On the last day of February the government published its Education and Inspections Bill 2006. This follows on from the policy statement Higher Standards, Better Schools for All which was outlined in the last issue of the Update (under Radical Plan for Education in England).

The education bill aims to provide greater freedom and independence for all schools, moving schools away from the “one size fits all” comprehensive model which was originally championed by the Labour party in the 1970s. That schools would have greater control over admissions caused some of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s own party members to raise concerns about a return to selection by academic ability. In the end, with the help of opposition Conservative votes and some amendments to the bill’s language, the bill passed its crucial second vote in Parliament.

Key points of the bill include:

• All schools would be able to become ‘trust schools’ with ownership of the school’s assets and control over budgets and admissions
• Local (education) authorities to play a more strategic role as commissioners of provision rather than providers, with a duty to promote choice, diversity and fair access
• Admissions interviews of students and parents to be outlawed
• Schools to 'act in accordance with' - rather than just 'have regard to' - admissions code
• Schools to set up 'partnerships' with outside groups, including parents, businesses and voluntary groups, and 'federations' with other schools
• Failing schools given one year to turn around or face being closed and replaced
• Teachers given extended power to discipline students
• Parents held responsible for children excluded from school – penalties imposed.

For more details, read the Department for Education and Skills’ information on the Education and Inspections Bill 2006

(Sources: BBC News February 28, 2006; March 15, 2006)

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has launched its plan for implementing education reform for students aged 14-19 in England. The government outlined its proposed policies over a year ago – for background information go to the first item in our May 2005 Update.

The reforms aim to keep young people in education or training beyond age 16. The goal is for 90 percent participation in post-16 education by 2015 (currently the rate is 75 percent, below the average of 82 percent as measured among 30 industrialized countries by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

The plan offers:

• A menu of 14 specialized diplomas, alongside the current curriculum, designed in partnership with employers and covering occupational sectors
• Personalized learning, in the form of extra classes and support to target students who are falling behind, and also challenges to stretch gifted students
• An emphasis on “functional skills” at the core of basic English and math, practical requirements for life and the workplace.

The DfES press release sets out the timetable for implementation of the plan.

Download and read the 14-19 Education and Skills Implementation Plan for complete details.

Download and read the executive summary of Choosing to Learn, Improving Participation after Compulsory Education by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), a progressive think tank.

A report from researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, looks at what we know so far about the impact of specialist schools.

Secondary schools can convert to specialist status with private sector funding, plus additional government funding. They follow the National Curriculum but can choose to specialize in one or two of the following areas: arts, business and enterprise, engineering, humanities, languages, mathematics and computing, music, science, sports and technology.

Around 75 percent of secondary schools in England have specialist status, with the government encouraging more schools to convert as part of its push to raise standards.

The report covers the following aspects of the specialist schools policy:

• Background – the history of the development of the policy
• Impacts on equity and accessibility
• Impacts on teaching and learning
• Methods for estimating value added by schools.

The report examines whether there is a causal link between a school’s higher performance and the fact that it is a specialist school. It concludes that the evidence is slim.

Specialist schools are the backbone of the government’s policy for improving the standards of teaching and learning in secondary schools in England. The schools are shown to be high performing, but the report calls for more thorough research to find out whether the improvement is due to the extra resources given to the school or its specialist status.

Read the executive summary or download the full report of Specialist schools – what do we know? from The Research and Information on State Education Trust (RISE).

For more background information see the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

(Source: The Guardian February 24, 2006)

The government has set a target for schools in England requesting that at least half of their students study a foreign language until they are 16.

Last year the government made the study of another language non-compulsory at the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) level. At the same time it boosted the study of languages at the elementary school level.

There has been an outcry at the decline in the study of foreign languages, especially among boys. Last October the Chief Inspector of Schools warned that the study of languages would become a “middle-class girls’ subject”.

The government’s action is seen as a way of stemming the decline in foreign language study which is viewed as critical for ensuring that the UK keeps pace with its European neighbors and globally competitive in general.

For more information on the government’s language strategy visit the Department of Education’s languages website.

(Source: BBC News, December 15, 2005)

Research from Queen’s University, Belfast, suggests that educating Roman Catholic and Protestant students together has an effect on social attitudes later in life.

The first integrated school in Northern Ireland, Lagan College outside of Belfast, opened in 1981. There are now 57 integrated schools with 17,000 enrolled students.

Using almost 25 years of data, the researchers compared data from social attitude surveys of students educated in integrated schools and those who attended segregated schools. The results point to a less sectarian outlook for those who were educated in an integrated setting.

For more details, download and read In Search of the Middle Ground: Integrated Education and Northern Ireland Politics.

(Source: The Guardian January, 18 2006)

According to government statistics released last month, black students are improving their exam results at a higher rate than any other minority ethnic group.

The figures show how students are performing in Key Stage tests and GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education), broken down by ethnicity, gender, English as a first language, special educational needs and free school meals.

The proportion of black Caribbean and African students achieving good exam results rose from 39 percent to 45 percent. Other minority groups also made progress.

Girls continue to outperform boys. The difference in achievement in England is 10.1 percent.

For more details, read the Department for Education and Skills’ press release.

(Source: BBC News March 1, 2006)

Determined to Succeed (DtS) is an £86 million ($149.6m*) long-term strategy that aims to prepare all young people in Scotland for the world of work through enterprising and entrepreneurial learning, work-based vocational learning and focused career education.

Building on the partnership approach of DtS, the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) has announced a new schools-business alliance comprising business and educational leaders.

Known as The Smith Group, the alliance will tackle underachievement and the problem of young people who are not engaged in any form of education, training or employment.

The group will focus on:

• More vocational courses in schools and with colleges, developing skills for work and motivating young people
• Additional careers advice based in schools, targeted on those who need it most
• Better coordination of all volunteers and professionals involved
• Long term change through early intervention, preschool education and support for those in care.

For more details, read the SEED press release.

* April 2006 rate of exchange: $1.74 = 1GBP

An independent review of the future role of further education (FE) colleges was carried out from 2004-05. The report of the inquiry, known as the Foster Review, pointed to a critical skills shortage in the UK compared to other industrialized countries. The review set out a vision for the central role of FE colleges in overcoming the skills gap.

In late March the government published its proposals for reforming the FE sector.

In brief, the government proposes:

• Extending free education to 19-25 year-olds to enable them to gain recognized qualifications
• Grants for individuals in low-paid work to enable them to train further
• Extending the network of specialist National Skills Academies which work with employers to offer high quality specialist training
• Requiring FE colleges to be more responsive to the needs of individuals and employers (possibly narrowing the focus of the breadth of courses on offer)
• New programs to attract higher quality teachers to FE colleges
• More rigorous quality assurance in the form of the new Quality Improvement Agency for Lifelong Learning.

For more details on FE reform, read Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances.

Find out more from the Learning and Skills Council about Centres for Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) which work closely with the National Skills Academies.

(Sources: BBC News March 27, 2006; April 5, 2006)

Almost all students who gain the necessary national qualifications will attend university, regardless of their socio-economic status, according to a new report from Universities UK and the Standing Conference of Principals (Scop).

The goal is to ensure that more lower-income students get the necessary academic or vocational qualifications which will lead them to higher education.

Over the last five years, in spite of institutions’ outreach to working class families, the share of applications from students with higher social status to the more selective universities has increased. The authors of the report suggest that institutions can do a better job of targeting under-represented groups.

The report includes an overview of the UK’s policies on widening participation in higher education, and outlines case studies of institutions’ and region’s access programs.

Download and read the executive summary of From the margins to the mainstream: Embedding widening participation in higher education.

The government’s program for encouraging young people to enter higher education, known as Aimhigher, is in its second year.

Aimhigher seeks to raise the aspirations and develop the abilities of young people from under-represented groups. It also aims to raise the attainment levels which make it possible for young people to enter higher education via a vocational or academic route.

Although it is too early to say what effect the program is having on applications from young people who would not normally have considered college, the Higher Education Funding Council has issued an evaluation on what is and is not working so far.

The research draws on data from three national research studies. They suggest that the following activities are considered to be particularly effective:

• Residential schools
• Campus visits/open days
• Mentoring of school/college students and young people
• Subject-related taster events
• Information, advice and guidance.

Less effective were one-off road shows, and some master classes which were pitched too high for the attendants and were led by faculty who were not able to engage the visiting group.

More information, including monitoring and evaluation reports, is available on the Aimhigher practitioner website.

(Sources: The Guardian December 15, 2005; March 14, 2006)

A new framework for the standards of teaching expected in UK higher education is set to have a wide-reaching effect on the higher education sector.

The guide is considered a world’s first and was two years in the making. Over 120 UK universities, colleges and related institutions were involved in the process.

The Higher Education Academy coordinated the project which grew out of the government’s 2003 policy statement on The Future of Higher Education. It called for a framework of professional standards for teaching and to support learning in higher education.

It is expected that higher education institutions will ensure that their existing standards meet the agreed national framework. Future professional development and teaching courses for staff will adhere to the criteria outlined in the framework under the areas of ‘activity’, ‘core knowledge’ and ‘professional values’.

For more information, download and read the four-page National Professional Standards Framework for Teaching.

(Source: Times Higher Education Supplement February 24, 2006)

The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister), Gordon Brown, has proposed replacing the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

The RAE is an extensive peer review, every four to five years, of all academics at every university. Departments are graded and the results affect how much funding a university receives from the government via its funding councils.

Mr Brown proposed, in his recent Budget, simplifying the way research is funded by replacing the RAE with a metrics-based system, such as the impact of published papers or the amount of income earned in research grants or contracts.

The next RAE is scheduled for 2008. The majority of Vice Chancellors expect it to proceed as normal, although one third prefer to see it scrapped assuming a new and simplified method of funding is in place (according to a recent poll carried out by The Times Higher).

Find out more about the Research Assessment Exercise.

(Sources: The Guardian March 22, 2006; The Times Higher March 31, 2006 and April 7, 2006)

Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched the second phase of his Initiative for International Education (PMI). The goal is to attract 100,000 extra overseas (non-European Union) students to study in the UK by 2011.

The initiative follows on from the first successful PMI in 1999. It set a goal of recruiting 75,000 additional overseas students and exceeded the goal by 43,000.  

Almost 300,000 overseas students currently study in the UK, contributing £5 billion ($8.8bn*) to the economy. Approximately 40,000 are from the USA and 5,000 from Canada. Overseas students pay a higher tuition rate than domestic or European Union students.

The PMI aims to position the UK as a leader in international education and ensure that overseas students enjoy a high quality experience.

UK universities face growing competition, from countries like Australia and New Zealand, to recruit overseas students. The initiative will focus on new countries as well as strengthening relationships in countries where there are well established ties.

The prime minister announced his initiative on the same day as he launched an education partnership with India: the UK-India Education and Research Initiative.

The UK’s market share of overseas students has dropped slightly in the last few years. This has been blamed in part on the terrorist attacks in London last summer, higher visa fees, and a more stringent visa application process.

Over the next two years £27m ($47m*) will be invested in the initiative by the government, British Council, the education sector, and businesses.

For more details read the Department for Education and Skills’ press release.

* April 2006 rate of exchange: $1.74 = 1GBP

(Sources: BBC News April 18, 2006; The Guardian April 18, 2006; The Daily Telegraph April 19, 2006)