Educational policy: key terms
12 terms. Say the definition out loud, tap to check, then say whether you knew it. Back to the topic
These cards were written by the site from the specification, mark schemes and examiners' reports and are being checked by our Sociology tutor; tell us if you spot an error.
Marketisation
Bringing market forces of supply, demand, competition and choice into education.
Exam tip The 1988 Education Reform Act is the key starting point. Explain its effect on inequality, not just what it is.
Parentocracy
Rule by parents: the idea that parents, as consumers, drive education through school choice.
Exam tip David's term. Evaluate with Ball: the 'choice' mainly benefits middle-class parents.
League tables
Published rankings of schools by results, such as GCSE scores.
Exam tip Link them to cream-skimming and silt-shifting: schools want pupils who will raise their ranking.
Cream-skimming
Popular schools selecting the most able pupils, who are mostly middle class.
Exam tip Bartlett's term, usually paired with silt-shifting.
Silt-shifting
Schools avoiding pupils with learning difficulties or behaviour problems who might lower results.
Exam tip Bartlett. Use it to explain how marketisation reproduces inequality.
Formula funding
Paying schools a fixed sum for each pupil, so popular schools get more money.
Exam tip Shows how inequality between schools grows: oversubscribed schools gain, unpopular ones lose.
Selection
Admitting pupils on the basis of ability, for example by the eleven-plus exam in the tripartite system.
Exam tip Know the 1944 tripartite system and the 1965 move to comprehensives. Evaluate both from functionalist and Marxist views.
Comprehensive system
Non-selective state schools that take pupils of all abilities.
Exam tip Functionalists see it as promoting meritocracy; Marxists point out that streaming kept inequality inside the school.
Academies
State-funded schools run independently of the local authority, with control over the curriculum and pay.
Exam tip A post-2010 expansion. Link to fragmentation and to the privatisation of education.
Privatisation of education
The transfer of public services and assets to private companies, for example academy chains and outsourced exam services.
Exam tip Ball and Whitty. Connect it to globalisation: some providers are multinational companies.
Compensatory education
Policies that put extra resources into schools or areas with disadvantaged pupils.
Exam tip Examples: Education Action Zones, Sure Start, the pupil premium. Evaluate their effect on the class gap.
Fragmented centralisation
Ball's description of policy that breaks up local authority control while giving central government more power.
Exam tip Useful in essays on post-2010 policy, alongside academies and free schools.
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