Educational Standards and Grantmaintained Schools

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For the past decade, successive governments in the UK have linked economic growth with educational standards in schools and, in order to ensure the former, much emphasis has been placed on raising the latter. What has not been made clear is exactly what is meant by standards in schools. The earlier Tory regime put its faith in school autonomy in the shape of grant-maintained schools as a key thrust to their school improvement campaign. New Labour plans to abolish the sector and to ‘reinvent’ it through foundation and voluntary schools which will have reduced powers and will be linked to the LEA through governance and admission arrangements. This paper examines data on the views and perceptions of GM headteachers and chairs of governors about standards in their schools and reveals the extent to which they are able to ‘see through’ and critique current thinking about their nature and development generally.