New Labour, education and Wales: the devolution decade

Reynolds, David

doi:10.1080/03054980802519019

Cited by 33 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…However, the English inspection agency Ofsted utilized EER in its Inspection Framework (see Sammons, Hillman, & Mortimore, 1995), and the documentation upon school improvement that each English school fills in for school self-evaluation drew on the evidence upon within-school variation (Reynolds, 2007). There have been links between EER and the Dutch National Inspection Framework, and some evidence of governmental interest in Germany, Finland, and some Latin American societies, but it is only in Wales (with its educational outcomes apparently falling rapidly down the PISA "league table") that there appears to be systematic use of EER findings currently (Reynolds, 2008). Townsend (2007) documented interest -but not mainstreaming -in many societies.…”

Section: Eer Policy and Practicementioning

confidence: 95%

Educational effectiveness research (EER): a state-of-the-art review

Reynolds

Sammons

Fraine

et al. 2014

School Effectiveness and School Improvement

Self Cite

384

254

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and other societies, dating from the field's origins in the 1970s. Issues include its history, methodological and theoretical advances, scientific properties of school effects, processes at school and classroom level behind these effects, the somewhat limited translation of findings into policy and practice across the world, and future directions for research and practice in EER and for all of the discipline more generally. Future research needs are argued to be a further concentration upon teaching/teachers, more longitudinal studies, more work on possible context specificity, exploration of the cross-level transactions between schools and their teachers/classrooms, the adoption of "efficiency" as well as "effectiveness" as outcome measures, and a renewed focus upon the education of the disadvantaged, the original focus of our discipline when it began.

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Section: Eer Policy and Practicementioning

confidence: 95%

Educational effectiveness research (EER): a state-of-the-art review

Reynolds

Sammons

Fraine

et al. 2014

School Effectiveness and School Improvement

Self Cite

384

254

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In England, most funding goes directly to schools based on funding formulae. However, in Wales, much of the funding is held back by local councils for central services (about one quarter of funding in 2006/07, as discussed by Reynolds 2008).…”

Section: Educational Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational attainment across the UK nations: performance, inequality and evidence

Machin

McNally

Wyness

2013

Educational Research

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Background: Political devolution occurred in the UK in 1998-99, following many years in which some degree of policy administration had been devolved to the four nations. Since devolution, all four countries of the UK have pursued increasingly divergent education policies. This is true in England in particular, where diversity, choice and competition have become a key focus of education policy. This political divergence between the four nations gives us the opportunity to appraise differences and similarities in educational policies and outcomes in the four UK nations. Purpose: This article is a comparative review of the education reforms of the constituent countries of the UK, with particular focus on value for money. The main aims of the article are to (1) outline the key differences in the educational systems in terms of school type, choice and competition, educational resources and pedagogy; (2) describe how the countries compare in terms of educational attainment during compulsory schooling years; (3) examine inequalities in educational attainment, such as by gender and socio-economic status, and how the different countries compare on these measures; and (4) examine existing evidence on the effectiveness and value for money of different education policies and programmes in the different countries. Sources of evidence: We use a variety of sources of evidence to achieve these aims. We undertake a literature review of the existing evidence on the effectiveness and value for money of different programmes and policies that have taken place across the UK. We also collate and undertake an analysis of data on educational outcomes from published statistics sourced from the national statistics offices of each country. It is easier to be confident about comparisons based on international data sets because in this case all students will have taken exactly the same test, so we also compile and analyse survey data from international surveys of educational attainment such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS. Main argument: We argue that while the systems of the four countries of the UK are becoming increasingly divergent, there are still many similarities. This is borne out in the evidence on educational outcomes, which show many similarities between the four countries. Because of these similarities, the positive impacts of many of the policies and programmes adopted in England may have relevance for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Conclusions: We find evidence that increasing school resources improves results, and also that more targeted spending benefits able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. We also find positive results of several programmes. Evaluating the education policies of the four nations in terms of value for money -and therefore whether they have scope to be adopted -represents a bigger challenge. Whilst the value for *Corresponding author.

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“…Virtually all report similar policy aspirations on behalf of their governments; they too now want to follow Tony Blair's lead and ensure that teacher professionalism is closely aligned with national educational policy. (The only real exception is Scotland (Menter & Hulme, 2008) although see also Reynolds on Wales in this volume (Reynolds, 2008). )…”

Section: Consequences and Legaciesmentioning

confidence: 94%

Making teaching a 21st century profession: Tony Blair’s big prize

Furlong

2008

Oxford Review of Education

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New Labour, education and Wales: the devolution decade

Cited by 33 publications

References 11 publications

Educational effectiveness research (EER): a state-of-the-art review

Educational effectiveness research (EER): a state-of-the-art review

Educational attainment across the UK nations: performance, inequality and evidence

Making teaching a 21st century profession: Tony Blair’s big prize

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