Did High Stakes testing policies result in divergence or convergence in educational performance and financing across counties in Victorian England? - Deutscher Bildungsserver

Mitch, David

Did High Stakes testing policies result in divergence or convergence in educational performance and financing across counties in Victorian England?

h t t p s : / / i d e a s . r e p e c . o r g / p / e h s / w p a p e r / 1 0 0 1 1 . h t m l

[ Did High Stakes testing policies result in divergence or convergence in educational performance and financing across counties in Victorian England?Link defekt? Bitte melden! ]

In 1863, the English Parliament set in place a system of elementary school finance in which national level funding for individual schools depended in part on the outcomes of student examinations conducted by school inspectors. It came to be known as payment by results. This system remained in place for roughly thirty years through the early 1890s. At the height of the system in the 1870s and 1880s, on average, roughly half of the national level funding a school received depended on the outcome of student examinations. Did the system result in a leveling up in the funding available to all schools who persisted or did it result in a widening in funding gaps between successful and poorly performing schools? In contrast with previous studies by historians of education which have considered national level impacts of the policy, this paper employs county level data to look at trends between 1870 and 1890. It will consider the extent to which disparities in both funding and educational level outcomes widened or narrowed across the 42 counties of England and Wales in conjunction with the system of payment by results. It thus aims at an evaluation of a Victorian educational policy that has resonance with current school policy debates and discussions in the U.S. and elsewhere. (Orig.).