ASCL has today (Wednesday 26 April) called on political parties
in the General Election to commit to basing future education
policies on evidence and put a stop to ‘scattergun’ reforms.
Our manifesto says: “For too many years, school and college
leaders have felt that ideas emanating from government have been
developed without a firm or robust evidence-base. This has led to
a scattergun of reforms that cannot be tested in advance against
outcomes.”
We have called for a pledge from all political parties to:
- develop any new policies in consultation with professional
associations
- provide a clear basis of evidence for any proposals
- hold transparent consultation before any policy decisions are
finalised
- establish, at the outset, evaluation models that ensure that
any proposals will benefit young people from disadvantaged as
well as advantaged backgrounds
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said: “We know that politicians share the same
goal as school and college leaders to give young people the best
possible education. That is why it is essential they make a
commitment in their election manifestos to ensuring that
education policy is based on evidence.
“Policy which is not based on evidence is little more than a
guess. It is distracting and damaging.
“The latest example is the proposal to expand the number of
selective schools in England. We have seen no evidence to support
the premise that this policy will improve the education of the
majority of young people. Indeed, the evidence indicates that it
will have a damaging impact on the life chances of the majority
who do not attend a selective school.
“There have been too many other examples. For instance, the
decision to decouple AS levels and A levels flew in the face of
the experience of schools and colleges which saw clear
educational benefits in AS levels forming the first stage of A
levels. Likewise, we can see no rationale for the proposal to
introduce multiplication checks for 11-year-olds on top of the
maths SATs they already take.
“The rigid choice of subjects in the English Baccalaureate is
also arbitrary. There are no options for creative or technical
subjects despite the clear evidence that these are vitally
important to the economy.”
ASCL’s call for evidence-based policy is one of five commitments
which we are asking political leaders to make in their
manifestos.
The others are:
- Provide sufficient and fair funding, ensuring that per-pupil
funding addresses the immediate and predicted shortfall in
schools, which the National Audit Office expects to amount to £3
billion by 2020.
- Improve teacher recruitment and retention to tackle the
ongoing crisis which is forcing many schools to rely on
non-specialist teachers and supply staff.
- Commit to curriculum stability, pledging that there will be
no further reform to the curriculum or qualification system for
the duration of the next parliament following a period of
excessive change.
- Commit to developing with the profession a long-term,
shared vision for education, to ensure that future policy is
coherent and is achieved through agreement rather than
compliance.
Mr Barton has today written to the leaders of the Conservative,
Labour and Liberal Democrat parties with a copy of our
manifesto, which can be read in full
here.
