U.S. charter schools, or non-sectarian public schools of choice that operate with greater autonomy than traditional public schools in return for accountability (academic performance and/or fiscal practices), have caught the attention of U.K.'s politicians who view them as possible models for education reform in England. In an exclusive interview with the International Business Times, Prof. Geoffrey Whitty, director of Institute of Education, University of London, talks about education reforms in England, policy borrowing and more.
International Business Times (IBTimes): U.S. charter schools were influenced by the English grant maintained school system and now the politicians in the U.K. are turning to the very same charter schools and viewing them as possible models for education reform in England. Did English grant maintained schools fail?
Prof. Whitty: The English grant maintained school system was modified by the Labor when they came into power in 1997. So these schools don't have much autonomy as they used to. Academies were in a way to give a new approach to give autonomy to schools. The current government now thinks many more schools should have greater autonomy. So in a way, it's going back to a policy that the Conservative government had and which was modified by the Labor.
IBTimes: Stanford University's CREDO study of 2009 suggests that charter schools haven't been as successful as expected. Is the charter school system worth adopting in the U.K.?
Prof. Whitty: I think there are some very good charter schools and there are some very good academies in the U.K. However, neither charter schools nor academies are a panacea. It's what goes on in schools - it's the quality of the teaching, it's the nature of the curriculum, it's the style of leadership that makes a difference and I can point you in the U.K. to some mainstream public schools that do well better than academies. What Diane Ravitch has advocated would be true everywhere. It is not a matter of being a charter school as opposed to a mainstream public school that makes the difference. It is a matter of what you do, what sort of teachers you've got, what sort of curriculum you've got, what sort of leadership you've got. So any notion that charter schools are a panacea, I think, is misguided. Particularly charter schools are different in different states and even in different school district.
IBTimes: As someone who has been deeply involved in research and development of education reforms and curriculum studies in the U.K., what do you think the U.K. and the U.S. can learn from each other?
Prof. Whitty: I think one thing they can learn is what not to do. Because they have made similar mistakes in the past. I think we tend to think that we either need to deregulate schooling or regulate it. What I think we need is some degree of deregulation but also some controls or limits upon autonomy that allows to maintain a sense of a school system. I think the big danger is that the system becomes totally fragmented and atomized whereas the strength of the public school system is that it is something for the whole society. However, it may not have worked and we do need to try and do new things. But we must not lose the notion that there is a commitment to education for everyone rather than just have a system in which some schools do well and other schools do badly and we forget about the broader civic mission to make sure that everyone does well. And I don't think you can do that in a system in which every school is responsible for its own fate. You got to have some balance between markets and regulation.
IBTimes: Is U.K. losing its position as the preferred destination when it comes to policy tourism or policy borrowing?
Prof. Whitty: I think the big issue is the attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students and the political rhetoric from the U.S. suggest that the charter schools have shown a way to solve that. As I have said, I think one has to be skeptical about the extent to which that has happened but there are some examples of good practice that it's worthwhile for people to come and see. But I think it's also the case that we have to learn things from other countries as well.
IBTimes: You are one of the longest serving directors of IOE. Can you elaborate on the achievements of IOE and the challenges it has faced?
Prof. Whitty: The greatest achievement I think is IOE being clearly identified as a leading center for education research in the UK and one of the leading center for education research in the world. The challenge, on the other hand, has always been funding. We are not a rich institution and we don't have a big endowment. And, now after some years of growth and funding, the cuts in public expenditure are posing a major challenge, which we will have to try and partly fill with getting more philanthropic funding and more support from our alumni in order to continue to do the things that we have been doing well over the last few years.
About Prof. Geoffrey Whitty
Cambridge-educated Geoffrey "Geoff" James Whitty, director of the Institute of Education, University of London (since September 2000), is one of the leading educationists in the world.
Prof. Whitty has been a member of the General Teaching Council for England since 2003 and has been a specialist advisor to successive House of Commons Education Select Committees since 2005. Whitty is also a past President of both the British Educational Research Association and the College of Teachers and a former Chair of the British Council’s Education and Training Advisory Committee. In 2009, he was awarded the Lady Plowden Memorial Medal in recognition for his outstanding contribution in the field of research and development of education.
About Institute of Education
The Institute of Education (IOE) is a constituent college of the University of London, dedicated to postgraduate study and research in the field of education. The Institute is the largest education research body in the United Kingdom, with over 700 research students in the doctoral school. It also has the largest portfolio of postgraduate programs in education in the UK, with approximately 4,000 students taking Master's programs, and a further 1,200 students doing PGCE teacher-training courses.
The Institute has long been recognized as a leading center of educational enquiry.
About Charter Schools
Charter schools in the U.S. are primary or secondary schools that are allowed to run independently of the traditional public school system and to tailor their programs to community needs. The "charter" establishing each such school is a performance contract detailing the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. Though charter schools can exercise increased autonomy, they are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to their sponsor - usually a state or local school board - as well as as the parents who choose them.
Charter school system has become popular in the U.S. as it provide a system of accountability for results in public education, encourages innovative teaching practices and allows community and parent involvement in public education. The first charter school was set up in Minnesota in 1991, with California following suit in 1992. By 1995, 19 states had signed laws allowing for the creation of charter schools and as of 2009, 41 states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws.
While supporters of U.S. charter schools claim such schools have succeeded in closing the black-white achievement gap as well as helping improve the academic performance of the disadvantaged, critics point out that peer-reviewed academic research suggests charter schools are not as good as their well-funded and high-profile advocates make them out to be.
For instance, the CREDO (Center for Research on Education Outcomes) National Charter Schools Study at Stanford University discovered last year that only 17 percent of charter schools reported academic gains that were significantly better than regular public schools, while 37 percent of charter schools showed gains that were worse than their regular public school counterparts, even as 46 percent of charter schools demonstrating no significant difference.
Diane Ravitch, a leading historian of the US education system, former assistant secretary of education in the administration of George Bush Sr. and one-time supporter of "school choice," has also suggested that charter schools should not be a model for public education as the higher graduation rate posted by charter schools often reflects the fact that they are able to "counsel out" the lowest-performing students who are left to regular public schools.
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