Marketized education: how regulatory failure undermined the Swedish school system

ABSTRACT

In a radical school choice reform in 1992, Sweden’s education system was opened to private competition from independent for-profit and non-profit schools funded by vouchers. Competition was expected to produce higher-quality education at lower cost, in both independent and public schools. This two-pronged study first examines to what extent the consequences of this reform deviate from the predicted results. It demonstrates increasing discrepancies between absolute test results and grades, suggesting grade inflation. Secondly, the study investigates whether the school choice reform was institutionally secured against school competition based on phenomena that are unrelated with educational quality, such as grading. It reveals that the architects of the school choice reform overemphasized the potential positive implications of market reforms and, therefore, did not deem it necessary to establish appropriate rules and institutions for school competition. Instead, grading and curriculum reforms had unintended consequences such as grade inflation and similar forms of school competition in dimensions other than school quality. The analysis of how the objective of raising the quality in Sweden’s schools through competition and choice was inadvertently undermined contains practical lessons for policymakers with regard to the use of privatization and co-production both in schools and in other fields.     

对大学生创业教育体系构建的思考

对大学生开展创业教育,大力培养学生的创新能力和实践能力,提升大学生就业、创业的市场竞争力,已成为高等教育改革和发展的必然选择。     

Why School Choice Reforms in Denmark Fail: the blocking power of the teacher union

This article investigates why school choice is exercised to a limited degree by parents despite major government initiatives to enhance diversity, competition and choice in the Danish education system. Denmark has had 20 years of centre‐right governments, promoting choice reforms perhaps even more vigorously than the other Nordic countries, yet school choice is seldom used – only 12% of parents choose a public school that differs from the one that is allocated to them. The literature on school choice in Denmark argues that this is primarily due to a general lack of parental interest because of the relatively high similarity across schools. In this article, we argue that the main reason is to be found in the politics of vested interests, namely municipalities’ persistent use of pupil assignment schemes supported by powerful teacher union branches at the local level.     

基于职业技能竞赛的高职会计课程教学改革

教育部2012年将"高职会计技能大赛"列入全国职业院校技能比赛项目,通过会计技能大赛达到"以赛促教、以赛促学、以赛促改、以赛促建"的目标。目前高职院校会计专业理论课程设置不合理,实践教学不到位。基于职业技能竞赛,鄂州职业大学商学院对该课程进行改革:明确人才培养目标与定位,进行课程融合与教学设计,科学取舍教学内容,丰富运用教学手段,加大实践教学投入,开展各种技能竞赛,建立有效的奖励制度。     

“向右转”:当代教育改革风向标——以美国为例

基于全球化的时代背景与提高国际垄断地位及经济竞争力的需要,当代西方发达国家尤其是美国的教育改革主要立足于"新右派"的政治立场,一方面基于新自由主义的市场化主张,强化市场竞争与选择,另一方面基于新保守主义的国家化主张,强化政府干预与国家标准。于是,"向右转"成为教育改革风向标。这种"倒退的改革"严重缺乏专业性品质,违背了教育的公共性、公益性原则及多样化、个性化、过程性逻辑,加剧了教育的冲突与分裂,造成了教育发展中排斥性与失衡性立场、强制性与功利性政策的困扰。     

竞争中的公司法与公司法的竞争——公司法立法与改革

通过对竞争力的解释,结合世界各地公司法的改革状况,对中国修改后的公司法给予客观、公正地评价-指出竞争中的公司法离不开公司法的竞争,并提出中国的公司法立法与现代化改革,应该使本地区企业和公司法更具有竞争力,而凡需时刻保持敏锐的修改意识,以期保有和强化竞争力.     

"准市场"机制理论与西方发达国家的择校改革实践

20世纪80年代以来择校逐渐成为许多国家教育改革一个重要而有争议的话题,有研究者将这种教育改革理论上称为“准市场机制”的运作。本文分三个部分阐述择校改革的“准市场”机制理论及其实践。     

竞争--英美教育市场化改革的核心

教育市场化是近二三十年来英美两国在教育领域中的主要改革趋势 ,有着深刻的社会背景和理论基础。教育市场化改革的理论基础是新自由主义思想和新公共管理主义。教育市场化改革的表现形式多种多样 ,如特许学校、学券制、公助学额计划等。尽管教育市场化改革的形式多样 ,但其根本的理念却是一致的 ,那就是把竞争机制引入教育领域。只有竞争才是教育市场化改革的核心 ,才是推动教育发展最为有效的机制。     

Quantifying the effects of teacher movements between schools in New Zealand: to schools that hath,shall be given

This paper examines the flow of teachers between schools of different socio‐economic statuses. New Zealand Ministry of Education data is examined with regard to teacher age and salary structures in schools from high and low socio‐economic intakes. Teacher mobility data is examined and a model of the mobility life cycle of a ‘typical’ teacher reveals causes of the staffing discrepancies between schools with differing socio‐economic intakes. The model accounts for the tendency for low socio‐economic intake schools to have staff who are older and at lower salary levels than those from high socio‐economic intake schools A theoretical interpretation of the situation in New Zealand is provided. It is argued that there is competition between schools for teachers’ labour, and this has had the effect of exacerbating the social stratification flowing from market oriented reforms promoting consumer choice in New Zealand education.     

Converging Paths or Ships Passing in the Night? An 'English' critique of Japanese school reform

This article examines the origins and potential effects of the liberalising reform agenda in Japanese secondary education in the light of experiences in the UK with policies such as local school management and school choice. The analysis is based on extensive interviews conducted with Japanese policy-makers, school heads and Prefectural administrators in 1997 in Tokyo and Osaka. The research was part of a joint Anglo-Japanese study, supported by the Japanese Embassy in London, and the analysis here highlights issues of national perspective which emerged in the collaboration between English and Japanese researchers observing reforms in each other's countries. The paper argues that the reform agenda in Japan has two strands. These involve both a necessary diversification of curriculum and pedagogic practices, and an administrative shift towards deregulation and school competition which may undermine some of the traditional strengths of Japanese secondary schooling.     

School innovation in district context: Comparing traditional public schools and charter schools

Market reforms in education are part of the educational policy landscape in many countries. Central to arguments for market reforms is the idea that competition and choice will spur changes in schools to be more innovative, which in turn will lead to better student outcomes. We define innovation in terms of a practice's relative prevalence in a local district context. A charter school is innovative in its use of a practice if the traditional public schools in its local school district are not using that practice. We explore factors based on arguments for charter schools that may affect a charter schools’ propensity toward innovation to explain variation in levels of innovation across charter schools. We find that, on the whole, charter schools do not fulfill their promise of innovation. Teacher tenure is the most notable exception. Parental involvement is the only characteristic of charter schools that significantly predicts variation in levels of organizational innovativeness.     

从国企改革论中高等职业教育的发展设想

国营企业的改革将职业技术教育的改革带入了一个新的阶段 ,日趋发展壮大的社会办学力量形成了教育的竞争 ,中高等职业教育特别是国企教育机构将如何谋求发展道路 ,成为当今教育改革中不可回避的课题。认清现状 ,找准问题 ,探索发展之路 ,是目前中、高等职业技术教育发展的基础 .本文主要探讨了职业技术教育发展的基础条件的设想     

Market‐oriented school reform in England and Finland: school choice,finance and governance

This paper explores the introduction of market‐oriented reforms into school‐based education in England and Finland. The contexts into which reforms were introduced differed, with a fully comprehensive system being in place in Finland but not in England; the motives were also different; and different trajectories have since been followed. Whilst there are apparent similarities, with choice and diversity having a high political profile in each country, the policy mix varies: two different models can be discerned, with the Finnish reforms being characterised by more regulatory control in relation to school access and choice, but less in relation to the financing of schools by local authorities. It is argued that the mediating role played by local authorities in jurisdictions with high levels of decentralisation means that the legislative framework needs to be taken into account when examining policy implementation and educational outcomes.     

Education as a Positional Good: Implications for Market-Based Reforms of State Schooling

Analyses of market-based reforms of state schooling have occasionally acknowledged positional elements in parental demand, but none has fully examined their nature and implications. Contrary to the normal predictions of orthodox economic analysis, competition in positional markets can result in inefficient outcomes. Predominantly relying upon recent British experience, we examine the extent to which compulsory schooling can be viewed as a positional good and explore its implica-tions for policy. In particular, we consider whether policies targeting increases in parental choice assist a rise in the overall level of educa-tional attainment.     

战略性、渐进性动态均衡与次优制度创新--高校人事管理改革理念、任务、思路、路径

高校人事管理改革面临深层的结构性问题,需要理念的创新.战略性人才资源管理的基本理念是战略化、社会化、国际化、市场化、分散化、整体化.其基本任务是重点突破,整体推进,通过序列改革,逐步建立以岗位管理为核心的简洁、高效、内在统一的人事管理新体系.改革以制度保障为前提,次优改革是唯一可行的有效制度改革选择,渐进化动态均衡改革是提高制度创新效率的必由之路.     

Market accountability in schools: policy reforms in England,Germany, France and Italy

This article concentrates on the policy reforms of schools in England, Germany, France and Italy, from 1988 to 2009, with a focus on the introduction of market accountability. Pressing demands for organisational change in schools, shaped by the objectives of ‘efficiency’ and competition, which were introduced in England in the 1980s, have been adopted in other European countries, albeit at a slower pace and within the continuing need for domestic institutional conformity. How does the increasing predominance of market accountability in state schools change traditional bureaucratic and professional accountability relationships between politicians, managers, professionals and users? The article argues that despite some evidence of convergence between different education systems, England remains the outlier and continental European countries have been much more reluctant to adopt choice and competition policies.     

Marketing Small Schools in New York City: A Critique of Neoliberal School Reform

The objective of this article is to critically examine a school reform effort that has taken hold in New York City over the past seven years. A largely privately funded venture, the New Century Schools Initiative (NCSI), opened hundreds of new small high schools in poor urban communities in New York City starting in 2002. The theory behind opening small schools on a such a large scale has come from market principles of competition and consumer choice. By flooding the market with hundreds of schools, competition for students would, in turn, drive up the quality of the schools. Although support appears to be ubiquitous for the market-based reforms in New York City, this article argues that we need to look critically at reforms like NCSI, especially with the recent failure of market-driven policies to deliver on their promises. Using neoliberalism as a conceptual framework, this article asks two main questions: (a) How do neoliberal school reform policies play out in individual schools? and (b) To what extent do neoliberal policies contribute or detract from educational equity?     

大学教学改革应重视对课程知识选择的研究

深化课程内容改革是大学人才培养这一本体性功能回归的内在要求;大学课程的质量和特色已成为国际化高等教育时代大学胜出的核心竞争力。在我国高等教育从精英教育向大众化的转变过程中,政府提高高等教育教学质量的政策取向、高校办学自主权进一步扩大等,为大学积极开展以课程内容改革为核心的校本研究提供了很好的制度平台。另外,加强对课程知识选择的研究有助于深化对教育学基本规律的认识。     

Higher education markets and public policy

In the major reforms to higher education being introduced throughout the world, market and “market-like” policy instruments are assuming increasing importance. Long perceived as a unique characteristic of the U.S. system of higher education, experiments with market competition in academic labor markets, institutional finance, student support, and the allocation of research funds are now evident in the higher education policy of many different nations. Ironically, the overt rationale for these reforms is not only the traditional argument of economic efficiency—with its supposed corollary benefits of institutional adaptation and innovation—but increasingly a resort to market competition as a means of achieving equity in the form of mass higher education. The paper explores the nature of markets in higher education, the policy mechanisms related to their implementation, and some emerging questions regarding their impact.