Education Reform Reading List 101
Education reform, initiated during the coalition Government, has been a genuine success. These are my favourite (and the most useful) articles, books and speeches to understand what it was all about.
Last week DfE released GCSE results for every secondary school in the country, allowing them all to be graded according to their average Progress 8 score. This year’s results proved, again, that schools at the centre of the education reform movement in the early Coalition years, excelled in their core responsibility of boosting student attainment. To put salt in the wounds of the nay-sayers and progressive types that always talked down the Gov-olution, the best performing school in the country was Michaela Community School in Wembley (yes it performed better than St Pauls or Westminster). Michaela was set up in 2014 by Katharine Birbalsingh (who is a lightning rod for the progressive anti-reformer anger), with an education philosophy rooted in discipline, high expectations and academic rigour. Those principles earned this principal the nickname ‘Britain’s Strictest Headmistress’.
What makes education reform interesting is that it was rooted in a definitive push back against a status-quo set of ideas on how education should be delivered (recognised as progressive learning). When working on Children’s Social Care reform between 2021-23, I worked with some of the people involved in leading the school reform movement. We tried to use their experiences and success to inspire radical thinking for CSC. That radical thinking included steps to make the system more accountable, more focussed on outcomes, with higher expectations for children. I am not sure we were as successful, but time will tell.
Below are some of the most useful articles, speeches and books that give an insight in to what that movement was all about. These are my most recommended reads, but I’m not an expert and it is not comprehensive, so there will be more. But if you are interested, read (and listen to) some of the following to understand the thinking behind one of the great policy reform agendas in British history:
2013 Michael Gove speech on the ‘Progressive Betrayal’ at the Social Market Foundation - here
2014 Michael Gove speech at the London Academy of Excellence on helping the most disadvantaged students in the country - here
Nick Gibbs interview with TES after returning to the DFE in 2022 - here
Katharine Birbalsingh’s speech to Conservative Conference 2010 - here
Katharine Birbalsingh’s podcast interview with Nick Robinson on Political Thinking - here
Toby Young’s ‘Prisoners of the Blob’ (book) - here
Daisy Christodoulou’s ‘Seven Myths About Education’ (book) - here
E.D.Hirsch’s ‘Why Knowledge Matters’ (book) - here
Brown, Roedieger and Mcdaniel’s ‘Make It Stick, The Science of Successful Learning’ (book) - here
p.s. Also worth reading, although it is a bit tangential:
Rachel Da Souza’s interview in Schools Week - here
Article on Brampton Academy’s Oxbridge success - here
Mark Lehain’s analysis last week on results - here
Michelle Rhee’s book on reforming the school system in Washington DC - here
p.p.s. Below are the top-100 schools in the country according to their 2023 Progress 8 score:
