Exploring pupil segregation between specialist and non‐specialist schools

One of the most significant developments within English education over the last decade has been the expansion of specialist schools as a means by which to promote diversity and drive improvement. While much research has examined the impact of specialist schools on outcomes such as attainment, little attention has been paid to the schools’ demographic compositions or their potential for exacerbating segregation. Gorard and Taylor (2001) reported that specialist schools admitted proportionally fewer children from deprived backgrounds over time. Building on their work, this paper uses data from the Pupil Level Annual School Census and the Index of Multiple Deprivation to examine changing intakes of specialist and non‐specialist schools between 2001/2 and 2004/5. Trends in segregation were not significantly associated with the presence or otherwise of specialist status in a school. However, they were significantly associated with foundation status and the presence of strong and/ or improving examination results. Such schools drew more ‘privileged’ intakes over time

Self‐Concept Predicts Academic Achievement Across Levels of the Achievement Distribution: Domain Specificity for Math and Reading

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146593/1/cdev12924_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146593/2/cdev12924.pd

Redistribution and financing schools in England under Labour: are resources going where needs are greatest?

This article explores the policy changes made by the Labour government to the recurrent funding of school-based education in England, focusing in particular on the allocation of resources to meet the needs of disadvantaged pupils. Expenditure on education and, in particular, on schools has increased since 1997. However, while there have been two major changes to the way in which government allocates resources to local authorities (LAs) and a new requirement for LAs to include a deprivation factor in their funding formulae for schools, the evidence indicates that resources are being allocated to schools in a less redistributive manner than they are being allocated by central government to LAs. To address this issue, the government could require a minimum proportion of funding to be allocated to schools on the basis of disadvantage; however, politically this would be problematic in the absence of additional resources as it would mean cuts being made by LAs elsewhere in the education budget. And whilst there is now some information about the level of funding allocated to meet the needs of disadvantaged pupils, there is a paucity of information about how these resources are actually used within schools

Selection by attainment and aptitude in English secondary schools

In the 1970s and the 1980s, multicultural education spread in many countries. However, in the mid-1980s the golden age of multiculturalism came to an end. Neo-conservative political forces attacked multicultural policies and progressively a neo-liberal discourse pervaded economic and social policies, also affecting national education systems. In contrast, multicultural approaches have emerged with tremendous vigour in the field of business management. Juxtaposing cognitive, emotional and socio-communicative multiculturalism found in organisational studies onto multiculturalism in the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum indicates whether multiculturalism in international schools aims to respond to the needs of global capitalism. The findings show that emotional, cognitive and socio-communicative multiculturalism are seen as essential traits for good performance in transnational corporations, and they are strongly encouraged in the IB curriculum. The relevance of multicultural skills in global management alongside the decay of multiculturalism in public education systems entails a growing educational disparity between lower class and higher class children. A new educational structure in which two differentiated systems – a national system and an international system – emerges and redefines the terms of inequality of opportunities.</p