Too Eagerly Awaited Assessment?

Stephen Hayes, educational psychologist in the London Borough of Camden, shares the previous writer's view that Section 19 of 1988 Education Reform Act may be viewed negatively. It is, he says, suspected of working against both the integration aims of the 1981 Education Act and the Warnock model of school-based assessment. However he argues that there is potential compatibility between the curricular integration thrust of the 1981 Act and the introduction of the National Curriculum for all pupils in the 1988 Act. Conflict is more likely to arise within the 1988 Act itself, with the market forces thrust of local management of schools calling into question the continuation of rigorously conducted, school-based assessment.     

The New Act: A Special Need for Vigilance

The conflict between the intentions of the Education Reform Act and those of the 1981 Education Act, the Warnock Report and related developments is discussed by Professor Klaus Wedell, Institute of Education, London University. Questions about modifying and disapplying the National Curriculum for pupils with special educational needs are also raised.     

A Law to Last the Century?

The Education Act 1981 received Royal Assent in October. Rolf Hermelin director of parliamentary affairs for MENCAP and president of the National Council for Special Education, summarises its provisions and discusses some of its implications     

Challenges in the 1981 Act

The effectiveness of the 1981 Education Act will depend on how it is interpreted. Prof. K. Wedell, J. Welton and G. Vorhaus, Institute of Education, London University, discuss some challenges presented by the concept, assessment and formulation of special educational needs     

Supporting the Ordinary School

In the wake of the Education Act 1981, the Department of Education and Science commissioned three major research studies. These were concerned respectively with: in-service training (Manchester University and Huddersfield Polytechnic); the implementation of the Act (London University Institute of Education); and support for the ordinary school (National Foundation for Educational Research). All the studies were completed by 1986, and numerous publications have resulted from them. Dr Seamus Hegarty, deputy director at the Foundation, summarises findings from the NFER study.     

Special Education in Parliament

Interest in recent government initiatives such as the ACSET report on teacher training, the 1981 Education Act and TVEI was evident in questions asked in the House of Commons in the last three months of 1984.     

Policy and Provision under the 1981 Act

This paper is an account of a research project on 'The 1981 Education Act: Policy and Provision for Special Educational Needs'. It was carried out at the Institute of Education, London University, and funded by the Department of Education and Science. The research was directed by Dr J. Welton and Professor K. Wedell. Brian Goacher was the senior research officer and Jennifer Evans, the research officer.     

Special Education in the United Kingdom

ALL CHILDREN of school age in the United Kingdom are the responsibility of the Education Authority and must be offered educational provision. About 1.3% of pupils attend special schools; other pupils with special educational needs receive support of various kinds in ordinary schools. The Education Act 1981 is the main legislative instrument concerned with special education: it defined special educational needs, established integration as a key principle guiding service provision and laid down detailed procedures for conducting assessments. Special educational provision is likely to be affected significantly by the general Education Act introduced in 1988 but the precise implications are not yet clear.     

The Placement of Pupils with Down's Syndrome: a survey of one northern LEA.

Although the 1981 Education Act encouraged LEAs to integrate pupils with special educational needs, responses varied widely. Stephanie Lorenz, an LEA educational psychologist, considers the effects of legislative change on the integration of a cohort of pupils with Down's Syndrome in one LEA.     

Professionals - and Wrong Predictions

Formal assessments under the 1981 Education Act can be superficial and overinfluenced by narrowly defined educational considerations, suggests Geoffrey Bookbinder, educational psychologist and part-time tutor at the Open University.     

The School's Role in Assessment

Professor Ronald Gulliford, Department of Special Education, Birmingham University, discusses the value of school-based assessment and the resources available to help teachers, in the context of the Warnock Report and the 1981 Act     

Getting in on the Act

The eagerly awaited report of the Audit Commission and HM Inspectorate on the working of the 1981 Education Act was published on June 25. Paul Vevers, co-author of the report and senior manager with the Audit Commission, analyses the deficiencies and summarises the report's recommendations for changes in legislation and practice.     

Scotland and the 1981 Education Act

Bureaucratic, over-formal and time consuming, but strengthening parents' rights and sharpening up the accountability of professionals - these are among the main reactions to the recording procedures of the Education (Scotland) Act 1981 which a Scottish team discovered recently. Dr George Thomson and Alexander Budge, of the Department of Education, Edinburgh University, and Marianna Buultjens and Margaret Lee, Moray House College of Education, Edinburgh, report on aspects of their study of the reactions of professionals and parents concerned with the education of visually impaired children.     

Special Education in Parliament

The number of appeals under the 1981 Education Act appears to have grown dramatically from nine in the first year of the Act (see p. 36, September 1984 issue) to 44 in the year ending March 31, 1985. The number of teachers attending full time courses of 20 days or more concerned solely with special educational needs and run by higher education institutions has also risen.     

Backlash Let's Stop 'Statementing' Children

'Statementing' is an ugly, clumsy and depersonalising word, which has become established in the vocabulary of special education. It is not too late to root it out, before it permanently damages the more flexible approach to the assessment of special educational needs for which the 1981 Education Act provides an opportunity, writes Colin J. Smith, lecturer in education, Department of Special Education, Birmingham University.     

Special Education in Parliament

At the time of writing the House of Commons Select Committee inquiring into the implementation of the 1981 Education Act had finished taking oral evidence prior to the general election and to publishing its report and also its recommendations to the government this month.     

Barasley Responds to the 1981 Act

Findings from the countrywide study of how local education authorities have been implementing the 1981 Education Act, given in the preceding pages, are complemented by this case study of one LEA's response to the Act. Jim Conway, adviser, special educational needs, and Roy Hepworth, assistant education officer, Metropolitan District of Barnsley, also refer to some of the issues raised by Professor Wedell and his coauthors, including the definition of 'special educational needs', the way the term is being interpreted, and the continuing emphasis on within-child factors.     

Normalisation: An analysis of aspects of special educational needs

An exploration of the governmental policy, prison works, and its attendant recidivism provides the general opening. The 1944 Education Act is then taken as furnishing the medical model of personal handicap and deficiency which informed special education at an early stage. The Warnock Report's attempt to shift considerations to educational grounds is examined with a particular focus upon the ensuing definition of special needs and its legacy in legislation following the 1981 Act to the present. Foucault's concept of normalisation is the basis for analysis of the normative elements in the main features of the national curriculum and testing. This latter together with aspects of the 1988 Education Reform Act are examined with regard to their impact upon special educational needs. The conclusions are that 'education works' and the rediscovery of the medical model of personal deficiency.     

Evolution or Revolution: dilemmas in the post ERA management of special educational needs by local authorities

Abstract

The management by local education authorities (LEAs) of provision for special educational needs has long proved problematical, especially in mainstream schools. In the period following the 1981 Education Act, many LEAs sought to develop a ‘continuum of provision’ by the central direction of resources into the mainstream, but with limited success. In the wake of the 1988 Education Act, LEAs will need to pursue a more collaborative approach to the development of special needs policy. Examples of such approaches are studied and a model of an interactive relationship between schools and LEAs is proposed. Finally, the implications for LEA support services are discussed together with suggestions of a distinctive role for institutions of higher education.     

‘The more things change…?’: the Thatcher years and educational reform in Scotland

The period of the Thatcher Government continues to have special significance for politics and governance in Scotland. In the 11 years of the Thatcher Government, landmark legislation and reforms affected key areas of the Scottish society and economy. Education featured prominently in the Thatcherite agenda in Scotland. In Scotland, the education system’s association with national identity had particular implications for educational policy making and implementation in Scotland under the Thatcher Government. The distinctiveness of the Scottish education system presented particular problems for a government intent on challenging the social democratic consensus. Opposition to the Thatcher Government, especially its perceived attack on the social democratic underpinnings of the welfare state which included the state schooling system, re‐ignited the home rule campaign in Scotland in the late 1980s. The article examines both key legislation, namely the Education (Scotland) Act 1981, the School Board (Scotland) Act 1988 and the Self‐Governing Schools etc. (Scotland) Act 1989, and also key non‐legislative reforms to curriculum and assessment under the Thatcher Government in the area of public (state) schooling. The article argues that these reforms continue to influence the educational policy debates in Scotland today.