How have educational policies tried to shape equality, standards and the structure of schooling?
The significance of educational policies, including selection, comprehensivisation, marketisation and privatisation, and policies to achieve greater equality of opportunity or outcome by class, gender and ethnicity.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Sociology Education topic on educational policy, covering the tripartite system, comprehensivisation, marketisation and parentocracy, privatisation, globalisation and policies on class, gender and ethnic equality.
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What this dot point is asking
AQA wants you to explain the main shifts in educational policy, including selection, the comprehensive system, marketisation and privatisation, and policies aimed at greater equality, and to evaluate their effects on inequality and standards. Always link a policy to its effect on inequality, not just describe it.
Selection and comprehensivisation
The 1944 Education Act created the tripartite system: grammar, secondary modern and technical schools, with allocation by the 11-plus. In practice the technical schools barely existed, and the test favoured middle-class pupils, so the system reproduced class inequality and labelled most children as failures at eleven.
From 1965 the comprehensive system put all pupils in one type of school to promote equality and social mixing. Critics on the left note that streaming and setting can reproduce the same divisions inside comprehensives; functionalists worry it removes the meritocratic sifting of grammar schools. Ford's research found little social mixing in practice because intake reflects residential segregation.
Marketisation and parentocracy
The 1988 Education Reform Act introduced league tables, formula funding (money following pupils, so popular schools gain), open enrolment and the National Curriculum. Supporters (the New Right) claim competition and accountability raise standards. Critics (Ball, Gewirtz) argue it creates a "myth of parentocracy": choice appears open but middle-class "privileged-skilled choosers" use cultural and economic capital to navigate the system, while working-class "disconnected-local choosers" are restricted to nearby schools. Gewirtz identifies a third group, "semi-skilled choosers".
Privatisation, globalisation and equality policies
Privatisation has brought private companies into education (building and running schools, providing services, sponsoring academies and free schools), what Ball calls the "privatisation of education" and the "cola-isation" of schools (commercial branding). Globalisation brings global education businesses ("edu-business") and policy borrowing across countries.
Equality policies have targeted disadvantage:
- Compensatory education (Sure Start, Education Action Zones, Aim Higher) to tackle deprivation early.
- The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and later the pupil premium and free school meals to support poorer pupils.
- Policies on gender (GIST and WISE encouraging girls into science) and ethnicity (multicultural and anti-racist education).
Evaluation
Marxists and some feminists argue policy mainly reproduces inequality while presenting itself as fair (a legitimating ideology). The New Right defends marketisation as raising standards through accountability and choice. In reality most policies have mixed effects: some compensatory schemes narrow gaps, while marketisation and privatisation can widen them by advantaging those with capital, so the answer depends on which policy and which group.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 201920 marksApplying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the view that marketisation policies have increased inequality in education.Show worked answer →
A Paper 1 (Education) 20 mark essay across AO1, AO2 and AO3.
Use the item to set up marketisation (the 1988 Education Reform Act, league tables, formula funding, parental choice).
For the view: cream-skimming and silt-shifting (Bartlett), the myth of parentocracy (Ball, Gewirtz), and the reproduction of class advantage by "privileged-skilled choosers".
Against the view: compensatory policies (pupil premium, EMA, free school meals) target disadvantage, and supporters argue competition raises standards overall.
Apply the item, name studies, and reach a justified conclusion.
AQA 202110 marksOutline and explain two ways in which marketisation policies may reproduce social class inequality.Show worked answer →
Two developed paragraphs, no item.
Way one: selection by schools (cream-skimming and silt-shifting, Bartlett). To climb league tables, popular schools select able, advantaged pupils and offload less able, costly ones, so middle-class pupils gain access to the best schools.
Way two: the myth of parentocracy (Ball and Gewirtz). Choice looks open to all, but middle-class "privileged-skilled choosers" use cultural and economic capital (knowing the system, affording transport and moving house) to secure good schools, while "disconnected-local choosers" cannot.
Markers reward two distinct, developed ways with named studies.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level Sociology (7192) specification — AQA (2015)