Seven years is far too long for a school to remain in the hands of a sponsor that does not secure improvement. In the US, the contracts for or “charters” for their charter schools are typically for three to five years. Evidence to the UK parliament’s <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/258/258.pdf">Education Select Committee inquiry on academies and free schools</a> suggested that these tight contracts, coupled with rigorous assessment and non-renewal where necessary, are key to success.</p>
<p>We do of course have evidence of some sponsor chains with exceptionally strong success, realising the transformative impact on the educational outcomes of their disadvantaged students originally envisaged by the policy. There is not yet firm evidence on why some academy chains are more successful than others, but it is imperative that steps are taken to ensure that we learn from the successful sponsors, and spread these lessons across the system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Francis has received funding from the Education Endowment Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Coucnil and the Sutton Trust. She is a member of the Labour Party. </span></em></p>The gap is growing between the best and worst chains of academies, according to new research.Becky Francis, Professor of Education and Social Justice, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/435852015-06-23T12:31:09Z2015-06-23T12:31:09ZThe divide is growing between what employers and ministers want students to study<p>From this September, all pupils at secondary school will have to study English, a language, maths, science and history or geography at GCSE. This is the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc">English Baccalaureate, or Ebacc</a>, which education minister <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/preparing-children-for-a-successful-future-through-the-ebacc">Nicky Morgan has insisted</a> are core academic subjects that should be taken by all children. </p>
<p>The director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), John Cridland, <a href="http://news.cbi.org.uk/news/john-cridland-festival-of-education-speech/">does not approve</a>: he has called for GCSEs to be phased out and replaced with an exam system that gives equal value to vocational subjects.</p>
<p>In defence of the government reform, it should enable young people to have a fairly broad education up to the age of 16 that does not restrict them in their future choices. It is a big change from the past when students could take a wide range of “vocational” subjects at GCSE. These were not regarded as useful for anyone except schools that wanted to boost their headline results by getting weaker students to take exams in subjects that were easier to pass. This was criticised strongly in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-vocational-education-the-wolf-report">Wolf report in 2011</a> about vocational education and has since been changed.</p>
<p>The issue is that good general education (call it “academic” if you like) is a pre-requisite for popular courses in vocational education later on. For example, students cannot walk into a course in forensic science in a further education college without good grades in their GCSE, any more than they can be accepted on to an A-level programme. Students without an adequate chunk of general education are ill-prepared to undertake more specific vocational education, which is demanding and builds on their knowledge. </p>
<h2>Don’t specialise too soon</h2>
<p>A more fundamental issue is what type of educational instruction we (as a society) think it appropriate to offer students up to age 16. The requirements of the EBacc seem like a minimum for a developed country – and not unlike those in many others. They will incorporate some mastery of basic skills like literacy, numeracy and critical thinking that are valuable in the labour market and directly relevant to business. </p>
<p>A problem with including lots of vocational subjects as options at this age is not because vocational subjects are a poor relation to so-called “academic” subjects, but because, by definition, they are more specific and directly related to particular occupations. There’s a time and place for that – and several academic studies caution against specialising too young, such as <a href="http://hanushek.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Hanushek%2BWoessmann%202006%20EJ%20116%28510%29.pdf">international work</a> by educational economists Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann. </p>
<p>It is not true that “academic” subjects are systematically valued more highly than “vocational” subjects if one reflects on what the word “vocational” actually means – a subject geared towards work in a particular occupation. Medicine, law and engineering are subjects with huge earnings potential. The divide is rather between the “A-level to higher education” route and everything else. The non-A-levels routes are many, varied and often poorly understood. </p>
<h2>Standing up for post-19 options</h2>
<p>There is indeed a need to constructively engage employers and their representatives in changing the education system in the next few years. However, the need is for them to engage with the post-16 and “adult education” debate. The post-19 education budget <a href="https://theconversation.com/adult-education-needs-an-urgent-and-radical-rethink-39391">has been slashed</a>, and yet very little commented upon by those outside the further education sector. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86084/original/image-20150623-19386-omsmee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86084/original/image-20150623-19386-omsmee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86084/original/image-20150623-19386-omsmee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86084/original/image-20150623-19386-omsmee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86084/original/image-20150623-19386-omsmee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86084/original/image-20150623-19386-omsmee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86084/original/image-20150623-19386-omsmee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keep other options open.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Engineer and apprentice via SpeedKingz/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a government commitment to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-kick-starts-plans-to-reach-3-million-apprenticeships">three million new apprenticeships</a> over the next parliament. Yet up to now, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-has-the-coalition-really-created-2-1m-apprenticeships-38815">most new apprenticeships</a> have been created for older workers that have been in their firm for some time (and not young students straight out of school or college).</p>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jun/22/skills-gap-small-business-qualified-staff">constant demands</a> by employers for a more skilled workforce, yet <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/303141/evidence-report-72-training-in-recession.pdf">some have reduced</a> training themselves over the past few years and there isn’t much evidence that very many of them work directly with further education colleges or universities to improve what’s on offer. </p>
<p>There may well be barriers to the involvement of small- and medium-sized enterprises (most British firms) to get involved in education. It would be good to hear the CBI speak up about those barriers and more generally to draw attention to the educators outside schools and universities. If “vocational education” is to be valued as the equal of “academic education”, then further education providers should not be overlooked.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra McNally is director of the independent Centre for Vocational Education Research, LSE, a research centre funded by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. She also director of the education and skills programme at the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>From September, all children will have to study five core academic subjects at GCSE. But the CBI thinks the exams should be phased out.Sandra McNally, Professor in the School of Economics, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/419932015-05-19T11:18:45Z2015-05-19T11:18:45ZExplainer: what is a ‘coasting’ school?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82195/original/image-20150519-30501-fcw3ij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No room for flat-lining.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Classroom by michael jung/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Central to the new government’s education policy is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32763097">determination</a> to “tackle coasting schools”. But what are “coasting” schools and why is the education secretary Nicky Morgan so exercised about them?</p>
<p>There is no agreed definition of a coasting school. New Labour saw coasting schools as those “at risk of failure” in its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325111/2007-childrens-plan.pdf">2007 Children’s Plan</a> but was unable to translate that concern into policy. This was perhaps partly due to the report’s recognition that we needed to be better at identifying such schools. </p>
<p>The subsequent Conservative-led coalition was less circumspect. The Conservatives’ concern with coasting schools can be traced back to 2011 and David Cameron’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-speech-on-education--2">speech to a free school in Norwich</a> where he identified coasting schools broadly as “the ones whose results have either flat-lined or where they haven’t improved as much as they could have”. </p>
<p>This resulted in a change in Ofsted’s grading system. Before 2012, schools inspected by Ofsted could be judged outstanding, good, satisfactory, or inadequate. From 2012, the “satisfactory” rating became “requires improvement”. This significant shift in tone enabled Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of schools at the regulator Ofsted, to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-scraps-satisfactory-judgement-to-help-improve-education">define coasting schools in the following terms</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No schools will be allowed to remain in the category of ‘requires improvement’ for more than three years. Under the proposals, schools judged in this new category would be subject to earlier re-inspection, within 12-18 months, rather than up to three years as at the moment. Schools will be given up to two inspections within that three year period to demonstrate improvement. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What makes a school ‘coast’?</h2>
<p>If it has been difficult to define “coasting” schools, determining what makes a school “coast” is even more problematic. The research that has been done in this area tends to reflect the findings of school improvement and school effectiveness research. <a href="https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/satisfactory-schools/">A report in 2011 by the Royal Society for the Arts</a> into what were then still “satisfactory” schools found that “what came across overwhelmingly is the inconsistent quality of teaching and assessment practice within ‘satisfactory’ schools”, and also identified problems with systems and monitoring, school leadership and governance, and engagement with parents. </p>
<p>They also highlighted the fact that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were over-represented at satisfactory schools and that school contexts had a significant impact. A New Labour <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/00941-2008DOM-EN.pdf">report on improving coasting secondary schools</a> in 2008 identified insufficient accountability and challenge and lack of focused awareness of key areas such as aspirations for pupils and effective pupil support strategies. Again, context was seen to be a crucial factor.</p>
<h2>Morgan’s new proposals</h2>
<p>We are now beginning to find out what will happen to coasting schools that fail to demonstrate improvement. The <a href="https://www.conservatives.com/Manifesto">Conservative Manifesto</a> stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any school judged by Ofsted to be requiring improvement will be taken over by the best headteachers – backed by expert sponsors or high-performing neighbouring schools – unless it can demonstrate that it has a plan to improve rapidly. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Education secretary Nicky Morgan wasted no time in promoting this policy in both <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11610551/Nicky-Morgan-We-will-step-up-our-school-reforms-so-every-child-can-thrive.html">an article in The Daily Telegraph</a> and an appearance on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rkrsj">Andrew Marr Show</a> on May 17. In the article she wrote of the need to “extend our academies programme to tackle ‘coasting’ schools” and insisted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These schools must improve too and will be put on immediate notice and required to work with our team of expert head teachers. Those that aren’t able to demonstrate a clear plan for improvement will be given new leadership.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the moment these policies remain very vague. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-scraps-satisfactory-judgement-to-help-improve-education">Ofsted identified</a> around 3,000 coasting schools in 2012. But as teacher and headteacher <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-is-a-teacher-shortage-looming-34990">shortages loom</a> and pressures on primary school places and school budgets increase, there is no indication of where all these “expert head teachers” will come from. </p>
<p>It is also not clear if this new leadership – and the sacking of existing headteachers – will be enough to prevent schools from being absorbed rather chillingly into the expanding academies programme. In her Telegraph article, Morgan said “we will speed up the process of turning schools into academies to make sure that new expert leadership is found for all schools that need it as quickly as possible”. </p>
<p>There has been no no acknowledgement in these proposals of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cameron-forges-on-with-academies-revolution-despite-mounting-concerns-on-oversight-37080">criticisms</a> in the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/258/258.pdf">House of Commons Education Committee’s 2015 report on Academies and Free Schools</a>, which found that there is still no evidence that academies, especially primary academies, are a positive force for change. </p>
<p>And crucially, there is no recognition of the importance of context when looking at coasting schools and their future. Education policy since 2010 has been founded on ignoring the factors that influence children and young people’s engagement at school and assuming that transferring successful practice between schools via academisation is straightforward. </p>
<p>There is no evidence yet that suggests this approach is effective. This is not to suggest that we should accept “coasting” schools, but that we need to understand them, and the localities they serve, much better before imposing wholesale change upon them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Jopling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nicky Morgan has wasted no time on pursuing plans to intervene in schools where results are ‘flat-lining’.Michael Jopling, Professor in Education, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/416492015-05-12T13:24:52Z2015-05-12T13:24:52ZThe battles ahead for Nicky Morgan and Jo Johnson’s Tory education reforms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81394/original/image-20150512-22571-1fz46bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C1022%2C533&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Back to school for Nicky Morgan. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/15356754893/sizes/l">The Prime Minister's Office/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the <a href="http://www.naht.org.uk/">annual conference of headteachers</a> just days before the general election, the buzz was clear: Nicky Morgan was making her first appearance at the event as secretary of state for education, and it could be her last.</p>
<p>Now the wholly unexpected Conservative majority, <a href="https://www.tes.co.uk/news/school-news/breaking-news/nicky-morgan-confirmed-education-secretary">and her subsequent swift reappointment</a>, instead send a clear signal that Morgan is trusted in the brief and has the opportunity to implement the <a href="https://theconversation.com/manifesto-check-conservatives-hold-the-course-with-schools-plan-40192">manifesto policies</a> for which her party has gained a mandate.</p>
<p>Morgan is well-suited to the task. Having had a chance to find her feet, she has been a more congenial education secretary to many in the profession than her predecessor Michael Gove, notwithstanding the predictable lament from <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-speak-out-over-nicky-morgans-reappointment-as-education-secretary-10239170.html">elements of the Twittersphere</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"597152901056884736"}"></div></p>
<p>Morgan has, according to union leaders, at least to some extent drawn out the sting associated with Gove’s fast-paced reforms while still engaging with the profession in a substantive way. That she intends to continue in similar vein was reflected in her initial comments on her reappointment: “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32697243">it’s about listening</a>”</p>
<p>As Steve Besley, head of policy at education company Pearson, has shown, one major challenge facing Morgan will be <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xwm4BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=Steve+Besley+Gove+Legacy&source=bl&ots=g6yeoLlCm9&sig=ZvwGOkw77jrEPpSOh9Yn8TFK6Q8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gcFRVYqoOMPeUciIgJAM&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Steve%20Besley%20Gove%20Legacy&f=false">vocational education and skills policy</a>. Gove made under-appreciated strides in this area, notably enacting the recommendations of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180504/DFE-00031-2011.pdf">2011 Wolf Report</a>. </p>
<p>Yet in Besley’s words, the “woeful state of careers advice” has not been appropriately addressed, there remains a “lack of a coherent transition route from school to work or further training” and there is a “lack of support, guidance and opportunities for the most vulnerable”. These are knotty problems which will require significant political investment for Morgan to make headway on – not least with the different categories of institution operating to educate 14 to 19-year-olds. </p>
<h2>Tight belts for schools</h2>
<p>Another huge challenge will simply be money. Gove – along with colleagues across government – <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN01078.pdf">did well to keep education spending at around £90 billion</a>. As the UCL Institute of Education <a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-victory-means-englands-school-system-will-look-like-few-others-in-the-world-41553">director Chris Husbands has noted</a>, the Conservatives did not opt to guarantee spending for further education and there will be continuing pressure in relation to salaries. </p>
<p>Staffing also remains an issue. The introduction of the School Direct route into teaching and the continuing focus on schools-based initial teacher education did not in itself trigger a recruitment crisis, but “exacerbated” it, in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/jan/19/school-direct-is-choking-university-teacher-training-courses">words of former head of Ofsted, David Bell</a>. Morgan will remain at the forefront of a battle to make the profession more attractive to graduates.</p>
<p>There will also be the question of the Department for Education’s (DfE) relationship with <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11485893/Government-backs-plans-for-College-of-Teaching.html">the new College of Teaching</a>. This initiative is intended to raise the status of the profession by giving it a self-governing apparatus which will allow it to “professionalise itself”. </p>
<p>However, some of the pre-election rhetoric emerging from the DfE implied that the college on its own might be enough by itself to raise the status of the teaching profession. The profession <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-teachers-should-be-sceptical-of-a-new-college-of-teaching-35280">remains unconvinced</a> and Morgan has work to do to convince teachers that she is both willing and able to invest political capital in addressing their needs. Particularly at a time when the squeeze, both financially and in terms of personnel, has seldom been tighter.</p>
<h2>Jo Johnson new universities minister</h2>
<p>Within higher education, turbulent years lie ahead. <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/jo-johnson-is-new-minister-covering-higher-education/2020168.article">Jo Johnson, newly-appointed as minister for universities and science</a>, and brother of London mayor Boris, has the credibility within and outside of government to be a success in the post. However, he will have to deal with a sector which already feels bruised after the 2010-2015 coalition.</p>
<p>The government retains high ambitions for higher education (“world-leading” is a phrase that persists in its literature), but its manifesto contained contradictory policies on <a href="https://theconversation.com/manifesto-check-conservatives-talk-tough-but-bring-nothing-new-on-immigration-40336">Europe</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/manifesto-check-conservatives-talk-tough-but-bring-nothing-new-on-immigration-40336">immigration</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-the-next-government-hold-for-higher-education-40588">higher education</a>. Johnson will be forced to reconcile these, or steer the choice between them. Given that he has written about the virtues of foreign students and their significance to UK higher education <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cdec9fa0-9d1b-11e1-aa39-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Zua9kNNB">in his past life at the Financial Times</a>, it will be interesting to see how he addresses the ongoing issue of student visas, especially since the manifesto also announced a clampdown on universities elsewhere in the UK opening new campuses in London.</p>
<h2>Teaching REF will raise hackles</h2>
<p>The commitment to <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/manifesto2015/ConservativeManifesto2015.pdf">a formal mechanism for assessing teaching quality between institutions</a> – in parallel to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/research-excellence-framework">Research Excellence Framework</a> for research quality – is likely to generate significant resistance. This is primarily due to the existence of the annual National Student Survey which already drives teaching quality assessment in many, if not most, institutions. </p>
<p>Academic staff are now routinely appraised on teaching quality, and subjected to regular questionnaires and focus group feedback to senior management from students. Capability procedures on issues of performance are also increasingly favoured across the sector. So the idea of a teaching REF in addition to the existing one will likely be met with fury – and will pose a challenge not just to the minister but to the lecturers’ own union, UCU. </p>
<p>The new government’s policy in higher education represents the continuing purchase of “marketisation”. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JedKE9adlrIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">As my colleague Roger Brown notes</a>, this has ensured that even as the state has nominally-withdrawn it has gained yet more power over the priorities of the sector through “steering” mechanisms. </p>
<p>The privatisation of the Quality Assurance Agency, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29521363">slated for 2017, will now go ahead</a>, and it may be that its successor is rather more like Ofsted. The Social Market Foundation, a right-leaning think-tank <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/degree-standards-time-to-call-time-on-the-monopolists/2017652.article">has also called for universities to be subject to exam boards</a>. If, as Husbands claims, the Cameron years will leave Britain with a school system unlike many others in the world, this will be still more true of higher education. </p>
<h2>Tuition fee question still looms</h2>
<p>The biggest question remains: will a Conservative government allow fees to rise above £9,000, a natural evolution of marketisation in this area? Under pressure from vice-chancellors, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/tuition-fees-could-rise-past-9000-under-new-government-plans-9636322.html">it’s likely that such plans will remain under consideration</a>. What the journalist Andrew McGettigan calls <a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745332932">the “great university gamble”</a> seems set to continue.</p>
<p>Across education, the coalition achieved a great deal in purely policy terms, though opinion differs on its legacy. The Conservatives’ majority now offers them the opportunity to pursue their ambitions further in the sector – but ministers will need to build bridges with both the schools and higher education sectors if they are to achieve their aims in the new parliament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Finn is a member of the Labour Party, the Co-Operative Party and the University and Colleges Union.</span></em></p>From a College of Teaching to vocational education, international students and whether to raise tuition fees, there is a lot in the ministers’ inboxes.Mike Finn, Director of Centre for Education Policy Analysis, Liverpool Hope UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389442015-03-19T13:14:04Z2015-03-19T13:14:04ZCan a 2% pay rise motivate top teachers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75232/original/image-20150318-2483-1up3fr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Where's the evidence on performance-related pay for teachers?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The secretary of state for education, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/school-teachers-review-body-25th-report-2015">Nicky Morgan, has accepted</a> recommendations from the latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/school-teachers-review-body-25th-report-2015">School Teachers Review Body (STRB)</a> and agreed to allow a 2% pay rise for top-performing teachers in the UK. </p>
<p>All other teachers will recieve a 1% across-the-board pay uplift. The 2% rise to the “maxima of the main pay range” for teachers was recommended by the STRB as a way of “providing meaningful opportunity for a performance-related pay uplift”. This has rekindled the debate about the efficacy and value of performance-related pay for teachers.</p>
<p>The general <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/about/16564.html">evidence on performance-related pay</a> suggests that in limited, easily defined, and measured tasks there is a clear positive relationship between pay systems where workers are directly paid according to units of work completed, such as the number of windscreens installed, and labour productivity. Performance-related pay – particularly in some private sector jobs where individual output can be measured – can be an extremely powerful tool to motivate, create incentives and help to select and retain higher performing workers. </p>
<p>What is much more problematic is designing performance-related pay reward systems for public sector jobs where the output is not always easily measured – such as teaching. There may be more than one output, work is delivered in teams, the effort of individual workers is not easily observed and the objectives of workers are not clear.</p>
<h2>How to measure performance in schools</h2>
<p>With respect to teachers in a school situation, there are a number of “outputs” that could be measured: the exam scores of the pupils, how much progress the pupils make in a single year (a value-added gain score), or whether the school is turning out well-rounded future citizens. In most schools, pupils are taught by many different teachers, so it’s difficult to ascertain which teacher is responsible for a certain pupil’s success. In many schools the pupil-related objectives of the headteacher may not be exactly the same as those of the governing body or the parents. Any performance-related system should decide which of these count and how they would be measured.</p>
<p>Other factors which may play into this complex process are whether professional standards of behaviour, working practices and the role of trade unions may or may not influence pay scales. There are additional problems in the need to give higher remuneration to those teaching in subjects with teacher shortages and in specific inner city schools. Ultimately, it is very difficult to determine exactly what can be measured in terms of the effort and effectiveness of any specific teacher – so rewarding them for performance is problematic.</p>
<h2>Pay rises across the board</h2>
<p>So this raises the question of why a government or education authority would ever want to try and implement performance-related pay for teachers.</p>
<p>The answer is that there <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1738821">is very good evidence</a> that raising teacher pay relative to other workers in an economy has a positive effect on the supply of teachers, and can induce better performance in pupils. Yet this does not help in designing an optimal pay package to guarantee a supply of high-quality teachers, nor explain how to link teacher pay to pupil outcomes in a pro-active way.</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1738821">other research</a> has pointed out that across-the-board pay increases for teachers are inefficient. Raising the pay of the existing stock of teachers is unlikely to radically improve their performance. Instead, the best mechanism for improvement is to recruit higher-ability graduates into the profession in the future to induce better performance from pupils.</p>
<h2>What happened in 2000</h2>
<p>Over the years there have been various attempts at providing differential pay for teachers. In 2000, the idea was to give a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/education/2000/teachers_pay/762421.stm">“threshold payment”</a> to those teachers who met acceptable standards. The performance management arrangement had two main elements. First, each teacher was to be appraised annually by his or her senior line manager, on the basis of previously agreed objectives. At the second performance review stage, the assessment was used by the headteacher as a basis for teacher pay decisions in the coming year. </p>
<p>The idea was that individuals who could prove themselves to be effective teachers, assessed against a set of nationally agreed criteria, would “cross the threshold”, receiving an immediate £2,000 pay rise and access to a new higher pay scale for classroom teachers. Around 80% of teachers who were eligible for the threshold payment when performance-related pay was introduced in 2000 applied for it, and around 97% actually received it. It was hardly a selective, functioning system.</p>
<h2>Pay rises not the only answer</h2>
<p>It is unclear how the present proposals of the 2% rise could be allocated to the best teachers – but one presumes that like in 2000, it can be done via an annual appraisal. Again this would be open to manipulation. The reality is that headteachers already have considerable scope for discretionary pay increments which they do not use much, and indeed the <a href="http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/news/strb-urges-review-of-pay-in-light-of-rising-rolls-and-market-pressure">STRB has made reference</a> to this in the past. It is also unclear how many people would “go the extra mile” for a 2% increase of gross pay – a little over 1% net. </p>
<p>It is by and large an empirical question as to whether any specific peformance-related pay scheme would actually improve teacher performance. The rigorous evaluation of any proposed scheme is not possible since the scheme – both in 2000 and now – was introduced nationally. Earlier <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/about/16564.html">evidence from elsewhere in the world</a> does not tend not to support performance-related pay schemes in schools. Over time, most performance-related pay schemes for teachers have collapsed and there is evidence that the ability of such schemes to motivate staff is limited.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2015/03/12/top-teachers-set-for-2-pay-rise.aspx">Media attention to the 2% pay rise</a> is in danger of losing sight of the real issues. These include the need to have higher relative pay in teaching compared to other graduate professions to induce more of our high-flying graduates to take up the profession, and using the discretionary pay which is already possible more creatively. Schools should also be encouraged to provide pay premiums to teachers in shortage subjects and difficult inner city schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Dolton was formerly a member of the School Teachers Review Body (STRB) but the views expressed here are not those of the STRB. </span></em></p>Attracting high-performing graduates into the profession might work better than performance-related pay.Peter Dolton, Professor of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/385472015-03-10T12:52:00Z2015-03-10T12:52:00ZFact Check: are free schools raising education standards?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74297/original/image-20150310-13539-suvtq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Conservatives have pledged to continue the expansion of their free school programme. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Free schools are having an important effect on collaboration and raising standards in nearby schools … We can see free schools are both popular but they’re also effective.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Nicky Morgan, secretary of state for education</strong> </p>
<p>The statement by Nicky Morgan on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054pj6w">BBC Radio 4 Today programme</a> on March 9 came on the day that the prime minister, David Cameron, <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31791485">pledged to open at least 500 new free schools by 2020</a> if the Conservatives win the May general election.</p>
<p>Morgan’s statement was comprised of three main points: </p>
<ol>
<li> Free schools are raising standards in nearby schools</li>
<li> Free schools are popular </li>
<li> Free schools are effective</li>
</ol>
<h2>Raising standards in nearby schools</h2>
<p>The background for this claim is a <a href="http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/publications/a%20rising%20tide.pdf">new report</a> published by the think tank Policy Exchange. Its authors claim: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The data suggests, for the first time, evidence of the wider effect which is taking place at the time that new Free schools are opening in local communities. Free schools are helping to raise standards not just for the pupils who attend them but for other pupils across the local community – especially for those in lower performing schools. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is very difficult to see support for this conclusion in the report itself. The overall analysis compares the performance of those schools nearest to the free school with the national average. The results for both primary schools and secondary schools show that these are essentially identical – that is to say, the nearest schools to free schools perform no differently to schools overall, so there is no evidence there of a spill-over from competitive pressure. </p>
<p>While there are no differences overall, a split by school performance shows that the lowest performers among the closest schools do better than the national average, and the high and middle performers do worse than average. </p>
<p>This evidence is far from robust. The sample sizes are extremely small. There are no tests for statistical significance for the differences for low performers and they would almost certainly not be statistically significant given the tiny sample and the large natural variation in school outcomes. </p>
<p>There is no presumption at all that this is a causal relationship, given that free schools have not been randomly located. In fact the different split between those low performers that have improved and the high performers that have declined seems much more likely to be reversion to the mean. Even taken at face value, the results show that while low performers improved, the rest were worse off. </p>
<h2>Free schools are popular</h2>
<p>“Popularity” is about parental preferences for schools, and this data is simply not available. The basis for the claim comes from a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-applications-and-places">Department for Education (DfE) survey</a> of free schools in March 2014. The survey collected data on applications per place for September 2014 and 109 of 142 mainstream free schools responded. The result is that on average, for every available place, a school received 2.7 total preferences. </p>
<p>Is that a lot? Crucially, the report states: “We are unable to provide a breakdown of the number of applications by order of preference due to variation in the way schools responded to this part of the survey.” So this number is all preferences, not just first preferences. </p>
<p>What would an estimate be of the number of total preferences a “neutral” school would receive? For simplicity, consider a neighbourhood with the same number of pupils as school places. If parents typically state x number of preferences, then a “neutrally” popular school should have x times more total preferences than places. <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/showciting;jsessionid=7BC9F7C1DB088B4F56A3A050A4762E4D?cid=9500759">Evidence</a> suggests that, today, parents make roughly four preferences, though since parents do not always use all their preferences, perhaps three times is a closer estimate.</p>
<p>So this rough calculation suggests that three times as many preferences as places is about neutral in an average setting. But since free schools <a href="http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/publications/a%20rising%20tide.pd">are disproportionately</a> in areas with very low-performing schools and a lack of places, then a neutrally popular school might expect a lot more preferences than the average. </p>
<p>Other concerns with the underlying data are that this survey is based on self-reported answers by schools, and only three-quarters of all free schools answered. </p>
<p>So, the data available so far does not show whether free schools are more or less popular than equivalent regular new Local Authority schools. While some individual free schools appear to be popular, some are not and a rough estimate suggests that on average they are less popular than a neutrally popular school.</p>
<h2>Free schools are effective</h2>
<p>The Education Select Committee <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/258/258.pdf">recently concluded</a> that there is no basis for telling whether free schools are more or less effective than other similar schools. For example, the Policy Exchange report states that “so far there have been nine free schools with GCSE results”.</p>
<p>The Committee stated: “We agree with Ofsted that it is too early to draw conclusions on the quality of education provided by free schools or their broader system impact”.</p>
<p>More broadly: “Current evidence does not allow us to draw conclusions on whether academies in themselves are a positive force for change.”</p>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>There is no empirical basis for Morgan’s statements. It is neither definitely untrue nor definitely true. There are reasons for scepticism, but there is simply insufficient evidence to establish any of the three claims for wider local spill-overs, for popularity nor for effectiveness. </p>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p>The fact check usefully divides Morgan’s claims into three main aspects: standards, popularity and effectiveness. The section on standards rightly points to the overclaiming evident in the interpretations of the Policy Exchange report, which as the author states does not really show any effect, either positive or negative, on standards.</p>
<p>The section on popularity defines popularity in terms of parental preference. This is of course only one possible way of defining the concept, but it is certainly a legitimate one, and the author is correct in stating there is no real evidence here either.</p>
<p>The final section on effectiveness defines this in terms of GCSE results. Usually, we would define effectiveness in value-added terms, but in either case it is accurate to state that at present there is not enough evidence to make any statement on this. One issue is the second citation of the select committee report which refers to academies rather than free schools – though the conclusion of a lack of evidence is even more true for free schools.</p>
<p>The overall conclusion that there is not enough evidence for either positive or negative conclusions about free schools is entirely correct at this stage.</p>
<div class="callout">The Conversation is fact checking political statements in the lead-up to the May UK general election. Statements are checked by an academic with expertise in the area. A second academic expert reviews an anonymous copy of the article.<br><br><a href="https://theconversation.com/factchecks/new">Click here to request a check</a>. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible. You can also email factcheck@theconversation.com </div><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38547/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Burgess receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Department for Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Muijs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Education secretary Nicky Morgan said free schools push up standards in neighbouring schools and are popular and effective.Simon Burgess, Professor of Economics, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369192015-01-30T06:23:55Z2015-01-30T06:23:55ZNicky Morgan’s pursuit of knowledge is diluted by the obsession with ‘British values’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70483/original/image-20150129-22311-f5jln4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do you 'dare to know?'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/15975711972/sizes/l">Prime Minister's Office</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Those who have agitated for subject knowledge, rather than skills, to be the focus of the national curriculum, may have been pleased to hear the secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, following in her predecessor Michael Gove’s footsteps in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-why-knowledge-matters">a recent speech</a> at the think tank <a href="http://www.politeia.co.uk/">Politeia</a>. </p>
<p>Morgan said that the government’s education reforms have at their heart “a determination to place knowledge back at the core of what pupils learn in school” over the previously prioritised “development of skills”. She said that “it’s impossible for young people to gain the skills and attributes that we all prize, without the knowledge base to put those skills into action”. She went on to argue: “A rich corpus of knowledge should be the equal right of every child.” </p>
<p>Some may question her commitment to that, as the head of a department that just last year announced it <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28108153">was dropping the knowledge-rich</a> International GCSEs – IGCSEs – from its league tables, effectively leaving them as a resource for independent schools. That move <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31023685">has now caused anger</a> at those independent schools who appear to have slipped down league tables as a result. </p>
<h2>Winning the argument for knowledge</h2>
<p>It’s true that the new national curriculum has more knowledge in it, put in by people committed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-subject-of-subjects-27035">subject-based education</a> – where teachers are experts in their subjects and use this as the bedrock of their teaching, rather than focusing on children’s soft skills. </p>
<p>Morgan may also have been thinking about <a href="http://www.pimlicoacademy.org/">Pimlico Academy</a>, the <a href="http://www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/">West London Free School</a> and the <a href="http://eastlondonscienceschool.co.uk/">East London Science School</a> – all excellent examples of knowledge-based schools. </p>
<p>The problem is you can’t just say that knowledge is important. You have to win the argument for knowledge. Morgan fails to do that because she is still thinking about knowledge in a way that those who “prized the development of skills” such as the New Labour government always did. That administration was obsessed with <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/skills-and-new-labour-inside-education-policymaking/2011549.fullarticle">skills policies</a>.</p>
<p>She thinks about knowledge as instrumental – as important for some other reason, such as trying to create greater social mobility. Yet knowledge doesn’t “matter” in the way she presents the case for it. Knowledge is an end in itself.</p>
<h2>Not part of a social engineering project</h2>
<p>I would argue that knowledge is not something we value, it is a value. It also carries with it a range of other epistemological values including freedom of speech, honesty, consistency, and the constant questioning of assumptions that are the foundation of knowledge. These are not external values imposed from the outside, but are values internal to the pursuit of knowledge. These values do not have to be taught separately. They are integral to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.</p>
<p>You can’t win the argument for knowledge if, like Morgan and many others who formally support a knowledge-based curriculum, you support it because it will do some social engineering in the name of “fairness and social justice”. Morgan is capitulating to the skills argument by saying we will get the skills we need if children have knowledge. </p>
<p>She wants to help the disadvantaged and underachieving by giving them knowledge. In this way, she hopes to increase social mobility. She wants to produce well-rounded children, <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-build-childrens-character-leave-self-esteem-out-of-it-35506">develop character</a> and support what she considers to be the core “British values” of “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, tolerance and respect”. Even “freedom of speech” gets a mention as a “British value” at the end of her speech. </p>
<h2>Moral leadership?</h2>
<p>The authoritarian tone is clearly there – no school will be exempt from imposing whatever the <a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-over-national-values-is-a-threat-to-the-education-system-34635">government determines is a “British” value</a>. In this speech Morgan moves from a defence of knowledge to the imposition of values in order to regain “moral” leadership.</p>
<p>The argument about what constitute “British values” is already turning into a bitter and confusing one. Morgan needn’t have gotten into it if she really understood what knowledge is: a universal value that has been the basis of all great cultures. In ancient Greece, Islamic countries at their highest point, and in Enlightenment Europe, the desire for knowledge was the over-riding value. </p>
<p>The philosopher Immanuel Kant said the motto of the Enlightenment was “<em>Sapere aude</em> – Dare to know!” and he started his famous essay “<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html">What is Enlightenment?</a>” with this powerful statement: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers and pupils do not need government guidance about how to live – they need a real commitment to knowledge. All of the other social engineering initiatives, especially the requirement to teach “British values” will be counter-productive and will take away the emphasis on knowledge.</p>
<p>If Morgan really wanted to undo the infantilisation of the teaching profession and ensure that a knowledge-based curriculum was possible for every pupil, she should adopt Kant’s motto and simply say to them: “Dare to know!”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Those who have agitated for subject knowledge, rather than skills, to be the focus of the national curriculum, may have been pleased to hear the secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, following…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/362372015-01-14T13:11:51Z2015-01-14T13:11:51ZCollege of Teaching will be an opportunity for teachers, not a threat to their independence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68996/original/image-20150114-3871-8fgthe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The teachers need teaching too. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-198926588/stock-photo-teacher-and-pupils-in-high-school-science-class.html?src=pp-same_model-198926993-sLnKXVofZNEY0Mam2fFZqA-3&ws=1">Students in class via Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As politicians get out of their <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-miliband-comes-a-knocking-will-anyone-be-home-35924">starting blocks early</a> this year now campaigning for the general election has begun, it’s hard not to be sceptical about new education policy announcements. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are making <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2015/01/08/nine-out-of-10-parents-think-all-teachers-should-be-qualified-survey-reveals.aspx">teacher quality</a> and standards a policy battleground. But one relative point of agreement has emerged: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/11/labour-license-teachers-raise-standards">Labour</a>, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/09/college-of-teaching-will-give-teachers-professional-equality-nicky-morgan">Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats</a> have all voiced interest in the idea of establishing a College of Teaching. </p>
<p>I read with interest what the University of Nottingham’s Howard Stevenson <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-teachers-should-be-sceptical-of-a-new-college-of-teaching-35280">had to say on The Conversation</a> about the latest proposals by secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, for <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/383987/DfE_cons_overview_document_template_for_World_Class_Teachers_Consultation_voo3BR.pdf">a College of Teaching</a>. Stevenson claims there are many reasons to be sceptical. But I seem to have understood the announcement very differently to him. </p>
<h2>Not looking back</h2>
<p>While I agree it will be hard to get something like this off the ground, the case for scepticism remains unproven. His comparisons with the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE), which was abolished in 2010 by Morgan’s predecessor Michael Gove, are like comparing the proverbial apples and pears – the concepts are so very different. Comparisons with similar bodies in the medical field, for example the British Medical Association, are much more relevant and make the case for the College much more compelling.</p>
<p>A College of Teaching which raises the status of teaching as a profession and promotes public confidence in, and respect for, teachers can surely only be a good thing. Unlike the GTCE, voluntary membership of a College of Teaching would be positively based on teachers’ own aspirations, development and recognition, rather than being concerned with regulation and striking off.</p>
<h2>Picking polls</h2>
<p>In his article, Stevenson cites a <a href="http://schoolsimprovement.net/todays-poll-confident-college-teaching-drive-standards">Twitter poll</a> showing that 64% of respondents expressed a lack of confidence that a College of Teaching would drive up standards – as opposed to 36% who thought it would. As the basis of scepticism, this is pretty weak and seems to be a sign of a healthy unwillingness to commit to a fairly narrow question until the College’s mission is more clearly defined by a teacher-led development and consultation process. </p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.princes-ti.org.uk/CollegeofTeaching/">survey conducted by the Princes Teaching Institute</a> in February 2014 found 82% of just over 900 teachers surveyed either agreed or strongly agreed that there is a role for a “new, independent, member-driven College of Teaching”. This went up to 87% among the 288 headteachers surveyed. Another poll published by <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/05/08/teachers-not-convinced-by-college-of-teaching-plans.aspx">the Sutton Trust</a> showed that approximately 40% of teachers were in favour of the College while 40% wanted to know more – but just 20% were unfavourable.</p>
<h2>No ‘web of control’</h2>
<p>Stevenson’s more substantive point is about the independence of the organisation. I absolutely agree this is of utmost importance – its independence must be jealously guarded. David Bell, the former permanent secretary in the Department for Education and now vice-chancellor of the University of Reading, has since called for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30711726">less political interference in schools</a>. This is spot on. </p>
<p>But I think to view the College of Teaching – a membership organisation by teachers, for teachers – as part of a “web of control” is wide of the mark. The independence of the organisation will need to be ensured through the open election of teachers to a body that is led and overseen by teaching professionals, not government officials. </p>
<p>Some may question whether the College will have any real power if it is not able to set policy or operate as a regulatory body – but we need to remember that there are other professions, mainly in medicine, where chartered status is an accepted standard.</p>
<p>As a teacher-led independent body, it’s actually more likely than not to be quite fiercely independent. There is often talk of trusting teachers, but little follow-through. The College presents a great opportunity to do that and do that well. I see no reason to doubt that this body cannot work in this way if the profession has an appetite to take it seriously – and there are early signs that it does.</p>
<p>Teaching unions have had mixed reactions to the idea of a new College of Teaching. The Nation Union of Teachers <a href="http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/22895">has said the proposals</a> are a “positive step in the right direction” but the <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/nasuwt-the-teachers-union/article/nasuwt-comments-on-college-of-teaching-poll">NASUWT union</a> has expressed more caution – supporting the principle but questioning the credibility and value of a College. </p>
<p>Stevenson raises the question whether teachers already have a professional voice, through these unions. But my understanding is that the College of Teaching is absolutely not about curtailing the unions, but about working alongside them. It is not an attempt to “take over” any territory either – unions will continue to focus on pay and conditions as well as contributing strongly to the debate on professional practice, and they will continue to provide professional development too.</p>
<h2>Teachers are hungry for ‘what works’</h2>
<p>I am also slightly disappointed in Stevenson’s criticism of a likely focus the College of Teaching may have on “what works?” While I do accept there may be a risk of “asking teachers to focus on what works, and privileging the methods often associated with such questions” in a way that is “contingent on implementing what others have decided is ‘good’, or what constitutes ‘best practice’”, this is making assumptions about who potentially owns the right to both ask and answer such questions.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68997/original/image-20150114-3874-ilgneu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68997/original/image-20150114-3874-ilgneu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68997/original/image-20150114-3874-ilgneu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68997/original/image-20150114-3874-ilgneu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68997/original/image-20150114-3874-ilgneu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68997/original/image-20150114-3874-ilgneu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68997/original/image-20150114-3874-ilgneu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">What works is what teachers want.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-103006829/stock-vector-check-mark-vector-illustration.html?src=Wyz1QR1aJbCV1YHYcz-jVg-1-73&ws=1">Check mark via djdarkflower/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>To most teachers, what really matters is the quality of learning and the teaching that supports it. My own research shows the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0031910410001693245#.VLY-wns2UW4">strong correlation</a> between research and the quality of evidence-based, enquiry-driven teacher development and standards. This means interrogating a broad range of evidence on education policy and practice – and of course, situating it in broader complex socio-economic contexts. </p>
<p>Stevenson talks of spaces for debate in education research being closed down. But surely the College of Teaching presents an opportunity to create a new space that will foster those debates between practitioners and academics. A key role for universities and other academic organisations might be to help provide that broad evidence base and in doing so help guard the College of Teaching’s independence. </p>
<hr>
<p>Next read: <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-the-costs-of-moving-teacher-training-out-of-universities-23157">Counting the costs of moving teacher training out of universities</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36237/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Twiselton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As politicians get out of their starting blocks early this year now campaigning for the general election has begun, it’s hard not to be sceptical about new education policy announcements. Politicians on…Samantha Twiselton, Director of Sheffield Institute of Education and Professor of Education, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355062014-12-17T06:13:30Z2014-12-17T06:13:30ZTo build children’s character, leave self-esteem out of it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67352/original/image-20141216-14147-1nmh70k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C77%2C995%2C863&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An overdose of self-esteem won't build character.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=PFKJzYcHHumnksN2tWxtcg&searchterm=good%20self%20esteem&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=203402164">Pessism concept via Ivalin/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the last few months the UK’s two main political parties have entered into an apparent bidding war over which of them can elevate the teaching of character highest on their educational agendas before the next general election.</p>
<p>With an extra flourish, the secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/england-to-become-a-global-leader-of-teaching-character">announced </a> a £3.5m fund to “place character education on a par with academic learning” for pupils. This money will be spent on scaling-up existing initiatives and funding more research into character education.</p>
<p>This is good news. But a more worrying feature of the recent debate about character education is the apparent return of self-esteem and self-confidence as virtues to be cultivated at school.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://theconversation.com/schools-can-teach-character-but-what-sort-of-person-do-we-want-to-produce-23201">an article</a> I wrote earlier this year for The Conversation, I warned against the unduly restrictive focus in character education on performance virtues, such as grit and resilience. This is being done at the expense of other character virtues – both moral, such as honesty and compassion, and intellectual, such as curiosity and love of learning. After all, who wants the resilience of the repeat offender? </p>
<p>Judging from recent coverage of debates around character education, this criticism is still valid in critiques of the views of character expressed <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/06/nicky-morgan-battle-michael-gove-schools?guni=Keyword:news-grid%20main-1%20Main%20trailblock:Editable%20trailblock%20-%20news:Position1">both by Morgan</a>, and Labour’s shadow education secretary, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30345282">Tristram Hunt</a>. </p>
<p>That said, a closer look at the full text of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/secretary-of-state-for-education-our-plan-for-education">Morgan’s Priestley Lecture</a> at the University of Birmingham and <a href="http://www.demos.co.uk/files/TristramHuntspeech.pdf">Hunt’s speech</a> at a recent joint <a href="http://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/media/news/article/4205/Jubilee-Centre-and-Demos-Hold-Joint-Conference-on-Character">Demos–Jubilee Centre</a> conference reveals a more expansive view of character as both steadfastly laden with values and intrinsically important for a well-rounded, flourishing life.</p>
<h2>Consciously building character</h2>
<p>Some red herrings still survive in these waters. The terms “soft” and “non-cognitive” skills are relentlessly swirled around as designators of character virtues, at least of the performance kind. I hope this is just a language issue – politicians and journalists share a love of short and catchy phrases – because from an academic standpoint both terms are terrible misnomers. </p>
<p>Character traits are notoriously <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/philosophy/philosophy-mind-and-language/self-and-its-emotions">resistant to change</a>, at least after middle to late childhood. There is a lot of truth in the words of Nobel Prize Laureate <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Disgrace-J-M-Coetzee/dp/0099289520">J M Coetzee</a> that, after the skull, character is the second hardest part of the body. </p>
<p>In a similar vein, there is nothing non-cognitive about character virtues, even of the performance kind. For example, resilience is all about certain beliefs you harbour about your chances of overcoming adversity. All virtues, performance-driven, moral and intellectual, comprise a clear cognitive element. </p>
<h2>Please, no comeback for self-esteem</h2>
<p>When spelling out her priorities on character education, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/06/nicky-morgan-battle-michael-gove-schools?guni=Keyword:news-grid%20main-1%20Main%20trailblock:Editable%20trailblock%20-%20news:Position1">Morgan explained</a>: “What I mean is a focus on things like the additional character skills we all need to get on in life – resilience, grit, self-esteem, self-confidence.” </p>
<p>I thought self-esteem had been laid to rest as an educational aim after the <a href="http://files.clps.brown.edu/jkrueger/journal_articles/baumeister-2003-doeshigh.pdf">famous meta-analysis</a> by American psychologist Roy Baumeister and colleagues in 2003. It seems not. There were some salient findings from their research and from my <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/philosophy/philosophy-mind-and-language/self-and-its-emotions">further review</a> of the 1990s “self-concept” industry, focused on debates around self-esteem, self-confidence and self-respect. </p>
<p>These included that high general self-esteem is more pernicious than low self-esteem – it is more clearly connected to variables such as unprotected sex, bullying and experimenting with drugs. A likely explanation is that high self-esteem gives the person a false sense of invulnerability to negative consequences. Moderate and realistic self-esteem is, rather, the ideal psycho-moral state.</p>
<p>At the same time, while correlations have been found between self-esteem in maths and maths scores, the maths results are more likely to cause the self-esteem, rather than the other way around. </p>
<h2>Who we are deep down</h2>
<p>The return of debates around self-esteem and self-confidence is potentially more counter-productive for the character agenda than the focus on resilience – as almost no eminent social scientists take it seriously any more. To put it simply, character is much more about who we really are deep down rather than who we think we are.</p>
<p>It is heartening to see messages and findings from our work at the <a href="http://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk">Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues</a> gradually filtering through to UK politicians. But, as yet, their faculty to express their new-found interest still lags slightly behind their enthusiasm for conveying the message that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2014/dec/07/university-free-school-school-private">character matters for academic achievement</a> and general human flourishing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristján Kristjánsson receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation. </span></em></p>In the last few months the UK’s two main political parties have entered into an apparent bidding war over which of them can elevate the teaching of character highest on their educational agendas before…Kristján Kristjánsson, Professor of Character Education and Virtue Ethics Deputy Director, Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/352802014-12-15T18:13:09Z2014-12-15T18:13:09ZWhy teachers should be sceptical of a new College of Teaching<p>Barely one month after the current government was elected in 2010, the secretary of state for education Michael Gove <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/jun/02/general-teaching-council-england-abolished">announced the abolition</a> of the General Teaching Council for England. Now, only a few months from the next election, his successor Nicky Morgan <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/383987/DfE_cons_overview_document_template_for_World_Class_Teachers_Consultation_voo3BR.pdf">has committed to establishing a College of Teaching</a>. </p>
<p>While not a like-for-like replacement, the similarities are sufficient enough to argue that this represents a significant policy volte-face. Ironically, for a move claimed to take the politics out of education, it highlights precisely why teachers feel so frustrated by the interventions of politicians. Not only does policy swing one way and another between governments, it does so within the lifetime of a government.</p>
<h2>Proposals on the table</h2>
<p>The proposed College of Teaching “needs to be independent of government and led by the profession if it is to be truly successful” <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/383987/DfE_cons_overview_document_template_for_World_Class_Teachers_Consultation_voo3BR.pdf">according to the government</a> ministers advocating its establishment. </p>
<p>The body will take responsibility for promoting professional standards, and in time could oversee their enforcement and the standards for teacher training. It will also promote teachers’ access to training and development. According to the proposals, this will <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/383987/DfE_cons_overview_document_template_for_World_Class_Teachers_Consultation_voo3BR.pdf">include a framework</a> of evidence-based professional development in which: “Evaluation of impact will be hard-wired into these professional development projects from the outset to build a clear evidence based around "what works”.’ A consultation on the proposals was launched on December 9 and runs until early February. </p>
<p>The principle of a College of Teaching is, according to the proposals, apparently: “almost universally agreed upon by experts”. But it is important to be sceptical. Especially when teachers appear unconvinced it will drive up standards – as a poll by the website Schools Improvement has highlighted.</p>
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<h2>A question of independence</h2>
<p>The reason for this scepticism is linked to how independent the college is likely to be in reality. Problems will arise if it has little more than a licensed independence in which professional autonomy will be contingent on the profession demonstrating “good behaviour”.</p>
<p>The desire to be seen to be independent and “free of political influence” is clearly viewed by those who wrote the proposals as central to securing teacher support. But they also make very clear that it will operate in a context where real political pressure is imposed by assessment bodies apparently “independent” of the political process. </p>
<p>The emphasis in the document on “world class teachers”, and the almost obligatory referencing of Singapore, South Korea, Shanghai and Finland, highlight the influence of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)‘s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) league tables. “PISA envy” is now driving policy at a national level in many countries. </p>
<p>In England, this is reinforced through the disproportionate influence of Ofsted, as the “independent” body with the power to decide what is “good” or not in education. It is these pressures that explain teachers’ principal grievance – the apparently <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/09/30/nine-out-of-10-teachers-consider-quitting-due-to-rising-workload-survey-reveals.aspx">relentless increase in their workload</a>. They also reflect the democratic deficit in the English state education system whereby key policy issues are determined by bodies outside of any transparent political process.</p>
<h2>More autonomy, or more control?</h2>
<p>With the drivers of markets, managerialism and high-stakes testing <a href="http://openjournals.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/IEJ/article/view/7455">in place</a>, it becomes possible for government to step back, safe in the knowledge that a complex web of mechanisms – league tables, <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-remain-divided-on-performance-related-pay-27664">performance-related pay</a> and Ofsted – can be relied on to do the work. </p>
<p>The danger is that a College of Teaching simply becomes another element in this web of control that frames how teachers are expected to do their work. It provides the appearance of autonomy and independence, but in reality it serves to reinforce the culture of compliance that bedevils English state education. </p>
<p>This is because what will be valued will be what the College has decided is “what works”. Asking teachers to focus on what works, and privileging the research methods often associated with such questions, runs the risk of creating new orthodoxies. Through this, career advancement remains contingent on implementing what others have decided is “good”, or what constitutes “best practice”. Rather than liberating teachers from the dead hand of Ofsted’s “one best way” of teaching, the risk is that such approaches are subtly reproduced and then legitimated by apparently being “evidence-based”.</p>
<h2>Wider questions closed down</h2>
<p>The focus on “what works” deflects attention from a wider set of questions about “what matters?” or “what’s wrong?”. For example, teachers are encouraged to ask <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-improve-the-chances-of-poor-children-at-school-34787">what works to close achievement gaps</a> in their classroom. But they are not encouraged to ask wider questions on how to close these gaps when governments preside over ever-widening inequalities. </p>
<p>At the same time, the spaces in which these more critical questions might be posed are progressively closed down, illustrated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-the-costs-of-moving-teacher-training-out-of-universities-23157">undermining of educational research in university-based schools of education</a>. What research takes place will be increasingly focused on securing improvement in relation to a narrow range of outcomes. This will be reinforced through the influence of those able to fund and commission research. The result will be less about a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-school-systems-need-to-be-more-like-the-tour-de-france-24604">self-improving school</a> system and more about a self-reproducing school system.</p>
<p>If teachers are confined to asking “what works?” while only the policy elites get to decide “what matters” then teachers remain shut out of the debates about the really big questions: what is education for and how should young people be helped to understand and engage with the world they are growing up in?</p>
<h2>A new professional voice?</h2>
<p>This is why teachers should welcome the government’s proposals with considerable caution. While superficially attractive, it is not at all clear that the proposed College of Teaching will give teachers the professional voice they have often been denied. </p>
<p>It could be argued that teachers already have a professional voice, through their unions, that is already independent, democratic and can claim to represent the overwhelming majority of the profession – criteria the new college is unlikely to be able to meet. It is governments that have chosen not to listen to that voice: Michael Gove <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michael-gove-speech-to-teachers-and-headteachers-at-the-national-college-for-teaching-and-leadership">clearly presented the case for a College of Teaching as an alternative</a> to teacher unionism. </p>
<p>Perhaps now is the time for teachers to demand a much more ambitious prospectus for change than that currently on offer. This should be based on teachers having both autonomy and influence in relation to all the key elements of their work – learning and teaching conditions, professional development and the fundamental aspects of education policy. Professional agency in these three different domains are the real features of a high-status teaching profession. </p>
<p>This concept of a <a href="http://howardstevenson.org/2014/12/14/the-teachers-voice-teacher-unions-at-the-heart-of-a-new-democratic-professionalism/">new democratic professionalism</a> underpins a much more positive vision of what teaching can be like, but also a much more hopeful and optimistic vision of what education should be like.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Howard Stevenson has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and currently undertakes research for International Baccalaureate Organisation. </span></em></p>Barely one month after the current government was elected in 2010, the secretary of state for education Michael Gove announced the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England. Now, only a few…Howard Stevenson, Director of Research and Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, School of Education, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/339792014-11-20T06:05:17Z2014-11-20T06:05:17ZTeachers tweet truth to power, but will the politicians listen?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64869/original/9swxwm4x-1416324350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers are taking to Twitter.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-220578778/stock-photo-tweet.html?src=Bvo9FyznH9ApqWlszBmDqQ-1-0">Tweet via svariophoto/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the magical month of December 2013 teachers across the UK were given an early Christmas gift from the least expected donor. Twitter buzzed with the news. I first saw it thanks to <a href="http://teachertoolkit.me/2014/01/06/ofstednews-updates-for-all-teachers-grimreaper/">@teachertoolkit</a> who tweeted with great glee: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"415248298404876289"}"></div></p>
<p>It was a reference to the news that Ofsted – the schools inspectorate which has developed the status and reputation of an overbearing ogre – had rewritten its inspection handbook. The rewrite was important for teachers because Ofsted inspectors would no longer be looking for a particular way of teaching and, crucially, would no longer be grading lessons. </p>
<p>That the message was conveyed on Twitter by @teachertoolkit was reflective of a new paradigm in the education world. It isn’t through traditional print media, or television outlets, that teachers are getting their news. The @teachertoolkit Twitter account claims more than 75,000 followers – and Ross Morrison McGill, the deputy headteacher behind it, boasts of being the “most influential” education blogger. Of course, these followers may not all be teachers but it is highly likely that the vast majority are teachers, academics and others interested in education. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://ukedchat.com/2014/10/24/why-teachers-are-flocking-to-twitter/">recent survey about teachers using Twitter</a>, UKEdChat received 450 responses in the first two weeks. The respondents were from teachers and educationalists around the globe. So why are so many teachers flocking to Twitter? As UKEdChat found, the biggest reason is continued professional development: teachers are crying out for high-quality, up-to-date training. </p>
<p>But alongside this, the growth of teacher bloggers reflects a desire, or even a need, for teachers to find a voice. For some this is to vent their frustrations at the system, for some to share resources, and for others it is to articulate philosophical and pedagogical positions and explore political issues. </p>
<p>And it’s not just those at the chalkface who are tweeting. The Department of Education’s Twitter account (@educationgovuk) has 140,000 followers, while the official Twitter account for Ofsted (@ofstednews) boasts more than 75,000 followers. But are these accounts merely a proxy for press releases, or are these bodies actually listening to the newly found teacher voice?</p>
<h2>Bringing in the bloggers</h2>
<p>In February 2014 a group of teacher-bloggers and twitterati were invited to a meeting with Mike Cladingbowl, Ofsted’s director of schools. These were the big names in the edublogosphere: David Didau (@learningspy), Tom Bennett (@tombennett71), Ross McGill (@teachertoolkit), Sheena Lewington (@clerktogovernor) and Tom Sherrington (@headguruteacher). </p>
<p><a href="http://www.learningspy.co.uk/blogging/learned-visit-ofsted/">In his blog post about the meeting</a>, David Didau claims that Cladingbowl “began by asking each of us what we were interested in discussing”. There was no hidden agenda? No political motivation for the meeting? Was this really an attempt by the inspectorate to engage with the profession? </p>
<p>There had been hints, of course, that this was coming. Back in 2013, the then secretary of state for education, Michael Gove <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michael-gove-speech-to-teachers-and-headteachers-at-the-national-college-for-teaching-and-leadership">expressed his admiration</a> for some teacher bloggers, naming Bennett amongst them, along with blogging stalwart Old Andrew (@oldandrewuk).</p>
<h2>Morgan accelerates Twitter outreach</h2>
<p>The influence and power of Twitter in particular has been seen in the “real” world, through events know as teachmeets, where teachers voluntarily give up their weekends to meet and discuss their practice and the latest educational research. Possibly the most impressive event has been <a href="http://www.workingoutwhatworks.com/">ResearchED</a>, organised by Bennett. </p>
<p>Attempts by politicians, civil servants and inspectors to engage with the teacher-blogger community have accelerated under Gove’s successor, Nicky Morgan. </p>
<p>The Department for Education is nearing the end of a consultation with teachers on ways to reduce their workload, called the <a href="https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6088067">Teacher Workload Challenge</a>. When Morgan launched this survey she said that she wanted to <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2014/10/21/nicky-morgan-i-want-to-build-a-new-deal-for-teacher-workload-and-i-need-your-help.aspx">“build a new deal for teacher workload”</a> and called for teachers’ help. </p>
<p>The government has conducted such surveys before, but this time felt different. The announcement was tweeted and re-tweeted and, by November 6 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tens-of-thousands-of-teachers-join-the-workload-challenge">more than 30,000 respondents</a> had already completed the survey. Tweachers seemed to respond favourably to the announcement of the survey: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"531117758071963649"}"></div></p>
<p>However, there was a desire that survey should actually lead to “concrete action”: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"528965278924017664"}"></div></p>
<p>Perhaps there is still some bad feeling following a perceived attempt to ignore or disregard concerns raised by the previous survey:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"439440990131470336"}"></div></p>
<p>But surveys aren’t the only form of canvassing that the DfE is employing. On November 16 the department (@educationgovuk) hosted #SLTChat – a weekly two hour discussion focused around topics voted for by teachers via an <a href="https://polldaddy.com/poll/8446755/">online survey</a>. Last weekend’s was on the <a href="http://nurph.com/SLTchat/replay?chat_id=990">topic of assessment </a> and the need to strike a balance between marking and feedback and teachers’ workload and well-being.</p>
<p>On December, 7 #SLTChat will be hosted by none other than Nicky Morgan herself: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"527785966556418048"}"></div></p>
<p>So, is this the democratisation of the teaching profession? Has Twitter opened up a line of communication, and are those in power really listening? </p>
<p>I’m not so sure. </p>
<p>Norman Fairclough, linguistics expert and author of <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Language_and_Power.html?id=ZRHCNMN3qqUC">Language and Power</a>, lends us an insight into how those in positions of power use language to maintain it. With Twitter and blogs reflecting what Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells called the <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Rise_of_The_Network_Society.html?id=hngg4aFtJVcC">Network Society</a>, we have seen how people, often without political power, can use this technology to self-organise around a campaign – from the Occupy movement to the Arab spring.</p>
<h2>‘Nonsense’ tweet backfires</h2>
<p>With the rising number of teachers joining the online community of Twitter and blogs it is little wonder that politicians and their civil servants want to get in on the action. But they don’t always get it right, as one “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11203931/Education-departments-gay-rights-tweet-sparks-row.html">badly worded tweet</a>” suggested in early November. </p>
<p>This Clarksonesque <em>faux pas</em>, from the Department of Education’s official Twitter account, implied that British Values were a strictly heterosexual affair and said it was: “Nonsense to say ‘schools must teach gay rights’”. The department <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29872287">raced to clarify</a> that it meant schools wouldn’t be forced to teach gay rights. But the affair reflected the reality that policy is still driven by ideologies and political agenda.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"528932962835107842"}"></div></p>
<p>The apparent olive branch of consultation may have the appeal of shared governance, but it may also be an attempt by those in power to move into this new space of digital dialogue, co-opting those voices that wield the most influence and dominating the discourse. The proof of how genuine these moves to engage teachers really are will be in how the government responds to the workload survey.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Lane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During the magical month of December 2013 teachers across the UK were given an early Christmas gift from the least expected donor. Twitter buzzed with the news. I first saw it thanks to @teachertoolkit…Stephen Lane, Doctoral Researcher in Education, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/343852014-11-19T06:05:55Z2014-11-19T06:05:55ZSorry minister, but philistinism is not an educational policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64865/original/7x7689tn-1416323319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">F is for #fail. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/luiginter/14243842901/in/photolist-nGFqfi-aUqNfk-dJCQyK-7JYMRm-6uVJeH-2Xigw8-8tuadK-a3gG18-dUnj3M-96kTx-7owadv-aQS3in-6QZm2L-asFbd-4zwDn9-97NH5y-e52jSn-68AsM4-9u2j95-9bazKB-bwPb6v-7R4PS3-7Pesb4-em7YVf-4iDRVY-9Meg87-dB5Vtf-nWd4pL-b6cUjp-dnwzKB-5AXS9i-52Qbfq-ghnoDc-aHZcSP-crymxW-6CGZCZ-6qKwTX-6qU871-kcvb9-bpCgvC-majnde-aDHjXF-9uPVG8-nFKYD2-HdqBz-dY2Z8D-nRtmXg-eyiTjs-aTkCng-4LwVTw">luiginter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the same week <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/sarah-churchwell-why-the-humanities-matter/2016909.article">in which I published a piece for Times Higher Education</a> about why the humanities matter, Minister for Education Nicky Morgan gave the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/education-secretary-nicky-morgan-tells-teenagers-if-you-want-a-job-drop-humanities-9852316.html">following advice</a> to young people: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you wanted to do something, or even if you didn’t know what you wanted to do, then the arts and humanities were [once] what you chose because they were useful for all kinds of jobs. Of course, we know now that couldn’t be further from the truth – that the subjects that keep young people’s options open and unlock the door to all sorts of careers are the STEM subjects [science, technology, engineering and maths].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I have several objections to the claim that the arts and humanities can’t help you get “all kinds of jobs”. First: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/people/nicky-morgan">Nicky Morgan has a humanities degree</a>. So does <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/people/george-osborne">George Osborne</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/people/michael-gove">Michael Gove</a>, <a href="http://www.boris-johnson.com/#!/about/">Boris Johnson</a>, and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/people/david-cameron">David Cameron</a>. I can’t see that it’s hurt their career prospects. Indeed, news reports regularly circulate that banks or consulting firms are seeking high-paid arts graduates to help them solve problems and resist linear thinking.</p>
<p>My second objection, though, is to this false dichotomy between the humanities and STEM, as if education were a zero-sum game and we are only permitted to know one thing. This divide-and-conquer mentality is destroying a precious tradition that promotes curiosity, independence of thought and pure research across the arts and the sciences.</p>
<p>What is outmoded is not the study of arts and humanities instead of the sciences: what is outmoded is the idea that educated people need to understand only one subject in a globalised world. Our society urgently needs people who reflect on and can communicate about the ethical, moral, social and environmental consequences of the technologies they create, the antibiotics they discover, the houses they build. </p>
<p>How will we protect our justice system if we don’t know political or moral philosophy? How will we avoid repeating the mistakes of our past if we relinquish the study of history? How will we communicate with each other with precision and dismantle the messages and images that define our world without language and semiotics? How will we expand our imaginative horizons if we stop reading literature? </p>
<p>What kind of person advocates philistinism as an educational policy?</p>
<p>So to be clear: when I say we need to encourage young people to study the humanities I am not saying they shouldn’t study the sciences. We acutely need more people who understand both. What we don’t need is this kind of limited, utilitarian thinking, which promises only to help people get jobs, as if the work that can be extracted from us is all that matters. This is precisely the struggle from which the Enlightenment tradition of the arts and sciences fought to liberate us. </p>
<p>By no coincidence, the people who invented the concept of the humanities to educate their citizens were also the people who invented the concept of citizens: the ancient Greeks, conceiving democracy. The great Enlightenment philosopher-scientists developed our modern conception of the sciences – and of the humanities. Voltaire argued that the rule of law, the arts <em>and</em> sciences, religious tolerance, civil liberties and commercial prosperity were all necessary to a free society – not just commercial prosperity on its own. </p>
<p>The humanities are intimately tied with what it means to be independent citizens in a democracy – and it is no coincidence that, as we watch the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/19/how-to-rescue-uk-middle-classes">middle classes shrinking</a>, civil liberties being eroded, and democratic processes paralysing from corruption, the humanities are also being dismissed as irrelevant. </p>
<p>The humanities shore up democracy, civil liberties and the middle classes: they teach analysis, critical thinking, ethics, cultural comparison, and autonomous individual reflection; they teach history, languages, literature and the fine arts, which refine us and are one of the means by which we define human aspiration beyond material ambitions. A narrow instrumentalism that judged art solely on the basis of its mechanical utility would conclude that Gordon Ramsay writes better books than Charles Dickens. </p>
<p>Education is not a smithy in which we forge workers to underpin the powerful. It is how we empower citizens, how we inform and apprehend what it means to be human – and that must include studying the humanities. </p>
<p>Every day we hear the rich and influential discouraging young people from exploring all that makes them human, drilling into them the idea that all they should think about is getting jobs, at the same time that these same so-called leaders won’t <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29631573">protect minimum wages</a> or <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/10/millionaire-tory-mp-tenants-estate-flats-richard-benyon">keep property values affordable</a>. </p>
<p>I am an advocate of people exploring their own interests, whether those be arts, science, or a combination of the two. Everyone should be encouraged to seek ways of being productive and self-supporting that are consistent with those interests and beliefs. Certainly we need engineers, doctors, inventors and researchers. </p>
<p>But we also need experts in the humanities to think about imagination, consciousness, and communication in a digital age; to reflect on identity and ethics; to think creatively and problem-solve; to consider the consequences of past, present, and future actions. We need artists to preserve beauty, to help us imagine redemption, to remind us of all that is possible for human beings to achieve beyond building better tools, which is all that technology means. </p>
<p>The humanities and the sciences are not opposed: the most interesting work today is bringing them together. One of <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-year-i-became-the-first-scientist-to-judge-the-man-booker-33064">my fellow judges of the Man Booker prize</a>, Daniel Glaser, directs the <a href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/sciencegallery/Index.aspx">Science Gallery at King’s College London</a>, an outreach centre teaching young people how “art and science collide”, bringing together artists, scientists, students, and communities “to stimulate fresh thinking”. The gallery will open in 2016 and as far as I’m concerned it can’t come soon enough. </p>
<p>A colleague of mine at UEA, Jenni Barclay, is a volcanologist working with local communities and social scientists to improve communication surrounding disasters; in her spare time <a href="http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2013/November/volcanotoptrumps">she helped develop a volcano version of Top Trumps</a>. Scientists and artists are coming together to understand cognition, the digital world, our changing social and natural environment. We don’t need new policy statements, or to dispense with ‘outmoded’ institutions: we need to empower research and innovation across all fields of creative human endeavour, and stop prioritising one over the other. It should be obvious to everyone that with the world in such a parlous state, we need all the help we can get.</p>
<p>I’ve spent the past five years <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2014/02/sarah-churchwell-on-the-rise-of-jay-gatsby-and-the-fall-of-his-inventor.html">working on The Great Gatsby</a>, one of the best-loved and most prophetic books in our tradition. In 1925, Scott Fitzgerald wrote a cautionary tale about what would happen to a person (Jay Gatsby), and the country he represented (America), if he took all of his romantic hopes and dreams and ideals and possibilities and channelled them into the reductive, materialistic aims of a corrupt society. Fitzgerald concluded that human greatness lay in our “capacity for hope”, our “capacity for wonder”, “our romantic readiness” – and that settling for mere material comfort would destroy us.</p>
<p>All of us who were thrilled at <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-at-work-the-day-after-philae-lands-34169">the landing of the Philae spacecraft</a> were responding to human ingenuity, technology, and engineering — and to a triumph of human inquiry, creativity and imagination. That took science, it took art, and it took humanity. The humanities and the sciences are on the same side: the side of inspiration. The humanities and the sciences teach enlightenment: markets are blind. </p>
<p>In 1784, Immanuel Kant published an essay called <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html">What is Enlightenment?</a> in which he declared: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on – then I have no need to exert myself. I have no need to think, if only I can pay; others will take care of that disagreeable business for me … It is more nearly possible, however, for the public to enlighten itself; indeed, if it is only given freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The reverse is also true: enlightenment and freedom are aligned.</p>
<p>“Enlightenment,” Kant wrote, “is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance … ‘Have the courage to use your own understanding,’ is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64867/original/5y9j5mbf-1416323719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64867/original/5y9j5mbf-1416323719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64867/original/5y9j5mbf-1416323719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64867/original/5y9j5mbf-1416323719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64867/original/5y9j5mbf-1416323719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64867/original/5y9j5mbf-1416323719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64867/original/5y9j5mbf-1416323719.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Immanuel Kant needed no convincing on the value of the humanities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant#mediaviewer/File:Kant_Kaliningrad.jpg">AndreasToerl</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And it is surely therefore the motto of the arts, the sciences, and the humanities. It is not the motto of politicians who would do our thinking for us, so that we don’t challenge them. We must fight harder to protect our artistic and social heritage, to conserve our cultural as well as our natural environment.</p>
<p>The fight for the humanities is political. It is a fight for enlightenment principles of democracy, civil liberties, scepticism and rationalism, and evidenced-based conclusions in the struggle against propaganda and demagoguery. It is the tradition of Bacon, Hume, Locke and Newton, it is the tradition of Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin. It is their legacy, and we have a duty to safeguard it. </p>
<p>In 1780, the American statesman John Adams <a href="http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17800512jasecond">wrote to his wife Abigail</a> of his reluctant decision to join the revolution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The magnificent hope of some day studying the arts was the ultimate goal, a revolutionary purpose.</p>
<p>Kant wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now I hear the cry from all sides: ‘Do not argue!’ The officer says: ‘Do not argue – drill!’ The tax collector: ‘Do not argue – pay!’ The pastor: ‘Do not argue – believe!’ … I reply: the public use of one’s reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment to mankind …</p>
<p>Free thought gradually reacts back on the modes of thought of the people, and men become more and more capable of acting in freedom. At last free thought acts even on the fundamentals of government and the state finds it agreeable to treat man, who is now more than a machine, in accord with his dignity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The humanities teach us to be more than machines, to learn the history of human achievement, to retrieve the dignity of our present existence and to imagine that a glorious future might still be possible if we protect the hard-won rights we have inherited.</p>
<p>It is in the humanities, the arts and the sciences together that we find meaning and any hope of beatitude in a secular age. This is grace, beauty, music and art. This is curing cancer, it is composing the St Matthew Passion and it is sitting at the Globe to watch the plays of Shakespeare. </p>
<p>How dare the education minister say that we need no longer teach young people this tradition? The humanities safeguard our higher nature, our higher ideals. This is our freedom: this is our enlightenment.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited version of a plenary address at the <a href="http://beinghumanfestival.org/">Being Human Festival</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Churchwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the same week in which I published a piece for Times Higher Education about why the humanities matter, Minister for Education Nicky Morgan gave the following advice to young people: If you wanted to…Sarah Churchwell, Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.