Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
A valid evaluation of the English state education system is clearly beyond the capabilities of this study. A basic understanding of British state education, however, is helpful to put the preparatory schools we are discussing in context. State education was from the beginning a controversial issue and remains so today. The issues have changed over time, but the controversies surrounding state education have contunued. An extensive debate was conducted in Britain over selection in the state schools. Many Britains objected to the 11+ exam and the idea of selective education. As far as we can tell, the debate was waged on largely ideological grounds rather than any real assessment of the academic merits of the system. As a result, most selective grammar schools were phased out and Britons now attend comprehensives, similar to American high schools. Now the issue of streaming within the comprehensives has arisen. There are no doubt many fine state schools offering a first class education to their students. It is clear, however, that many English parents are dissatisfied with their local state schools. We are not talking about . the moneyed-eliete in England which attended independent schools as children and never seriously considered state schools. Many of the parents now choosing independent education in England are middle-class parents who did not attend independent schools, but are opting for independent schools. Various authors have suggested how this problem should be faced. Only one element would be agreed to by the politicians and educators facing the challenge, any successful program would be enormously beneficial. The authors can not begin to address the problem in this study, but are not optimistic that the state can effectively meet the challenge.
Here we use the term state schools. We are actually discussing public education. Since the British actually call elite private secondary schools public schools, we use the term state schools to avoid confusion.
State education was from the beginning a controversial issue and remains so today. The issues have changed over time, but the controversies surrounding state education have contunued.
An extensive debate was conducted in Britain over selection in the state schools. Children took an examination called the "11 plus" at age 11 which determined if the would go to an academically selective grammar schools or a secondary modern. Many of the grammar schools took on the trapings of the public schools. Many Britains objected to this system. As far as we can tell, the debate was waged on largely ideological grounds rather than any real assessment of the academic merits of the system. English educators have essentially done away with the grammar schools that, according to Prime Minister Thatcher, “provided the means for people like me to get on equal terms with those who came from well-off backgrounds”. Of course it was Mrs. Thatcher who as Education Minister presided over the dismantling of the grammar school system.
As a result, most selective grammar schools were phased out and Britons now attend comprehensives, similar to American high schools. Now the issue of streaming within the comprehensives has arisen.
There are no doubt many fine state schools offering a first class education to their students. It is clear, however, that many English parents are dissatisfied with their local state schools. We are not talking about . the moneyed-eliete in England which attended independent schools as children and never seriously considered state schools. Many of the parents now choosing independent education in England are middle-class parents who did not attend independent schools, but are opting for independent schools. The decision to choose these schools is based on a variety of factors. In the past a primary reason was the realization that the friendships and associations formed in school would have an important impact on a child’s future career. , This undoubtedly is still an important factor, but increasing number of parents are clearly choosing independent schools because of real or perceived declining standards at state schools. The authors have spoken with numerous children who started in state schools, but who were subsequently transferred to independent schools, at considerable financial cost, because of problems and poor performance encountered in the state system.
Some of the children at prep schools have transferred from the state system. Generally the children speak very highly of their new schools. One boy told us that he has to work much harder and he had difficulty coping at first, but was “getting caught up”. One mother was worried because her boy was still not reading at his state school. “‘He’s not ready yet,’ the state primary teacher told me, but he reading beautifully now.” Another boy was pleased that the school was much more disciplined. “The boys at my old school were naughty and constantly causing trouble, “ he explained. One little new girl who had been at a school affected by industrial action (strikes) told her mother, “It really seems quite a nice school mummy, and do you know it opens every day!” Not all the comparisons are favorable. One older boy whose parents had removed him from his old school because of his poor grades objected to the tighter discipline and complained of being treated like a little child, “Just look at this stupid uniform” he complained. His school still had a cap which he particularly disliked.
Americans are also becoming increasingly concerned with deteriorating standards in the state schools. While there are many excellent state schools in America, standards vary widely at schools both between and within different states. As American schools are funded primarily by local communities through property taxes, there are wide disparities as to the funding available in individual school districts. Funding is of course only one element in the quality of education available in different schools. Educators debate the reason for those disparities, but whatever their causes there are clearly stark disparities. Suburban schools often offer quality education while the schools in many inner cities are deplorable. A few cities are experimenting with contracting new private corporations to operate state schools. Other communities are now studying the possibility of offering vouchers to parents interested in enrolling their children in private schools. Proponents of the private schools insist that the voucher system will introduce beneficial competition in American schools. Rewarding successful schools and forcing unsuccessful schools to close. Detractors insist that the overwhelming majority of private schools in America are sectarian institutions engaged in religious indoctrination and a variety of discriminatory admissions policies to a degree inconsistent with public funding.
Various authors have suggested how this problem should be faced. Only one element would be agreed to by the politicians and educators facing the challenge, any successful program would be enormously beneficial. The authors can not begin to address the problem in this study, but are not optimistic that the state can effectively meet the challenge. Clearly the Government and society at large is unwilling to commit the funds required. Entrenched state bureaucracies and unions are unwilling to make the far reaching reforms required. Of even greater concern is the fact that large numbers of state educators are ideologically committed, both overtly and covertly, to eliminating education privilege. As they have failed in helping poor children to improve academic achievement, many are unwilling to accept any kind of tracking system and are willing to accept an educational system which in effect limits the achievement of average and gifted children. The result has been in effect to limit the access of children of moderate means to quality education.
The tragedy of the state system is that several countries have successfully addressed the problem. Both France and Japan, for example, have systems in which children a broad band of children achieve basic academic success. The success of these systems, however, have basically been ignored in England and America. Educators in both countries, especially America, conveniently contend that it is not valid to compare another country’s education with America and England’s heterogeneous, diverse, multi-ethnic and cultural population. Interestingly despite the diversity in both countries, both adhere to an amazing degree of cultural insularity and education is just one aspect of that insularity. The convenient myth that other country’s educational tasks are different and less difficult is simply being used as an excuse for failure. The simple fact is that other state educational systems, both countries with relatively homogeneous populations. Japan as well as countries with increasingly diverse populations (France) are providing children from diverse economic and social levels and of varied academic abilities a quality education allowing in which they achieve a high basic standard. It is unclear, however, how France’s educational system is dealing with the country’s expanding Islamic population. American and English educators who believe that diversity is an excuse for failure should observe France’s splendid preschool system. Preschool’s in Paris and many other French cities are in fact more ethnically and culturally diverse than American and English schools. Study after study comparing children in foreign countries confirm that American and English children in the state system are not achieving the same levels of performance as children in other countries. [Stevenson and Stigler]
State schools in America and England in an attempt to address the problem of diversity experimented with “open classrooms.” The experiment was an unqualified failure. The open classroom requires teachers to offer individualized instruction to their class. The virtuosity required to conduct individualized instruction to a classes averaging 30 or more energetic elementary students boggles the mind. Such a system could only be devised by educational theorists far removed from real classrooms. There may be a few exceptional teachers who can manage such a system, but it soon became apparent that the vast majority of teachers could understandably not meet the unrealistic expectations.
The most successful systems of early education, including the French and Japanese systems, do not track children in the early grades. These two countries and others have devised methods to avoid the glaring academic disparities that have forced educators in America [and England?] to adopt tracking systems. The successful foreign systems start from the assumption that all normal children can achieve the knowledge and skills set for each grade and age level. While provision is made for individual difference in abilities and development rates successful foreign systems are based on made more realistic assessments of what affects early childhood performance. The basic factors are the home environment and previous academic performance. The schools can obviously have little impact on the home environment, but they can offer a school experience that enables young children of diverse backgrounds to achieve.
The disparities that American and English educators claim result from cultural differences are far too often simply differences in academic preparation. The success of foreign systems demonstrates that young children can be taught without significant academic disparities developing even among a diverse student population. In France, normal children who start pre-school meet the basic grade-by-grade standards. Relatively few children are held back and rarely for more than a year. The population of many city schools include a children from Algeria, China, Korea, Portugal, Vietnam, and various African countries. The children are from all social and economic streams, including illiterate parents who speak little French. The French achieve this democratic miracle principally through two devices. One, they provide excellent pre-schools for all children beginning at age three. Two, they describe in great detail the basic academic competencies required at each academic stage.
The current status of the state system in America and England is depressing. The authors felt that it needed to be addressed to fully understand the motivation of parents selecting independent schools. The problem is clearly one that the society is not willing to effectively address. Parents are left with the need to meet their child’s needs as best they can. Many are parents who would have preferred to have educated their children in the state system, both for philosophical and financial reasons, but concluded that the quality of state schools left them no real choice. Interestingly both England and the United States are currently addressing major reforms to improve the state schools in a growing cross-Atlantic movement. Many of these reforms would provide the kind of choice to low and moderate income parents that currently only more affluent parents have through the option of independent education. The reforms are controversial and are still being studied or implemented on an experimental or preliminary basis. Entrenched bureaucracies and vested interests are resisting many of the proposals. Given the growing public dissatisfaction with state schools, however, it is likely that promising alternatives will be given increasing attention in the future.
England’s Education Reform Act of 1988 and 1993 included some modest reforms. The Acts mandated a rigorous “national curriculum” and nationwide testing and disclosure of results. The Act also sought to introduce parental choice and competition into the system. The Acts gave individual parents the right to select the state school for their children (but no money for private schools) even if they cross municipal boundaries. The Acts also allowed parents at individual schools to opt out of the local school system and receive funding directly from the central government. The reforms have, however, proven more apparent than real because of the opposition of local officials. Requests to switch schools are routinely rejected on the grounds of “appropriateness” and few parents avail themselves of the appeal procedures. Courts have even supported the schools when large numbers of parents have attempted to pull their children out of particularly poor local schools, such as a recent incident in Bradford, North Yorkshire. Parents organizing to opt a school out of a local district have encountered similar obstacles. Persistent middle class parents have succeeded, but many parents, especially less well educated parents, do not fully understand their rights or have the time and energy to pursue the appeal process against entrenched local bureaucracies.
The United States has no national education system, but rather 50 separate systems operated by each state. Even within individual states there are massive differences between standards and funding in individual school districts. (U.S. schools are primarily funded through local real estate taxes [rates] and thus schools in affluent districts are much better funded than in inner city and other depressed communities. Some particularly affluent districts have taken to hiring private investigators to investigate children that are believed to be non-residents.) Several states are now considering voucher systems that would provide funds (vouchers) that parents could use to enroll their children in independent schools. Proponents say such a system would introduce an element of choice and competition to the state schools. Opponents say it would prove extremely costly and cream off the best students from the state system. Some observers report a groundswell of support for such vouchers. Such a proposal, however, was rejected by California voters in a state-wide referendum held November 1993. The California voucher proposal was significant as California operates the country’s largest and most highly regarded school system. Proponents are addressing major voter concerns and reworking the California proposal. Many other states are studying similar proposals. Individual school districts in several states are experimenting with another innovation, contracting a private company to run state schools. One such company (Educational Alternatives) which operates its own independent schools currently has contracts to operate state schools in Maryland and Florida and is being considered by school districts in several other states, including Washington, D.C., to run additional state schools. Some school officials are reportedly considering this alternative to address particularly troubled schools. President Bush has persued his "No child left behind" initiative which involves close monitoring with tests. The benefits of the program remain to be seen.
Stevenson, Harold and James Stigler. The Learning Gap. This is one of the best comparative studies of schools in different countries. Stevenson and Stigler compares American schools with schools in Asian countries.
