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You
are here: A Private Role in Public Education: an International Perspective
(This paper was presented at the Policymakers Exchange, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington, Seattle, 18 November 2004. Reprinted with permission)
A system of public education is strong if it has high levels of social capital, that is, all with a stake in public education hold the same views and values about its purposes and programs and are prepared to work together to make it the best system it can possibly be.
The purpose of this paper is to show how two nations started with roughly the same relatively low levels of social capital in support of public education less than a decade ago and how the situation was transformed for one of these by resolute action on the part of its government and extensive engagement from a range of organizations in the profit and non-profit private sectors. The focus is on Australia and Britain. There is much to learn from this experience and from the networking of knowledge about efforts to achieve the transformation of systems of public education. The possibilities are explored in a concluding statement.
A tale of two nations
The current levels of social capital in Australia approximate those in England when New Labor led by Tony Blair came to power in 1997. The scene has been transformed in England in less than the time it has taken for the problem to be recognized in Australia.
The point of departure is the manner in which the respective governments have tackled the problem of schools in challenging circumstances in the intervening years and moved to build wider community support for schools.
In terms of the position to be taken in this paper, the key point to be made is that the Blair Government has moved well beyond the 'tipping point' (Gladwell, 2001) in creating an environment in which the business, foundations, trusts, philanthropists and the wider community are prepared to support their public schools. Such support was not forthcoming under successive conservative governments, but it has blossomed during the two terms of Labor Governments.
Social capital
It is helpful to clarify the concept of social capital. Interestingly, the concept dates from 1916 and its first use, according to Putnam (2000), was in the context of school education:
The term social capital itself turns out to have been independently invented at least six times over the twentieth century, each time to call attention to the ways in which our lives are made more productive by social ties. The first known use of the concept was not by some cloistered theoretician, but by a practical reformer in the Progressive Era – L. J. Hanifan, state supervisor of rural schools in West Virginia. Writing in 1916 to urge the importance of community involvement for successful schools, Hanifan invoked the idea of 'social capital' to explain why. (Putnam, 2000, p. 19)
Hanifan considered social capital to be 'those intangible substances [that] count for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy and social intercourse among the individuals and families that make up a social unit'. Hanifan believed that 'the community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of its parts' (cited by Putnam, 2000, p. 19).
An argument along the same lines in the field of education was advanced by Coleman (1988), with the study of Coleman and Hoffer (1987) of public and private schools in the United States concluding that differences in levels of student achievement – higher in Jewish schools and parochial Catholic schools than in public schools – are largely explained by differences in social capital, as reflected in the strength of mutually supporting relationships among school, community, home, church, and a range of non-profit entities including volunteer organizations. Coleman and Hoffer referred to the loss of social capital in recent decades and proposed a range of policy initiatives to re-build and extend it. More recently, Fukuyama (1995) and Putnam (2000) have written of the loss or absence of social capital, especially in western democracies. Fukuyama defined social capital as 'the ability of people to work together for common purposes in groups and organizations' (Fukuyama, 1995, p. 10) (see Adler and Kwon 2000 for a range of definitions). This is a broader view of the concept than originally proposed by Hanifan, and it is adopted in this paper, with a wide range of profit and non-profit entities included among those who should 'work together for common purposes' in support of schools.
Specialist schools
A striking illustration of the creation of stronger social capital in England is the specialist schools initiative. The precursor was the creation by the Thatcher Government of a small number of City Technology Colleges through a substantial injection of funds from the IT industry. Support was minimal and just 15 were established. The idea was modified by encouraging existing secondary schools to develop a specialism in technology, with additional funds from government provided once a school had secured matching cash or in-kind support from industry and the wider community. About 200 had been funded in this manner when Labor came to power in 1997. The Blair Government chose to extend the approach.
At 1 November 2004, 1,955 or about 60 per cent of the country's approximately 3,200 secondary schools had developed a specialism in a particular area of the curriculum. Ten specialisms are encouraged: arts, technology, languages, sports, business and enterprise, engineering, mathematics and computing, science, humanities and music. A new category of rural schools is to be included. Schools are still required to address the whole of the national curriculum. The important feature is the development of specialization or areas of excellence in one or more of the nominated areas. These secondary schools, now clearly constituting a critical mass in England, may be found in every setting, with as many in low as in high socio-economic areas.
Specialist schools consistently outperform non-specialist schools in terms of success of students in the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) and this finding applies in all socio-economic settings. In the most recent study of outcomes (Jesson, 2004) it was found that results for students in specialist schools were improving three times faster than those in non-specialist schools, with children of average or below average ability making the greatest progress. Inner-city schools with the highest levels of poverty also improved more rapidly if they were specialist schools.
Schools must apply to become a specialist school. They must raise cash or in-kind support from the private or non-education public sectors. They receive additional grants from government. They must make a commitment to an improvement plan that describes how they will raise levels of student achievement, specifies targets for improvement, and describes how they will work with other schools to support good practice. A school that fails to fulfil its commitment can lose its status as a specialist school.
In terms of rate of growth and impact, a case can be made that the specialist schools movement in England is one of the most significant developments in secondary education in any nation. About 60 per cent of all secondary schools are now specialist schools and the government intends that all will achieve this status within five years.
Public private partnerships
The creation of public private partnerships provides another opportunity to strengthen the social capital of public education, if a broader view of the concept is adopted. The Conservative Government introduced Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Under PFI, construction and refurbishment of schools are funded and implemented by private companies after which the school is leased back to the public authority (local education authority) usually for 25 years. These companies maintain the schools and draw profits from the lease arrangements. Proponents of PFI contend that it is a better approach than securing a substantial injection of public funds over a short term, a course of action that will require higher taxes. They also draw attention to the benefit that principals are not required to manage the facilities under these arrangements, thus allowing them to focus on educational leadership.
PFI have expanded dramatically under the Blair Government that shares the concern of local education authorities about the rapid deterioration of buildings that were designed many decades, even centuries ago for a different era of schooling. By 2003 (Farrell, 2003) there were 59 contracts covering 595 schools with a total capital value of £1.6bn, with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) allocating a further £1.6bn for 36 contracts involving more than 600 schools. Another 19 projects covering 260 schools are planned. The largest PFI is in Scotland where all 29 secondary schools in Glasgow are either new or have been radically modernized.
The chief drawback to the PFI is the signing of contracts for 25 years in situations where subsequent demographic changes mean that the schools ought to be closed. It is argued that some non-PFI schools may be closed to save education authorities from massive penalties if this happens. There have also been instances where the design of facilities by private providers has not met the requirements of good pedagogical practice. The number of adverse cases appears small compared to the large number of contracts and schools that have gained immediate benefit. They are the unanticipated consequences of new policy in public private partnerships. New arrangements should seek to minimize the risk to all parties.
City academies
Another major project of the Blair Government is the establishment of City Academies that involve the closure, re-opening, re-naming and physical re-building of secondary schools in cities across England. They feature one or more of the following elements: a contribution from the non-public sector of funds in the re-building program (normally a requirement), significant philanthropic support, or the management of the new school by a non-public entity, either profit or non-profit. There were about 30 City Academies in 2004. A target of 200 has been set for 2008. The government has established the Academy Sponsors Trust to secure private sponsorship of £2 million for each school, with government providing funds in the range £20-28 million. There is bi-partisan political support.
The Blair Government invokes a social justice argument in proceeding down this path. In remarks delivered at the opening of the Bexley Business Academy in Thamesmead under the title 'Radical Reform is the Route to Social Justice' (Blair, 2003a), the Prime Minister declared that 'academies embody all we are seeking to achieve as a government, tackling social exclusion and transforming life prospects for the least advantaged in our society'. He continued with the following words, reflecting his personal beliefs on the matter of schooling and the planned transformation from the comprehensive schools of the 1960s:
My passionate belief is that educational success is the route to social justice - for each individual young person, and for our nation as a whole - and that there is nothing more important for us as a nation than to invest in new and better schools in areas which have failed in the past.
Blair was on sound grounds in presenting this argument. In his address to the Labor Party Conference at Bournemouth (Blair, 2003b), Blair highlighted his visit to Thamesmead, noting its location in 'one of the most deprived estates in the country', with only three of 114 students at its predecessor Thamesmead Community College achieving 5 good GCSE passes in the final year before closure. It is now located in a £31 million building, being a sought after location for teachers, securing a 90 percent attendance rate and 35 percent of students achieving good GCSE passes in its third year of operation (Widdows, 2004).
Of the £31 million invested in new buildings at Bexley, £28 million was provided by government and £3 million was donated by sponsors including Microsoft and Charlton Athletic (football club). The school is managed by a private firm known as the 3E's (derived from the slogan of 'education, education, education' used by Labor in a statement of its three top priorities in the lead-up to its election in 1997).
Private management of public schools
The 3E's is just one of a number of private companies now managing schools in England. The oldest and largest is CfBT, founded in 1965 as the Centre for British Teachers. Based in Reading, it employs over 1300 full-time member of staff and currently operates in 20 countries. Its turnover in 2001 was £70 million. It is a non-profit entity, registered as a charity, and donates over £1 million annually to education projects and research endeavours around the world. Another large firm is Cambridge Education Associates (CEA) founded in the late 1980s by a small group of successful school principals and education officers from Cambridgeshire, a pioneering authority in the local financial management of schools.
Initial concern about private management largely dissipated once it was realised that the key personnel were highly successful if not eminent educators in their own right. Concern was particularly high when it was announced that a school in Guildford was to be the first under private management in England. This is the school now known as the Kings College of the Arts and Technology, managed by the 3E's.
There had been three efforts over the last decade to establish a successful school on the site in Guildford. The original Park Barn School was re-named Kings Manor under a new principal in 1993. It was closed on 31 August 2000 and re-opened on 1 September 2000 under its new name of the Kings College of the Arts and Technology. Enrolments have grown from about 280 to about 750 in three years and the ceiling of about 1100 will be reached soon. Local elementary schools would previously not recommend the school but it is now the destination of choice for those completing Key Stage 2 (upper elementary). Indeed, enrolments at these schools have grown with the success of Kings.
Social entrepreneurship
Greig City Academy in Haringey, London, formerly known as the Hornsby School (and described in the media as having 'a lamentable reputation at the bottom-of-the-league exam results'), closed at the end of the 2002-2003 school year and re-opened as Greig Academy at the start of 2003-2004 with a new school uniform, a new philosophy and £50 million investment in infrastructure.
A feature of developments at Greig is the role played by the non-profit Community Action Network. Established about twenty years ago it has, in partnership with Rural Net, built the largest network of voluntary organizations in the country, with over 750 members connecting the social, business and public sectors. It works in some of the most deprived areas in the country. Examples include its work with CISCO in 'wiring up' more than 5000 homes in Tower Hamlets to the educational and community facilities at the Bromley by Bow Center. The network has developed a CAN Academy Model for application at the local, regional and national levels. The aims of the model include to:
· Improve the quality of educational achievement in schools by developing partnerships beyond the classroom with local social entrepreneurs, voluntary groups, health and social services, further and higher education, business, crime prevention and others
· Tackle the causes and effects of poverty by integrating education, health, welfare and employment opportunities
· Integrate schools with their communities by building on these partnerships to tackle disadvantage
· Support schools to become a visible and positive force in the local community and develop the infrastructure they need to manage community links and programs
· Connect failing schools with a support network of both successful, enterprising schools and less successful schools beyond the local boundaries
· Develop strong school leadership teams who are committed social entrepreneurs
· Establish in all schools an 'enterprise culture' that creates a flexible workforce ready to respond to a changing job market
· Create a pathfinder model that can be replicated across the country and share best practice between partnership schools
(Adapted from CAN, 2003, pp. 6 – 7)Philanthropic support
A final illustration of the growing strength of social capital in England is the level of philanthropic support. Developments in England warrant closer attention because a culture of engagement has emerged over the last ten years, gathering momentum in the first and second terms of the Blair Government. Prime Minister Blair cited the following examples in his address at the opening of the Bexley Business Academy (Blair 2003a). Each is a specialist school in London and he highlighted the leadership of the principal, the support of sponsors, and the increase in the percentage of five good passes in the GCSE (the standard measure of school achievement in England over many decades).
· The Harris City Technology College has improved its five GCSE success rate from just 11% in 1990 to 92% this year. Much of this success is due to its outstanding principal Carol Bates and its inspired sponsors Philip and Pauline Harris.
· Sir John Cass Language College in Tower Hamlets has transformed its results from just 8% in 1995 to 80% this year. It was the most improved school in the country last year. It is one of the few secondary schools in Europe that teaches Mandarin Chinese. Again, its success is due to the outstanding leadership of its principal, Haydon Evans and the marvelous support of its sponsors HSBC and the Sir John Cass Foundation.
· The St Marylebone School of the Performing Arts in Westminster has improved its results from 33% in 1994 to 93% this summer under the outstanding leadership of Elizabeth Phillips with strong support from its sponsor British Airways.Modest progress in Australia
As noted at the outset, social capital in support of public education in Australia is currently weak in comparison to England, with the gap widening over the last decade. The authors of a recent book on the theme of Imagining Australia suggest that the problem is more broadly based:
If Australia is to be a strong and cohesive community, we must reverse the decline in social capital. We must try to rebuild our sense of local community, our sense of togetherness, our civic organizations and our willingness to embrace difference. (Duncan et al. 2004, pp. 208-209)
These writers contend that schools themselves have an important role to play in becoming 'a focal point in civic engagement' (Duncan et al. 2004, p. 209) and they provide an example of how this may be done at The Brookside Learning Center in Caroline Springs in Victoria. Delfin Lendlease was the developer of this new residential community that included an education precinct in the design. Three schools from the government (public) and non-government (private) sectors were located on site, including the Brookside School (government primary), Mowbray College (independent), and Christ the Priest Catholic Primary, with co-location of a kindergarten, municipal health and community services, and a private childcare facility. The approach is described as a 'Multiple Ownership Design Model' (Leigh, 2002).
As far as philanthropy is concerned, public schools in Australia draw little support compared to their counterparts in England. However, an outstanding example by international standards is the substantial support of the private sector for the Port Phillip Specialist School in Port Melbourne that serves about 140 students with moderate to severe disabilities. It brings together on the one site a range of education and health services and is a model of a 'full service school'. Successive state governments have helped fund the extensive refurbishment of a formerly derelict site. The current government has provided $1 million and the Pratt Foundation $300,000 to help establish a Center for Performing Arts at the school. The social capital at Port Phillip Specialist School is therefore impressive by any standard. There are counterparts in other states but overall the scale is minimal compared to what has occurred in England, where it is striking that most of the support of philanthropists, trusts and foundations and the additional support of government is directed at schools in challenging circumstances.
Explaining the differences
It seems that a combination of factors account for the strong social capital of public schools in England. These include strong and consistent advocacy by the Prime Minister, willingness of the Blair Government to increase investment in public education, and value-added data that show the impact of its policies and programs. The overall effect is to build confidence in a range of institutions and organizations that their contributions are in the national interest and will lead to measurable outcomes, especially in challenging circumstances. Interestingly in the light of themes in the current election in Australia, it seems that trust lies at the heart of such an endeavour. As Fukuyama (1995, p. 26) had it in his book on trust: 'social capital is a capability that arises from the prevalence of trust in a society.'
Future directions
Australia and the UK have much to learn from each other and also from the United States where the involvement of foundations, philanthropists and trusts generally exceeds that to be found in our two nations. There is interest in charter schools but these are unlikely to emerge on any significant scale because non-public schools may be established with relative ease, with either substantial (Australia) or full (UK) support from government.
Federations of support
There is particular interest, however, in the possibilities of federations of support based on the US book by Zuboff and Maxmin (2004) who asserted in The Support Economy that the structures of the industrial age corporation are ill suited to the needs of the modern consumer. They propose federations that bring together different companies that then collaborate in combining their capacities to create new services that respond to these needs. Zuboff and Maxmin argue that health and education share the same dislocation of services and needs as far as current provision is concerned.
Support for schools has traditionally come from 'the system' – from locations that are variously named, depending on governance and administrative arrangements in different places: the education department, the regional office, the district office, the local education authority and so on. Sometimes schools acquire support through universities, either through formal study or from consultancy services provided by academics. More recently, schools have sought the services of individuals, agencies, organizations and institutions across the public and private sectors. For the most part, support outside 'the system' was viewed as an aberration or a breakdown in service. People who used services outside 'the system' were often regarded as mavericks. A different view is now emerging and it is likely that the traditional view of support and service will become the exception for the simple reason that other arrangements are more effective.
Zuboff and Maxmin select the idea of a federation to describe the new arrangements for support of an enterprise. A federation may involve one or more networks. Writing in a general sense they state that:
Federations are not defined by what they make, what they sell, or what services they perform. Federations are defined by the constituencies that select them for support and by the ways they invent to provide that support. Some federations may specialize in supporting certain constituencies, others may specialize in providing only levels of deep support, and still others might specialize in their ability to aggregate support through various levels (Zuboff and Maxmin, 2004, p. 338).
Zuboff and Maxmin describe federations in a variety of ways including 'flexible, agile and operationally excellent', distinguished by 'style, creativity, imagination, authenticity, and consistency.' They are likely to be mobilised by a leading enterprise or alliance of enterprises that have recognized a particular domain in which value for all can be realized (Zuboff and Maxmin, 2004, pp. 338-339).
The forms that federations may take in the support of schools are readily apparent. A group of schools in a particular geographical area or offering a particular specialization may form an alliance and seek the support of a range of individuals, agencies, organisations and institutions in public and private sectors. The focus may be a problem that schools in the alliance may be facing, such as changing demography or falling enrolments; or a development in pedagogy or curriculum for which capacity must be built among their staff. A school may elect to create a federation of support for its own purposes, outside any alliance that may be formed or already exist. When acting together, however, it is evident that high levels of trust are required if the federation is to succeed. Moreover, these things do not just happen by themselves. There will need to be agreements on resource arrangements to ensure that people are available to create and energize the federation.
International networking
How do such ideas spread around the world, at least in the hitherto rather closed world of public education? While it is beyond the scope of this paper to describe in any detail the current interest in networking, it is noteworthy that one of the most promising developments is an initiative of the Specialist Schools Trust in England that receives public and private aid to support specialist schools described earlier. The Trust decided to create a network of schools around the world so that its own affiliates would have access to global knowledge about good practice. National networks are taking shape in several places since the scheme got under way earlier this year and these networks are benefiting from synergies with their counterparts. There is support from the private sector, with HSBC making a significant contribution to leadership development.
The focus of the work is transformation, defined as significant, systematic and sustained change that leads to high levels of achievement for all students in all settings, thus contributing to the wellbeing of the individual and society. The project has the title of International Networking for Educational Transformation. The work is mainly school-to-school and teacher-to-teacher rather than system-to-system, and there is much networking with other networks through the internet, international study programs, conferences and school visits. My role as Associate Director of International Networking for Educational Transformation is to contribute conceptually to the design of the enterprise and to support its growth. The aim is to create what my fellow Associate Director David Hargreaves (2003) calls an 'education epidemic', taking up the image of dramatic change employed by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point (Gladwell, 2001).
Gladwell observed that 'What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus' (Gladwell, 2004, p. 258). It is clear that a private role in public education is an instance of 'the right kind of impetus'.
References
Adler, P.S. and Kwon, S-W (2000) 'Social capital: The good, the bad and the ugly' in Lesser, E.L. (Ed.) Knowledge and Social Capital: Foundations and Applications. Boston: Butterworth Heinemann. Chapter 5.
Blair, T. (2003a) 'Radical Reform is the Route to Social Justice'. Remarks by the Prime Minister at the Official Opening of the Bexley Business Academy, 2003.
Blair, T. (2003b) 'I want us to go faster and further'. Address by the Prime Minister to the Annual Conference of the Labour Party'. Bournemouth, 30 September.
CAN (Community Action Network) (2003) 'The CAN Academy'. Unpublished document prepared for the Community Action Network by Christine Megson and Kevin Davis, 31 July.
Coleman, J.S. (1988) 'Social capital in the creation of human capital'. American Journal of Sociology. 94: S95 – S120.
Coleman, J.S. and Hoffer, J. (1987) Public and Private High Schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books.
Duncan, M., Leigh, A., Madden, D. and Tynan, P. (2004) Imagining Australia. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
Farrell, M. (2003) 'Popular schools at risk of closure'. Times Educational Supplement. 26 September. p. 1.
Fukuyama, F. (1995) Trust: Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Gladwell, M. (2001) The Tipping Point. London: Abacus.
Hargreaves, D. (2003) Education Epidemic. London: Demos.
Jesson, D. (2004) Educational Outcomes and Value Added by Specialist Schools. London: Specialist Schools Trust.
Leigh, G. (2002) 'Education Triggers Community to Spring to Life'. Paper contributed to a web-based symposium of the Technology Colleges Trust (now Specialist Schools Trust) on the theme 'What Future – What Learning – What Teachers – What Schools?' (Available at www.cybertext.net.au/tct2002/dis_papers/community/leigh.htm).
Widdows, T. (2004) 'The education diaries'. The Observer (London). 5 September.
Zuboff, S. and Maxmin, J. (2004) The Support Economy. New York: Penguin Books.
Professor Brian J. Caldwell is Managing Director of Educational Transformations Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia and Associate Director of iNet (Global) (International Networking for Educational Transformation) of the Specialist Schools Trust in England. From 1998 to 2004 he served as Dean of Education at the University of Melbourne where he is currently Professorial Fellow in the Department of Education Policy and Management. His previous appointments include Head of Education Policy and Management at the University of Melbourne and Head of Teacher Education and Dean of Education at the University of Tasmania. His international work over the last decade includes presentations, projects and other professional assignments in or for 32 countries on six continents.
Email brian@educationaltransformations.com.au
Website: www.educationaltransformations.com.au
©December 2004 New Horizons for Learning
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