Business in Education: A Reassessment of the Contribution of Outsourcing to LEA Performance

Autor/in	Farnsworth, Kevin
Titel	Business in Education: A Reassessment of the Contribution of Outsourcing to LEA Performance
Quelle	In: Journal of Education Policy, 21 (2006) 4, S.485-496 (12 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0268-0939
Schlagwörter	Business; Educational Change; Educational Improvement; Private Sector; Public Policy; Privatization; School Districts; Public Sector; Academic Achievement; Social Action; Schools of Education + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Business studies; Wirtschaft; Betriebswirtschaft; Bildungsreform; Teaching improvement; Unterrichtsentwicklung; Privater Sektor; Öffentliche Ordnung; Privatisation; Privatisierung; School district; Schulbezirk; Öffentlicher Sektor; Schulleistung; Soziales Handeln; Erziehungswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Abstract	New Labour promised to introduce dramatic reforms to the education system when it came to power in 1997 and one of the key strategies it employed in the pursuit of educational improvement was the utilisation of the methods of the private sector. Arguably its most controversial policy was its effective privatisation of the functions of "failing" Local Education Authorities (LEAs). Although criticisms of this policy were widespread, the potency of the arguments against private sector involvement in education waned somewhat following the publication of a comprehensive investigation into outsourcing by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in 2005. This report, entitled "The Business of Education Improvement" claimed, on the basis of its analysis of Department for Education and Skills (DfES) data, that the outsourced authorities were comprehensively outperforming those that remained in the state sector. However, the conclusions of the CBI's report were, in many instances, highly misleading. This paper provides a brief background to Labour's privatisation programme, followed by a reassessment of the performance of the outsourced LEAs. Contrary to the conclusions reached in the CBI's report, the analysis here finds no evidence to suggest that the outsourced LEAs performed better than those that remained in the public sector. If anything, on the rather narrow assessment of performance offered by the CBI, LEAs appear to perform better under public sector management. (Contains 7 tables.) (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10