Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it's gone? Skills-led qualifications, secondary school attainment and policy choices

Harrison, Neil, James, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7921-6485 and Last, Kathryn 2015. Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it's gone? Skills-led qualifications, secondary school attainment and policy choices. Research Papers in Education 30 (5) , pp. 568-608. 10.1080/02671522.2014.1002526

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Abstract

In the name of curriculum breadth and raising standards, recent government policy in England has removed a large number of non-academic qualifications from the list of those that secondary schools can count in league tables, discouraging their use. Most of these were vocational qualifications, but they also include skills-led qualifications. This paper reports mixed methods research investigating the relationship between mainstream secondary school qualifications in England and a specific, widely used skills-led qualification: the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE). Neither academic nor vocational, CoPE requires learners to assemble a portfolio of evidence in response to ‘challenges’ negotiated with the teacher. It is designed to promote a reflective learning orientation and to develop (and assess) skills that underpin learning and future employability. We use a combination of regression analysis, pseudo-experiment and qualitative case study. Our research shows that CoPE is associated with improved outcomes in the ‘mainstream’ academic qualifications often regarded as the benchmark for the quality of schools and much of what goes on in them. Thus, we argue that certain reforms designed to raise standards are likely to depress attainment in the very qualifications deemed as core indicators of educational standards.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN:	0267-1522
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	22 December 2014
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2024 03:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/70963

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