News

Academies have improved failing schools and are over-subscribed

(19 October 2010)

Professor David Galloway

The academy schools programme has improved a large proportion of under-achieving schools and is increasingly popular with parents, according to a Durham University expert.

A new book, Academies and Educational Reform, co-authored by Professor David Galloway, Durham University, evaluates the successes and failures of the controversial academy schools programme and the lessons that can be learnt.

The book critically examines the pros and cons and the controversial aspects of academies, including the role of the sponsors, independence from Local Authority control, and investment in new school buildings.

The authors' primary aim is to examine why academies succeed when they do and what causes their failure, and what their innovations and principles have to offer to policy makers, teachers, parents and anyone with an interest in education.

Academies and Educational Reform provides a first glimpse behind the headlines, league-tables and speeches into the working lives of academies and the principals, teachers and pupils who have been striving to bring about change in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country.

Main findings

• Academies have had considerable success in improving under-achieving schools
• Previously unpopular schools that have changed to academies have moved from being under-subscribed to over-subscribed
• Academies have created a more balanced intake - experience backs up National Audit figures that expansion of the number of children attending academies has not come at the expense of children entitled to free school meals
• Academies benefit from speedy decision-making and new, innovative teaching methods
• Changes to the social side of education provision is improving results
• Strong leadership with intensive support is vital, new buildings alone do not improve schools

Professor David Galloway, School of Education, Durham University said:

"The view of successive governments has been that local authorities are very poor at making the tough decisions required to improve a failing school. The evidence of the academies programme is that academies have achieved significantly better results and that is the case for continuing and expanding the programme.

"Many academies have moved from being ‘sink' or underachieving schools to buoyant new schools where results have been achieved more quickly than had previously been thought possible. There's a sense of pressure and urgency that allows academies to succeed and to take quick decisions.

"Attracting a socially more balanced intake, without reducing the number of students from disadvantaged homes, has been a major achievement of academies. While the number of children receiving free school meals has not declined, they now form a smaller proportion within the academy.

"The figures on the numbers of children eligible for free school meals are important and show that academies are not stealing middle class children, but are achieving inclusion and balance and are honouring the principles under which they were set up.

"Several principals told us that with academy status, turning round a failing or underachieving school could be achieved faster than they had previously believed possible. As with local authority schools though, there is wide variation between academies. Many have been dramatically successful. Others certainly have not."

• The Guardian