(How) did New Labour narrow the achievement and participation gap?

Geoff Whitty, Director Emeritus

Institute of Education

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Outline of Presentation

• Access and Achievement in England • The Pre-School Attainment Gap • The Attainment and Participation Gap • What contributed to any narrowing of the gap?• Policies and Prospects post-2010

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Figure 1: Attendance at different types of university by socio-economic group Source: Machin et al.(2009) in Hills (2010)

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Figure 2: Average rank of test scores at 22, 42, 60 and 120 months, by SES of parents and early rank position Source: Feinstein (2003)

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Figure 3: Percentage of cohort achieving five good examination passes at age 16 by parents’ social class: 1988-2003 (%) Source: DfES (2006)

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Figure 4: Relationship between household deprivation and relative performance in examinations in core subjects Source: Cook (2011)

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Figure 5: “Gaps in educational performance have narrowed only very slightly despite significant investment” Source: HM Government (2010)

Figure 6: Participation rates of those from high and low socio-economic background and their gap Source: BIS (2009)

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Examples of New Labour Education Policies

• Class size reduction• Education Action Zones• Excellence in Cities • National Strategies for Literacy and Numeracy• More teaching assistants • Improving school leadership training• Enhancing teacher quality, e.g. Teach First • Creation of specialist schools• The London Challenge• Autonomous Academy schools • Personalisation, e.g. Reading Recovery • Every Child Matters• AimHigher

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What didn’t make a difference

• Class size reduction• Education Action Zones• Excellence in Cities • Employment of teaching assistants

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What may have made a difference

• The National Strategies?• Academies?• Extended Schools?• Reading Recovery?• Teach First?• The London Challenge? • AimHigher?

Figure 7: Performance at GCSE by region Source: Ofsted (2012)

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2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/1135

40

45

50

55

60

65

%+ A*-C GCSE incl Eng and Maths by region

NORTH EASTNORTH WESTYORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBEREAST MIDLANDSWEST MIDLANDSEAST OF ENGLANDInner LondonOuter LondonSOUTH EASTSOUTH WESTENGLAND (Maintained sector)

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What may have made a difference

• The National Strategies?• Academies?• Extended Schools?• Reading Recovery?• Teach First?• The London Challenge?• AimHigher?

- or just ‘the economy, stupid’?

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Current Coalition Policies Key Conservative policies • More Academies and Free Schools • Traditional curriculum and examinations

NB Tension between neo-liberal and neo-conservative elements of policy

Key Liberal Democrat policies • Pupil premium for disadvantaged students • Learning and Teaching (‘What works’) Toolkit for teachers funded

by Education Endowment Fund

Modelling Pedagogic Identities Classification

RestrictedRetrospective

(Old conservative)

Re-Centred State

In any one case there can be opposition and collaborations between these positions in the arena of reform, alternatively, some positions may be illegitimate and excluded from the arena (Bernstein 2000)

DifferentiatedDe-Centred

(Market)(Neo-Liberal)

IntegratedDe-centred

(Therapeutic)(Professionals)

Selected Prospective

(Neo-Conservative)

Diagram 1

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Questions and comments?

g.whitty@ioe.ac.uk