Political Economy

Goave’s White Paper “The Importance of Teaching” is based on England’s falling position in the PISA league tables. Note that the problem is not falling performance, that has remained basically the same, but other countries have improved.  PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an OECD programme to measure performance of 15 year old’s. PISA is not a value-free test of knowledge in the English sense. It  is designed to support and embed the OECD culture and values. (The hidden curriculum of PISA – the promotion of neo-liberal policy by educational assessment by Michael Uljens 12.7 2007). So the English performance may just be bloody-mindedness! Certainly in tests like TIMMS, which take as a starting point the national curricula of countries, and which do use value-free tests, England has been performing well.

One of the features of the PISA league tables is the outstanding performance of Finland who are at the top of the table. This surprised even the Finns who in 2000 when PISA held its first round of tests were dissatisfied with their educational system outcomes and were contemplating major changes. Since then Finland has done well despite the fact that research has shown a 25% drop in cognitive (thinking) ability of its students over that time. So PISA clearly does not measure thinking ability.

Apart from basing his White paper on Finland Goave is also enamored with Free Schools along the lines of those in Sweden and the USA.

But Per Thulberg, director general of the Swedish National Agency for Education, said  “This competition between schools that was one of the reasons for introducing the new schools has not led to better results. The lesson is that it’s not easy to find a way to continue school improvement. The students in the new schools have, in general, better standards, but it has to do with their parents and backgrounds. They come from well-educated families.” - Reported in guardian.co.uk, 9th February 2010.

So Goave’s White Paper is looking more and more like a big girl’s blouse. What is he to do?

The answer is to do what Westminster politicians have turned into a fine art – Fiddle the Figures!. In another blog The English Bac I showed that Goave’s new measure had little educational value and was designed simply to show in four years time that his policies had worked – even though they had not.

However this left him with a big problem. Currently schools are measured on their CVA (contextual value added). This measures the improvement over earlier achievement levels adjusted for things like deprivation, students in care, first language and so on. This is instead of just measuring schools on their raw GCSE results where schools in leafy suburbs will always do better than, for example,  inner city schools with high immigration levels.

Why is it necessary to get rid of CVA? Ministers will give all sorts of reasons, all of them rubbish. The real reason is the one Per Thulberg gave. Free schools attract middle-class parents whose children will do well, even with poor teaching. Those left behind in the old school will not do as well no matter how good the teaching. The CVA measure would show the free school is not adding much in educational terms and that the old school is adding a lot, so proving what an expensive scam the Free Schools are.

The key point here is that the new measures are guaranteed to show that Goave’s policy is a success – even if it is not.

Is this sort of scummy behaviour from a government minister acceptable? No!

Is this sort of scummy behaviour from a government minister fit for purpose? No!

Is this sort of scummy behaviour from a government minister decent and honest? No!

So who will end up crying. In a just world it should be Goave. That might just happen. Research, based on 500,000 pupils, published in the journal ‘Significance’ (of the Royal Statistical Society) concluded that 40% of the difference in students’ education results were down to the family. The rather limited family intervention programmes tend to be successful at raising standards. So who is handling the government research into this? Why, according to a story in the news last year it is Mr Cameron! Very wise Dave, make sure your name is on the successes.

In the real world however it is going to be the poor and disadvantaged who will end up in tears. The Nasty Party are back!

Michael Gove has decided that that there will be a new qualification. The English Bac, awarded to students with good passes in English, maths, science, a language, and history or geography.

Why this choice of subjects? Where is the Latin or Ancient Greek I hear you asking? After all there has been a lot of support for these subjects as the true core of a real education!

What will the history be about? Will it bang the drum for England and its achievements? Or perhaps ancient history, the study of ancient Greece and Rome, is a safer bet?

And why are there only five subjects in it? Why cannot RE  be included, or psychology or sociology or technology or art or music?

I tried to get my head around the Scottish system to see what they did but its jargon, innumerable levels and differences in terminolgy totally defeated me. Proof I supose of the superiority of the Scottish system.

There is the Middle Years programme (ages 11 – 16) of the International Baccalaureate which is an easily understood programme that aims to develop students academically, socially and emotionally and practically. Surely that could improve English education? Most probably it would, but it would also cost money to implement. Why did Gove not choose the Middle Years IB?

So have you spotted the real reason for Gove’s English Bac yet? It certainly has no academic or pedagogical foundation. It will not distinguish good teaching or good schools from bad. It is quite simply a measure that guarantees to show, at no cost, two things:

1. That private schools are better than state schools!
2. That Gove’s programmes of education have given rise to a huge improvement in standards in English state schools by the time of the next election!

Of course in reality it will show neither of these two things.  So how does it work?

Some years ago the Labour government made modern languages no longer compulsory. As a result in many state schools students have voted with their feet and the proportion of students taking a modern foreign language has dropped significantly. State schools will therefore automatically have poor English Bac results. Of course those students choosing their GCSE options to start this September for examination in May/June 2013 will find that languages are again, for large number of more able students, back on the subject list. So in 2013 results will be better.

Will Mr Gove be starting his measurements in 2013? Not at all. He has already started by publishing English Bac results for 2010! This is a full three years before the new system can possibly start to give results. As one would expect these 2013 figures will show two things:

1. That private schools still have much better results at the English Bac and are still “somehow better”
2. That state school results in 2013 will be much better than in 2010, the last year Labour had an influence on schools, so showing that conservative policies are much more successful than those of Labour!

Will either of these two assertions be true? No!

Private schools will, by and large, be selecting their students from amongst the brightest 16% in the nation. That is to say from those with a CAT score of 110 or better. The local comprehensive will have the whole range of student ability from a CAT score of between 70 and 130. If they are lucky the brightest students, those with a score of 110 or more, will make up 10% of their intake (the rest of the bright students will be in private schools) compared to the 100% for the private school. The private school result should therefore be 10 times better, shouldn’t it? The fact that they are never any where near that good attests to the good quality of much of state education.

Denbigh High School in Luton is led by one of the regions most outstanding head teachers, Dame Yasmin Bevan DBE Hon DEd BSc (Econ) BA MA. Are Denbigh’s English Bac results for 2010 better than poor? Probably not. Will they be better in 2013? Certainly they will. Will that have anything to do with Gove’s policies? Of course not! It will happen simply because more Denbigh students will be taking a modern foreign language.

Will the coalition government claim the improvement is because of Gove’s policies? Almost certainly!

What will it actually prove? You decide!

My Last question to you is this. Do we not deserve better government than this shoddy mixture of trickery and deceit?