6. 28 November 2002: Implications of the universal
specialist model
"I hope that my announcement today will help
all schools to become specialist"[153]
Can the achievements of the few
be extended to the many?
163 What the secondary education landscape will
look like when the specialist model has been fully rolled out
is far from clear. Nor is it clear whether the expansion of the
range of specialisms is now complete, or whether we should expect
additional categories to be unveiled. LEAs are now taking a far
greater role in the coordination of bids for specialist status
and therefore in the distribution of specialisms in within their
authorities.
164 We would welcome a clear statement from
the Government on how it envisages secondary education will look
when all schools have specialist status; whether it anticipates
further expansion in the range of specialisms; and how the Government,
in partnership with LEAs, will secure the strategic distribution
of specialisms so as to enable each cluster of schools to have
an appropriate combination of subjects represented.
165 The current shape of secondary education
enables, and may even encourage, some schools to select out low
achieving pupils and, through the vehicle of exclusion, shift
responsibility for others to other schools or pupil referral units.
In the new specialist system, where specialist status is all but
universal and schools are encouraged to form cooperative groups
of schools, disadvantaged children of average or low ability,
and those with non-aspirant parents, will have to go somewhere.
166 The universal specialist system will potentially
include all schools and all pupils. The Government asserts that
there is a causal link between schools gaining specialist status
and their success in raising pupil attainment. Schools which have
achieved specialist status can be exciting places with high levels
of pupil attainment, as we saw during our visit to Birmingham.
The question is, what is the main factor that makes them so?
Is it the advantage that extra funds bring? Is it the management
process that schools have to undertake? Or is it something inherent
in the specialist schools policy itself? The extent to which the
apparent achievements of the early specialist schools is repeated
by their successors needs to be closely monitored. We urge the
Government to engage in a more rigorous evaluation of the current
programme than has so far been attempted.
153 Rt. Hon Charles Clarke MP, HC Deb, 28 November
2002, col 442. Back
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