A quick post to share an interesting paper out today from the Centre for Economic Performance which concludes that:
Importing the Swedish model may not make very much difference to the UK’s educational status quo… and Creating new schools will be expensive if large capital outlays are required and ‘bad’existing schools remain open
It was written by Helena Holmlund, a research fellow at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, and a research associate in CEP’s education and skills programme and Sandra McNallyis, director of CEP’s education and skills programme. Reaction from the Conservative shadow education team has been robust with Nick Gibb stating that “It ignores the most respected academic evidence which shows without doubt that allowing new schools to start up, as occurred in Sweden and parts of America, improves standards” (quote from Independent)
No related posts.
Very interesting example of journalists use of “research.” Did you read the “research” Ty? I wonder how many people actually will or even think they need to? I’m reading Lee Seigal’s brilliant analysis of the internet culture, “Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob” and it struck me immediately how this piece of lazy journalistic, band-wagoning exemplifies the mediocrity and mob rule culture that Seigal argues dominates the web.
If the journalists who wrote the various pieces on the CEP “research” had actually read it then a) I imagine they might not have described it as such and b) they might have found some of the other things the authors say at least equally as interesting, except that their only interest was in that always favourite sport of the liberal press, Tory bashing. For example, the CEP authors also write:
“In a climate of tight public expenditure, is capital spending really the most efficient use of funds? What about all the evidence on other things that work to improve educational performance, such as teacher quality, reducing class size, etc?”
And they actually conclude their brief article (for that is what it really is) like this.
“The problem – as research at CEP has shown – is that not all people in the UK are empowered to exercise choice because they do not have the money to move to an area with popular schools or the personal resources to access and understand information about school quality.”
I love that wholly unsupported claim, “as research at CEP has shown” but in the Age of the Electronic Mob, it’s probably what would be called in journalist college, “good practice.”