Labour's post-comprehensive school system ENTRENCHING THE CLASS DIVIDE Richard Hatcher looks at the total destruction of comprehensive education by New Labour. He argues that the only way to defeat the new Education Bill is to unite parents, teachers and children in a mass movement to stop the Academies and Trusts today and to build for a radical comprehensive education system tomorrow. ince 1997 Labour schools policy has been single- • mindedly geared to two overriding objectives The first is the more efficient production of the future workforce. More than ever. the economic has dominated policy. The function of schooling been to secure continuing second objective has middle-class electoral support by protecting its class advantage in the school system, exemplified by Blair's adamant refusal to abolish the remaining 164 grammar schools. Happily for New Labour, the policies to achieve these two objectives are identical. of a differentiated school system The creation based on 'choice and diversity' (a slogan borrowed directly from its Conservative predecessors) meets the needs of the employers for a stratified labour force, without the unnecessary expense of a high- education for comprehensive quality common all. And the weight of social inequality in society, scarcely ameliorated after nearly a decade of Labour government, ensures that the differentiated system becomes a class-differentiated system. If you want to know how well a child will do at school, just ask how well-off its parents are - that's the single best predictor, as even the government acknowledged 2004 Five year strategy for children and in its learners.' 'Those from higher socio-economic groups do significantly better at each stage of our system than those from lower ones - indeed [membership of a particular] socio-economic group is a stronger predictor of attainment than early ability'. The DES's own latest figures show that 29.9 percent of pupils who are entitled to claim free school meals gained five A to Cs last year compared to a 58.9 percent success rate among those pupils not claiming free meals.? But the school system does not simply reflect wider class inequalities; it actively contributes to their reproduction. The Five year strategy admits that, 'This is not simply a case of the system recognising and labelling learners' innate levels of ability. The gap between the best and worst performers in our system actually widens as they go through education'. What the government will not admit is that its own education policies are to blame, in spite of the well-known finding of the PISA study comparing school student attainment in a number of countries, which found that comprehensive school systems are more effective at reducing inequality.? It praises Finland, which performed best in the study, for its comprehensive system and for giving teachers a high degree of responsibility and autonomy - the opposite of Labour's policy. Labour's Standards Agenda has run out of steam For the past eight years the Labour government has been able to rebuff criticism of its education policies with the claim that they are justified by the rise in standards. - -umber of recent research reports have challenged CHOICE? this claim. The most far-reaching study is Standards in 1997 and the impact of English schools: changes since government policies and initiatives, a report published in April 2005.^ Its conclusion is that gains are real but modest; they began before the Labour took office and they have now levelled off. However, despite hundreds of millions of pounds of spending, the overall effectiveness of policies has been minimal. This is a devastating balance sheet, and it is backed up by a number of other studies. As a report by the Statistics Commission in 2005 confirmed, a large part of the Improvement in test scores is due to teachers 'teaching to the test'. 6 What is even more serious for the government is that evidence is emerging that its flagship policies for raising standards - specialist schools and Academies - are not working either. A report in February 2006 by the Research and Information on State Education Trust said that there was no evidence of a causal link between specialist status and good exam results - they could be the result of overt or covert forms of selection, or simply that a school has to get good GCSE results to acquire specialist status.? As for Academies, last year a study of the first three Academies to open showed that any improvement was due to them changing their intake and attracting more students from middle-class backgrounds. And devastating new statistics have just emerged which compare GCSE results between all Academies in 2005 and their predecessor schools in 2002.? Tony Blair has praised a 14-point improvement in the percentage of students getting 5 A*-C grades at GCSE - from 21% in 2002 to 35% in 2005. This seems to justify the government's claims for Academies. But how was this improvement achieved? In many cases by entering students for the options which pay off in league table terms: in particular, using 1. DES (Department for Education and Skills) (2004) Five-year strategy for children and learners. London: HMSO. ' 2. Education Guardian 1 March 2006 3. OECD/Unesco (2003) "Literacy skills for the world of tomorrow - further results from Pisa 2000*, Education and Skills no. 5, pp. 1-392 4. Tymms, P., Coe, R., and Merrell, C. (2005) Standards in English schools: changes since 1997 and the impact of government policies and initiatives. Durham: CEM Centre, University of Durham. Available at http://www.civitas. org.uk/pdf/Tymms_ SundayTimes_v03.pdf 5. See my article The unravelling of Labour's standards agenda' on the STA website - www. socialist-teacher.org. 6. Statistics Commission (2005) Measuring Standards in English Primary Schools. London: Statistics Commission. Available at http:// www.statscom.org. uk/media_pdfs/ reports/023%20-%20 Measuring%20Stds%2 0in%20English%20sch ools.pdf 7. Times Educational Supplement, 24 February 2006 8. Gorard, S. (2005) *Academies as the 'future of schooling is this an evidence based policy?' Journal of Education Policy 20 (3) 369-377. 9. Times Educational Supplement 10 March 2006.
GNVQs, which count as up to 4 GCSEs and are widely regarded as easier, and not entering for English and maths (although they are the key subjects employers and higher education want). If we take only those students with 5 GCSE A*-C grades including English and maths or vocational equivalents, the improvement between the predecessor schools in 2002 and the Academies in 2005 which replaced them is from 13% to 16% - an increase of 3%. On this basis the improvement over last year is not the 8% Blair claims but 1.3%, less than the national This crisis for Labour's education project has required a stepping-up of 'reform'. Currently the new Education Bill is the focus of attention, ' but this is just one part of a bigger picture of widening social class segregation within the school system. At the top end, more privileges for the 'most able'. This entails the early identification of the top 5 percent of children in the primary school as 'gifted and talented' (unlike the remaining 95 percent, presumably). The government, through the Specialist Academies Trust, one of its key instruments of change. plans to cherry-pick them for places in top universities. Secondary heads will be expected to hothouse their progression to A levels while the universities link with their families. In short, the SATs at the end of primary school will become a university entrance exam. But it is in the so-called 'non-academic' levels of the system that Labour's strategy is most damaging. The decisive policy is last year's 14-19 White Paper and the rejection of the Tomlinson Report in favour of the creation of a more clear-cut, academic-vocational divide. It marked the definitive end of any lingering hope of a common comprehensive education for all up to 16, while masquerading as progressive under the guise of 'personalisation'. Labour's model is of two pathways at 14, one the traditional 'academic' route via GCSEs to A levels, the other of vocational provision beginning at age 14, which takes place not only in schools but also in FE colleges.' The 14-19 White Paper is quite explicit that the aim is to meet local employers' need. Any idea of accountability to local elected representatives is completely absent. 11.32. We know that schools and colleges are most effective when they have the autonomy to innovate and adapt to their local circumstances. 7.15... for employers especially those facing skills shortages it provides a means to train and attract the next generation of skilled employees. 5.25... We want close ties between pupils' experience of work-related learning and their careers advice and guidance. 13 The emergence of vocational schools - a model for Academies and Trust schools One form this is taking is the 'vocational specialist schools' being promoted by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. In January this year they announced the first cohort, with a target of 200 by 2008, focusing on work-related curricula, with functional English and Maths, leading to the new specialised vocational diplomas. There are also indications that new types of Academies - vocational Academies •are emerging. Birmingham is a case in point. Birmingham Council is planning to turn seven secondary schools into Academies, sponsored by Birmingham businesses. This is what the City Council says: This transformation is about the learning experience that young people receive during their secondary though from the age of twelve. It seems certain that we will also see the emergence of vocational Trust schools, where the Trust sponsor is an employer or a training provider. One indication, though not itself a Trust school, has been hailed by Ruth Kelly as a model for Trust schools. It is Thorpe Bay School in Southend, Essex, a 'failing school' which is being taken Schools over by a nearby vocational college run by a private and work-based learning provider, Prospects Training, one of the leading providers of private and government sponsored training in South East Essex.'5 A crisis of perspective for the would-be reformers of Labour policy The White Paper that led to the current Education Bill gave rise to widespread opposition, nearly a hundred Labour MPs. A number of individuals and interlocking organisations played a key role in coordinating it: the Socialist Educational Association (the Labour Party affiliated organisation), the Campaign for State Education (CASE) - both with longstanding records on comprehensive education - Comprehensive Future, a broad campaign against selection, and Compass, a Labour Party reform organisation which has taken up the White Paper and published Melissa Benn and Fiona Millar's pamphlet 'A Comprehensive Future'. The handful of compromises offered by Blair will buy off much of the opposition, especially in the Parliamentary party, but those that remain committed to opposition face something of a crisis of perspective. It is epitomised by Fiona Millar's plea to Blair to abolish the grammar schools in exchange for getting the rebels back on board, more a cry of desperation than a realistic strategy." In part it is a question of programme. They have often tended to reduce the comprehensive idea to Its lowest common denominator and focus on abolishing the grammar schools while neglecting the less totemic but more fundamental destruction of comprehensive education that I have described. But more important is the question of strategy. They surfed the wave of opposition to the White Paper in the belief that Blair could be pressured to back down. They have gained one or two concessions but the direction of Labour's project continues unhindered. Now the wave is subsiding. Where do they go from here? There are two alternatives. One is to continue with the same largely fruitless pressure group politics, perhaps pinning their hopes, like Neal Lawson, director of Compass. on the latest messiahs, in his case David Miliband and Douglas Alexander. The other is to link up with those prepared to mobilise popular support on the ground - the thousands of parents and teachers in local campaigns against Academies, and the hundreds of teachers and supporters who joined the demonstration and rally on March 2 organised by Ealing NUT. Campaigning with them now is the best way to stop the Academies and Trusts today and to build a mass movement for a radical comprehensive education system tomorrow. schooling. We want there to be many more real life problem soiving experiences linked with Birmingham businesses and public sectors. We want the qualifications and skills that pupils develop to be relevant and we want far more of them to leave school with functional literacy, numeracy, and the interpersonal skills and abilities necessary to succeed at work. Behind the hype, the 'Birmingham Academies model' turns out to be a vocational school offering a narrow work-related curriculum for so-called 'non-academic' students. It is putting into practice the policy of the 2005 14-19 White Paper, Another example is the new Academy announced in Rocester, east Staffordshire. It will be sponsored by JCB, sited next to its global headquarters, and will specialise in engineering, manufacturing and international business. This is another variation on the vocational Academies theme - it is to be for 14-19 year olds. 14 10. I have written on the White Paper and the Education Bill in the February issue of Socialist Resistance and the March issue of Socialist Education Journal, the new journal of the Socialist Teachers 11, The Times 27 February 2006. 12. The introduction of a vocational curriculum at 14 is not only happening teft education academics issued a *The crisis of the suburbs' which our of November has the government with the possibility work contract at the age of 14 or 15..'. 13. DES (Department for Education and Skilts) (2005a) 14-19 Education and Skills. London: HMSO 14. Birmingham Post 17 February 2006 15. Times Educational Supplement FE Focus 17 February 2006 16. Guardian 2 March 2006 5