A supportive review of the book "Class Rules: the truth about Scottish schools"
There’s his ‘central conclusion’, reached during the process of writing the book: ‘we need more honesty about the sources of problems in our schools’. He quotes Professor Dylan Williams, of the London Institute of Education: ‘only 7% of the variation between schools on the standard [English] benchmark [five good GCSEs] is due to the effect of the school. The other 93% is due to factors over which the school has no control.’
We all knew, back in 2015, that the attainment gap is a product of social injustice and inequality. I don’t think a single teacher in the country actually believed it could be sorted by obsessing about exam results – and even less so by introducing an expensive new system of national standardised testing. But somehow, everyone got dragged into the delusion.
Education is important, very important. But the pursuit of social justice is about a lot more than education. And if the education we offer is to be of any use to Scotland’s children and young people – it mustn’t become bogged down in managerialism, measurement and accountability procedures. For me, the quote that resonated most when reading this book is McEnaney’s verdict on Curriculum for Excellence: ‘a system that was supposed to free teachers and pupils from red tape ended up binding them in it.’
So perhaps one courageous response from Scotland’s educational and political leaders would be to revisit the original document, not merely to ‘refresh’ it (which is the current mealy-mouthed policy) But to ditch the mountain of additional documentation, the Es and Os, the tracking and monitoring systems, etc., etc., and revive CfE’s aspirations with a dose of ‘big picture’ thinking. Carrying copies of Class Rules with them at all times, to keep them on the right track.