School Choice, Competition and Performance

Abstract

The market in education is a quasi-market because the government, not the consumer, makes market decisions in the belief that both competition and cooperation promote higher levels of academic attainment, although the introduction of greater school choice may increase differentials between schools in that respect. ‘Coopetition’, defined by Adnett and Davies (2003: 393) as competing in some markets and cooperating in others, is the dominant strategy in the business sector, but until recently policymakers in education have been slow to recognise the need to promote it in schools. Policy in relation to school choice in England now promotes both competition and cooperation: some policies, such as open enrolment and league tables, aim to stimulate competition; other policies, like Beacon Schools aim to share best practice, Excellence in Cities schemes and Education Action Zones to encourage partnerships, and Specialist Schools to stimulate community-wide initiatives (Bagley, 2006), aim to encourage cooperation. The three-year (1993–6) Parental and School Choice Interaction (PASCI) Study in the United Kingdom showed education markets to be complex and localised, wherein managers adopt a variety of coping strategies. A follow-up study ten years later by Bagley (2006), one of the original researchers, measured the effect on the market of later government drives towards mixing competition and cooperation (Adnett & Davies, 2003; Bell & West, 2003). It found that, despite the ‘discursive shift in political rhetoric’, there was little evidence on the ground of greater inter-school cooperation (Bagley, 2006: 357). In addition, in the time between the two studies, parental consumerism, school responsiveness and rivalry were all found to have intensified.