Hazel Pennell

School admissions and ‘selection’ in comprehensive schools: policy and practice

This article examines secondary school admissions criteria in England. The analysis revealed that in a significant minority of schools, notably those responsible for their own admissions—voluntary‐aided and foundation schools—a variety of criteria were used which appear to be designed to select certain groups of pupils and so exclude others. Specialist schools were more likely than non‐specialist schools to report selecting a proportion of pupils on the basis of aptitude/ability in a particular subject area but voluntary‐aided/foundation schools were far more likely to select on this basis than community/voluntary‐controlled schools. Criteria giving priority to children with medical/social needs were given for nearly three‐quarters of schools; however, community/voluntary‐controlled schools were more likely to include this as a criterion than were voluntary‐aided/foundation schools. Nearly two‐fifths of schools mentioned as an oversubscription criterion, pupils with special educational needs; these were predominantly community/voluntary‐controlled schools as opposed to voluntary‐aided/foundation schools. The evidence reported here reveals that despite attempts by the Labour Government to reform school admissions, considerable ‘selection’ takes place. Implications for policy are addressed.

School Admissions: Increasing Equity, Accountability and Transparency

This paper examines the impact of education reforms on school admissions policies and practices. It discusses the changes that are needed to improve the current system, especially in areas where the market is highly developed. It is concluded that the new legislation to be enacted by the current Labour Government should be beneficial, but that more far-reaching changes are needed for the admissions process to be equitable, transparent and accountable.

How New is New Labour? The Quasi-market and English Schools 1997 to 2001

This paper focuses on the reforms made to the quasi-market in school-based education in England that occurred between May 1997 and May 2001. It discusses the changes that have taken place in relation to parental choice, admissions to schools, school diversity, fund-ing and examination ‘league tables’. The Labour Government can be seen as having embraced the quasi-market with a similar enthusiasm to that of its Conservative predecessors although it has tended to emphasise social inclusion as opposed to competition. While it has attempted to soften the edges of the quasi-market it has not tackled some of its major deficiencies such as the power that schools that are their own admission authorities have to distort the admissions process.

Financing School-Based Education in England: Poverty, Examination Results, and Expenditure

The authors examine two main research issues. First, they focus on the way in which funds for education are targeted on disadvantage at the level of the local education authority (LEA). They explore the relationship between various indicators of disadvantage and national test and public examination results and find that the relationship between one measure of disadvantage—the proportion of children dependent on Income Support recipients in an LEA—has a stronger negative relationship with examination results of that LEA than the additional educational needs (AEN) index currently used by central government in the formula to distribute resources to local authorities. Second, the authors focus on the relationship between expenditure and performance and find evidence that higher expenditure by LEAs on education is associated with better examination results once poverty (as measured by the Income Support measure) has been controlled for. The first finding suggests that targeting educational need could be improved by substituting the Income Support measure for the current AEN index; the second lends support to the use of increased expenditure as a means of combating educational disadvantage.

New Labour and School-based Education in England: Changing the system of funding?

This article focuses on the financing of school-based education and the ways in which this has changed since the Labour Government was elected into office in May 1997. It also analyses fundamental problems associated with the current system and how these might be rectified. The main conclusions are that although the Labour Government has made clear efforts to target money on areas with high levels of poverty, the system by which most funds for education are allocated, via local authorities, is fundamentally flawed. In order to make informed, evidence-based judgements about how much money is needed for education, high quality research needs to be carried out. This should establish the resources needed to enable children with different levels of prior attainment to meet specified educational goals in the context of different levels of disadvantage in schools. Only then can the Government be sure that adequate funds are being targeted where they are most needed.

Quasi-Regulation and Principal-Agent Relationships: Secondary School Admissions in London, England.

Market-oriented reforms and school choice policies have had a high political profile in a number of developed countries. This article examines the issue of school choice through the lens of the English market-oriented reforms; it focuses on the quasi-regulation and regulation of admissions to publicly funded secondary schools. It examines admissions to state-maintained secondary schools in London in terms of the criteria and practices used in the event of there being more applicants than places available. It also explores changes in admissions criteria and practices between 2001 and 2005 given the legislative and policy changes introduced in the intervening period. Principal—agent theory is used heuristically to explain the differing responses of schools with responsibility for admissions and local authorities to the legislative and policy framework. It is argued that while local authorities act broadly in line with government guidance and regulations as the agent of the government, schools acting as agents do not necessarily do so and more appear to select particular groups of children as opposed to others. This, it is argued, is because the regulatory mechanisms have been insufficient to motivate them to act as intended in relation to their admissions policies and practices in the light of the other policy goals and incentives accompanying the market-oriented reforms.

Exploring the Impact of Reform on School-Enrollment Policies in England

This article focuses on how school enrollment in England has been affected by the education reforms that have taken place since the late 1980s. It examines the operation of school enrollment and, on the basis of recent research, it explores the extent to which policies and practices are affecting equity.

The Financing of School-Based Education: Changing the Additional Educational Needs Allowance.

The additional educational needs (AEN) component of the education standard spending assessment (SSA) is designed to finance the costs of meeting additional educational needs associated with social deprivation and ethnic minority status. Following a recent review by the Department for Education (DFE), the money allocated to local authorities to cover these needs has decreased markedly. This has led to a significant reduction in resources made available by central government to certain metropolitan authorities, and especially inner London authorities. It is argued that the strategy for determining the AEN weighting is undermined by a demonstrable influence of spending constraints imposed by central government. Urgent attention needs to be given to rethinking the strategy, so that the education SSAs can better reflect the true needs of local education authorities (LEAs). In our view, it would be preferable to have an approach based on actual needs and associated costs. There is a growing consensus that the m...

Campaigns by parents to set up new schools in England: issues and barriers

This paper focuses on the role of parents in the planning and setting up of new secondary schools in the context of proposals to extend the right of parents in relation to new schools. The research focused on 15 parent campaigns that had recently taken place or were ongoing: seven aimed to obtain new schools and eight to prevent new schools being set up. Interviews were carried out with members of the campaigns, local authority officials, academy sponsors and a DfES official. Issues and barriers associated with the campaigns are explored. Amongst the most significant were access to information; lack of expertise; government policies and priorities; local authority priorities and attitudes; and lack of sites for new schools. The paper argues that whilst these barriers need to be addressed if parents are to have a greater role in relation to setting up new schools, tensions exist between government policies, creating difficulties for policies in this area to be effectively implemented.

Secondary school admissions in England: selection by stealth

T he education reforms introduced by previous Conservative administrations in the Eighties and, in particular, the Education Reform Act 1988, led to the development of a ‘quasi-market’ in school-based education. One of the consequences of the reforms was a doubling in the percentage of secondary schools that are responsible for their own admissions (from 15% in January 1988 to 30% in January 1999) (West & Pennell, 2003). (The local education authority is the admissions authority for other state secondary schools.) Schools that are their own admission authority (i.e. voluntary-aided and foundation schools) are in a privileged position compared with other schools. In circumstances of oversubscription, where the demand for places exceeds the supply they have the possibility, if they so wish, to ‘cream skim’ those pupils who would be likely to maximise their examination ‘league table’ position or, conversely, not select those who are likely to have a negative impact on their school’s examination results. The Labour Party in its 1997 election manifesto committed itself to improve school admissions. Subsequently, the 1998 School Standards and Framework Act and accompanying regulations set a new legal framework for admissions. Associated with the legislation is a Code of Practice on School Admissions. It also provides a new mechanism – the adjudicator – for resolving local disputes in relation to, amongst other issues, school admissions (West & Ingram, 2001). The first Code of Practice came into force on 1 April 1999; a new and improved code supersedes it and will apply to applications for places at primary and secondary schools from September 2004 onwards. Key aspects of the Code of Practice relate to the provision of information for parents and guidance concerning the admissions process. In relation to oversubscription criteria, the Code of Practice (DfES, 2003) states: “The admission authority has a fairly wide discretion in deciding what these oversubscription criteria should be, provided that: