Schooling reforms in England: from quasi-markets to co-opetition?

Abstract

Greater competition in schooling markets seems to promote higher levels of academic attainment, but so does increased co-operation within and between schools. School choice reforms have a tendency to reinforce local schooling hierarchies and increase differences in the mean pupils' academic attainment between schools. In England, the processes causing these effects have been strengthened by the introduction of school performance tables. Beacon Schools, Education Action Zones, and the current specialist schools initiative seek to alter the mix of competition and co-operation within local schooling markets. Co-opetition, competing in some markets and co-operating in others, is the dominant strategy in the business sector, but policy-makers have been slow to recognize the need to promote such behaviour in education. The English quasi-market processes still reward schools inappropriately and discourage mutually beneficial co-operation between schools.