A thesis submitted In partial fulfilment of requirements for school year to the school of economics University of East Anglia
April 14, 2013 Words: 3167 The main analysis of academy school
Abstract: the labour government first set up the academies programme in the beginning of 2002. Firstly has given academy status to 203 English secondary schools.1560schools have responded positively to interested in academy status. The coalition government’s policy on academy schools is targeted on the schools with better pupils.
Key words: policy, equality, GCSE, academy freedom
Outline
Thesis statement: this thesis give out a brave introducing to the academy school inside great Britain, and the history of the program processing , then talk about the characteristics inside the academy school, and the changes during the government change. At last state the influence of the academy school.
Introduction:
An academy school is one kind of school that funding by both private sponsor and public funds, but without the control of local government authority. It’s firstly known as the city academy, such as Norwich city academy which near the University of East Anglia, they group fast with good equipment and learning condition. Because they were support by the private people, they can have some effect on the course and technology the school that the school is using. Some academies, generally those set up to replace underperforming schools. In order to help failing schools, they can become academy and get funding by privates. Sponsors are held accountable for the improving the performance of their schools. They do this by challenging traditional thinking on how schools are run and what they should be like for students. They seek to make a complete break with cultures of low aspiration and achievement. The sponsor’s vision and leadership are vital to each project (department for education 2013).they will get the same money from local authority, plus additions to cover the services that are no longer provided for them by the local authority. The governance works same as in the maintained school, but the academy has to have at last two parent governors.
Historical background:
The Labour Government under Tony Blair established academies in 2000. The chief architect of the policy was Andrew Adonis. And then academies were first opened in September 2002 by the labour government with the aim of improving education in deprived areas. This was achieved by taking over or replacing schools that were either in special measures or seen as underachieving. In the beginning there are 203 English secondary schools became academy, More than one-in-10 state secondary schools in England are now academies, outside of local authority control in the 2011. The idea is giving power back to professionals; let the head master take control of the school (BBC 2011).
Since the coalition government formed and came to power in 2010, the aim of academy schools has changed. Under labour government the aim is helping failing schools and disadvantaged pupils, but now the aim is making the school and pupils into advantaged conditions. Initially every head teacher in England was asked if they would be interested in academy status, by September 2010, 170 mainstream schools had mad an application to convert to academy. Under the coalition government policy, less people choosing free meal and the GCSE score is better than before. There is a significantly advantage than the average secondary school. More and more secondary school now is tried to get academy status (Machine S and Vernoit J 2010).
Characteristics of academy school:
* Academy freedom
It is independent school, so it out of local authority’s control. Although it is still follow the local authority’s policy, but the real power is turning to headmaster of the academy. If you're a head teacher whose school is being forced to make the switch to sponsored academy status, you probably assume that all staff jobs are covered by tupe, legislation that guarantees the terms and conditions of existing employees. It is become the headmaster’s job to keep the school in balance and thinking the future of the academy school. In finance part the headmaster play a significant role as well. The headmaster can have effects on the salary or bonus of the employees, and it’s also the heads’ job to attack more sponsors to promoting the quality of school (the department for education).
Ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff; as the power of headmaster and sponsors, the pay for each teachers can be different, rely on the behaviour of teaching process and the achievements which the pupils get, the bonus is different from one to one. But they still need to follow the TUPE and the policy the local authority gives them (the guardian 2012).
There are freedoms around the delivery of the curriculum inside the academy school; many curriculums are drop form the normal government funding school, or limited for special condition to study with. The academy have large advantage with this kind of problem, as the private sponsor have power to effect the schools, they can have special funding to open the curriculums and using the advantages to attack more high quality and talent pupils in special area.
The ability to change the lengths of terms and school days: the normal term is 6 to 9 month, but it will depend on the state and the at times the department within the state. After you graduate from the academy, they also will offer pupils 6 to 12 months field training. The headmasters have the power to cutting long summer holidays. In order to raise the standard of the schools, the academies have this kind of privilege to do so. According to the study, some 20.6% of the academies have already altered the school year and 15.3% are planning to do so.it also emerged that around 17% of schools are lengthening-or planning to lengthen- the school year(the telegraph 2012)L.
The possibility of new technology intake; as the academy is support by the private sponsor the money intake and technology intake is much quicker. The effect of sponsor can be beneficial. For example the ESSA academy which is controlled by Showk Badat the head teacher of ESSA academy is using the ipad as their advantages to attack more good pupils, they give each of the students and the teachers one ipad, and build up the whole learning system through it, they can handle the work by one click and get the result quicker and more detailed (BBC 2013).
* Equality
Horizontal equity, equal opportunities for those with identical characteristics (usually means ability and preferences).for special curriculum, some pupil can have better performance, the academy give them chance to do so. By setting varied of course or achievement, the value of speciality student can be more equal with others. For academy school government try to put more money to help poor pupils, make the school more equal for everyone. The Liberal Democrats' pre-election alternative – a pledge to increase funding for poorer pupils – is also now bundled up in the plan. (The guardian 2010).
However, there is some evidence to suggest that the entry of higher ability pupils to academies has been made possible by a reduction in intake numbers at the lower end of the attainment distribution. Evaluation shows that once schools converted into academy they reduce their intake ability dispersion by 0.514 standard deviation units, implying that the attainment profile of pupils entering these schools reflects a more exclusive intake.
The costs and uncertain benefits from academy ma deter some from enrolling in further or higher education.
Academies should be fully-inclusive local schools. They have duties under disability and equalities legislation not to discriminate against disabled children and to make reasonable adjustments for them. Academies are subject to these requirements through their funding agreements (department for education 2013).
The policy (equality act 2010) also require academy to be:
* eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimization and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act; * advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it; and * Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (i.e. tackle prejudice and promote understanding).
(Department for education 2013)
* GCSE
The well knows GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) test is tried to make sure the pupils are ready enough for higher education. First introduced in September 1986, replace the GCE and CSE. Have some big changes in 2010; take the English and English literature together. But after the academy has been introduced, the GCSE archive better than normal maintain school. As the academy school were control by headmaster, they can change teaching strategy much quicker and effetely. The evidence is that;
The provisional GCSE results for 2011 show that:
In academies the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more GCSEs including English and math rose from 40.6% to 45.9%, an increase of 5.3 percentage points
In all maintained schools the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more GCSEs including English and math rose from 55.2% to 57.8%, an increase of 2.6 percentage points.
(Department for education 2013)
* Free meals
First introduced in 1994 education art, create the idea for every pupils having free food during the break time. In 1980, authorities have been obliged only to provide a meal to those pupils who are eligible for a free meal. 1914, over158, 000children were fed free meals once everyday.in 2004 14.3%of pupils in English schools were eligible for free school meals. Academy school now, powered by the correlation government, have less 15 % of pupils having the meal, which is lower than the labour government .from 2003 to 2008, academy school are 10% less pupils having free school meal than the maintain school in UK( Machine S and Vernoit J 2010).
The influence of academy school:
Good effects
In order to evaluate the impact of academy schools machine and vernoit compared the performance if the current academy schools, both before and after they became academies, with the future academies over the same time period to identify the impact of academy status on a school’s performance.
This analysis showed that academies open for at two years significantly improved in their GCSE performance compared with the future academies. Overall an extra 3% of pupils in the academies are achieving at least five or more grades A-C at GCSE/GNVQ compared with the schools that have not yet become academies (Machine S and Vernoit J 2010).
These results suggest that academy school can deliver gains in GCSE performance. At the same time it shows the need to be patient for any performance enhancing academy effect to emerge.
Academy school helping attract more funding for school. Academy funding is based on the principle of equivalence. Academies should receive equivalent level of per-pupil funding as they would receive from the local authority (LA) as a maintained school. Academies also receive funding to meet their additional responsibilities that are no longer provided for them by the local authority (department for education 2013). Academies have greater freedom over how they use their budgets, alongside the other freedoms that they enjoy. And for private sponsor they have, they have more cash flow inside the school, for many quick change or equipment requirement, they have much more advantages than the maintain schools.
Help weak pupil, It suggests that US "Charter Schools", which like academies have greater autonomy than other schools, do better for disadvantaged pupils because many of the institutions have the specific aim of improving their attainment(BBC 2013). There are 20% of young pupils get lowest achieving fifth of students in England, which has been called the “tail”. So academy school do real help them build confidence, and find out the value of them.
Helping Increase the standards of surrounded schools, make the market competed. As the information exchange between the schools, they will have influence with each other, as the academy can help students to get high achievement , the school near the academy will have a pressure of do better, because if they do not change to promote the achievement of pupils, those pupil may going to academy. They could loss teachers and extra funding as well. The reputation for a school is significant. So academy does really help them get better. The GCSE score show as it as well (department for education 2013).
Negative statistics
Under the coalition government however, it seems that the academies programme is likely to reinforce advantage and inequality in education.
At a time of budget cuts it is questionable whether the large expenditure involved in converting advantaged schools to academies is justified.
Academy status brings a cash boost of roughly 10 % or more. In addition to the basic funding, new academies also get a local authority central spend equivalent grant, which is allocated to them on the basis of number of pupils.
In march 2011, a survey of 1471 head teachers by the association of school and college leaders showed that nearly half (46%) had converted their school to academy status, or intended to do so. three out of four were driven by the belief that such a move would benefit their school financially, not educationally.
On teachers view, the national union of teacher (NUT) opposes Academy status. It believes that Academies have a damaging impact on children teachers and the whole community. These are summarised below along with the NUT’s alternative approach to Academies (NUT 2009). The reason is: first many sponsors are not suitable for academy schools. They are more think about the feedback of their investment. As the sponsor is able to change the curriculum or the salary of employees, it can be a controversial issue to handle with headmaster. Second, academies threaten fair admissions procedure; Academies have a destabilising effect on the capacity of other neighbouring schools to achieve a balance of abilities amongst their pupil intakes. The publicity surrounding Academies gives parents the impression that they are the “best” secondary schools in the area irrespective of the quality of other schools. Their brand new buildings and glossy image on show during visits by Government ministers can act as magnets for parents. This has resulted in some Academies being heavily over-subscribed, irrespective of the realities of their educational attainment (NUT 2009).
As academies are funded directly, they can decide how to spend their money. This may result in better value but it could also result in a worsening service for pupils. Money can be used in other area not on pupils; they can offer bad service to student or on study, and use the money to build playground or library in order to attack more pupils. Academies that join an academy chain will find they are governed by a remote organisation, not accountable to any external body.
The second is fear that if schools don’t convert then they will be left with an LA who no longer has sufficient money from central government to provide the services the schools need.
The third is government bullying which requires schools that don’t meet its “floor standards” to be forced to become academies. Lincolnshire County Council recognised that this posed a real risk to its secondary modern schools particularly if grammar academies took more children. And there is 10% of the Lincolnshire school will be known as failing schools, and facing the change into academy.
(Stamford mercury 2013)
Assess the effects of academy along with theories
Human capital theory tells us that individuals have a stock of human capital which determines their productivity and hence their wage rates though investment in education or training.
Where there are positive externalities associated with education and training, government action may be necessary to improve incentives to invest in education, a vital path to ensure a country’s future growth and prosperity.
Up on the coase theorem, it is who’s responsible for the effect outside the academy school. It can bring benefit and it also can bring disadvantages. For some school, it is pushing them to upgrading themselves for the competing with academy school. For some other reason it created a unfair condition for the normal school, as the sponsor give more money to academy, they can build new equipment for teaching, as the things show in front of parents , they may be think less about the education attainment . As the well funding system, the academy grow so fast, almost 1in 10 of maintain secondary school has changed into academy.it has clearly effect on public. So how to balance the good and bad things that academy school give us could be controversial. We can bargain over externalities to find out the result by using pareto-efficient.
Condition to become academy
There are four steps to take a minimum of three to four months to become academy school; first you need to ask every employee in the school about the converting, if they agree they need to fill in a form, and then If your school is interested in converting to an academy, your immediate next steps to begin this process should be to: * Complete the online registration form. * Convene a meeting of the governing body to agree the intention to convert. * Notify your local authority (LA) of your intention to become an academy.
(Department for education 2013)
Conclusion
Over all academy school do really helping the failing schools and the less standard students- the tails. As soon as the maintain school converting to academy schools, their advantage and inequality in school will be reinforced. The funding and equipment in school will be upgraded. However it seems there still be a lot of disadvantage the academy will bring, academy can be more and more suitable and efficiently .it seems that under the current system of constrained budgets that the money could be better used in other areas of education, such as the scrapped educational maintenance allowance which produced significant benefits or investment in teachers
Andreas Schleicher, described by Michael Gove as “the most important man in the world education” argues for more money to be spent on training existing teachers. “Successful reform cannot wait for a new generation of teachers, it requires investment in the present teacher workforce, providing quality professional development, adequate career structures and diversification, and enlisting the commitment of teachers to reform. (Machine S and Vernoit J 2010)
Reference:
Department for education 2013: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies. Viewed at 12-04-2013
BBC 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12121889. Viewed at 13-04-2013
Machine S and Vernoit J 2010: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp325.pdf. Viewed at 11-04-2013
The telegraph 2012: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9169490/Third-of-academy-schools-cutting-long-summer-holidays.html. Viewed at 11-04-2013
BBC 2013: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20930195. Viewed at 12-04-2013
The guardian 2010: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/30/observer-editorial-academies-michael-gove. Viewed at 13-04-2013
Department for education 2013: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies/open/b00219097/academyfactsheets/academyequalityfactsheet. Viewed at 11-04-2013
Department for education 2013: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00199453/academies-gcse-increase-more-than-other-maintained-schools. Viewed at 11-04-2013
Department for education 2013: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies/primary/steps/b00204848/academy-funding. Viewed at 11-04-2013
BBC 2013: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21604832. Viewed at 13-04-2013
NUT 2009: http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/NUT-view-Acad-LC-Nov09.doc. Viewed at 13-04-2013
The guardian 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2012/sep/21/academy-status-headteacher-job-security. Viewed at 12-04-2013
Stamford mercury 2013: http://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/letters/academy-status-has-its-disadvantages-too-1-3064296. Viewed at 13-04-2013
Department for education: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies/primary/steps/b00204843/become-an-academy. Viewed at 12-04-2013
