Market accountability in schools: policy reforms in England, Germany, France and Italy

Abstract

This article concentrates on the policy reforms of schools in England, Germany, France and Italy, from 1988 to 2009, with a focus on the introduction of market accountability. Pressing demands for organisational change in schools, shaped by the objectives of ‘efficiency’ and competition, which were introduced in England in the 1980s, have been adopted in other European countries, albeit at a slower pace and within the continuing need for domestic institutional conformity. How does the increasing predominance of market accountability in state schools change traditional bureaucratic and professional accountability relationships between politicians, managers, professionals and users? The article argues that despite some evidence of convergence between different education systems, England remains the outlier and continental European countries have been much more reluctant to adopt choice and competition policies.

Key words:

• accountability
• schools
• markets
• policy change
• reforms
• Europe

Notes

1. I will discuss later the potentially important pilot projects being undertaken in Berlin and North Rhine Westphalia in an effort to facilitate policy experimentation.

2. In France, the school questionnaire was not completed by school heads, and in the United Kingdom the response rate was considered too low to guarantee the representativeness of the data.

3. ‘Verordnung zur Durchführung des Modellvorhabens Selbständige Schule’ Ministerium für Schule, Jugend und Kinder des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 12 April 2002; Gesetz zur.Weiterentwicklung von Schulen, 27 November 2001.

4. Schulgesetz für das Land Berlin, 26 January 2004, GVBl. S. 26.

5. The intellectuals opposing the system of education imposed by the fascists were writing for the Rivista di Educazione Nazionale. They are Giuseppe Radice and Piero Gobetti.

6. Article 33 of the 1948 Constitution states: ‘Art and sciences are free and free is their teaching.’ Regarding the possibility of the establishment of private schools, the same article states that: ‘Private actors have the right to establish schools, without burden for state finance’.

7. Italian Parliament, Lower Chamber, VII Commissione Cultura (Committee for Culture), approved 15 December 2002.