"Understanding School Markets: Strategies, Consequences, and Public Regulation"

Extract

[...] Impossibility of establishing universal laws of regulation. A way to regulate MS: Assign students to different schools based on different criteria: academic level, socio-economic level, ethnic origin? - Establishments, autonomy and the local Competition between establishments: - Encourages the latter to communicate externally (marketing). This can be done to the detriment of the quality of the teaching content; can have positive effects (mobilizing teams on pedagogy, helping students who are most in difficulty?) or negative effects (competition produces niches and specializations of schools, which reinforce school segregation on teaching). [...]

[...] External Image Management and School Marketing Proponents of free choice and market logic argue that they should lead to diversification and improvement of educational offerings. However, to attract/retain good students, institutions focus more on form (marketing) than on substance (educational content). Instead of leading to an enrichment of the diversity of educational offerings, market logic tends to reinforce a traditional view of education and mimicry between schools. The market as a carrier of innovation and pedagogical improvement? In the United States, the free choice and the greatest autonomy given to schools have led to organizational and management innovations; but not to pedagogical and educational innovations. [...]

[...] Chapter Educational Markets in Action MS studied as dynamic social constructions influenced by spatial and temporal frameworks. The interaction of socio-spatial and educational dynamics Demographic Evolutions and the Emergence of Educational Markets The demographic decline of the 1980's coincided with : Change in policy allowing families to choose their establishment and the increase in efforts deployed by establishments to be more attractive. Urban and School Dynamics in the 'Gentrified' Neighborhoods 3 ideal-typical models of gentrified popular neighborhoods, which induce distinct school strategies by middle and upper-class families : Neighborhoods that are very mixed socially and ethnically : Frequentation of the neighborhood school while being vigilant OR avoidance of local establishments. [...]

[...] The example of the United States shows that schools manage to circumvent the rules and filter students in several ways. Construction of the school offer of the establishment and attraction/repulsion strategies of families The training offer (school options and/or absence of classes for students with 'special needs'), uniform and/or use of exclusions affects the school's external image and the public it attracts. The free choice contributes to reinforcing the competition stakes between establishments and filtering practices. Contrasting establishment logics according to the position on the local market 4 ideal-types of action logics of establishments according to their hierarchical position in the local MS and the intensity of competition : - High hierarchical position + Open and unstable competition Logic of conquest good students by working on the educational offer, recruitment and promotion of the school. [...]

[...] The MS phenomenon (competition encourages retaining or attracting the best possible students) tends to reinforce this situation of segregation. Competition is reduced between establishments of different niches, but it persists between schools of the same niche that are spatially close. V. Chapter The Social Consequences of School Markets and Their Regulation by Public Action The consequences of MS are dependent: on the modes of financing schools; on the actors of choice; on the nature of the educational system and educational policies. The Social Consequences of School Markets Does competition among schools improve educational service? [...]