New – or supposedly new – policies on education are a central focus of what the party manifestos, published this week, are offering the electorate. Research by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) provides some evidence on the impact of past initiatives and the prospective success of some of the proposed reforms.
The ambition common to all parties is to raise standards. How much has been achieved in the past decade? The evidence shows that pupils’ exam performance has improved for secondary schools, while progress has been more muted for primary schools. But there is robust evidence that the increase in primary school expenditure between 2002 and 2007 led to a modest increase in educational attainment.
There has also been a narrowing of the difference in achievements between rich and poor pupils since 2000. Nevertheless, the gap remains substantial, something that again all parties want to tackle. A ‘pupil premium’ that would follow disadvantaged pupils – as proposed by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – would help to correct inequities in how funding gets allocated to schools. Research evidence suggests that economically disadvantaged pupils benefit disproportionately from rises in general spending on schools.
Although there have been impressive increases in educational expenditure under Labour, this record should be kept in perspective. The UK only spends just over the OECD average on education as a percentage of GDP, and the gap between resources in the private sector and the state sector is still enormous. Unsurprisingly, research shows that this is reflected in the labour market in terms of a substantial wage premium for attending private school.
Labour is committed to expanding its programme of academy schools, publicly funded institutions that are largely run by sponsors – individuals, businesses or other groups – outside the public sector. The Conservatives want to continue in a similar vein and make it easier for parents to set up new schools – in particular citing the experience of ‘free schools’ introduced in Sweden 15 years ago.
Research evaluation of the effectiveness of academies in raising educational attainment is still in progress but early evidence from CEP is not encouraging. Meanwhile, the most recent study of Sweden’s free schools, using the best research design and looking at long-term (as well as short-term) outcomes finds that the reforms produced only small positive effects, which did not last long. The proposals to expand the academies programme and/or introduce Swedish-style reforms do not appear to be evidence-based.
Finally, all parties agree on the importance of getting high quality teachers. Research suggests that high-quality teaching matters hugely for pupil outcomes. At the same time, ‘teacher quality’ is not associated with the educational qualifications of teachers. So it seems unlikely that efforts to increase the average qualifications of the teaching workforce will actually increase teaching quality. And the challenge of attracting and retaining more able teachers in the context of a competitive labour market should not be underestimated.
Dr Sandra McNally is director of Education and Skills at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science. More information on CEP election analyses available from http://cep.lse.ac.uk
