ABSTRACT

The analysis uses a unique series of surveys of school students in Scotland, covering the whole of the second half of the twentieth century, to investigate whether educational reforms can reduce inequalities of educational progress and attainment, and the role of school history in mediating these intentions. This period included the policy reforms that ended selection for public-sector schools between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. Information on school attended enables the analysis to investigate whether and how the histories of schools interact with national policy. The main conclusions are that inequality of attainment and progression fell throughout the half century, but that the change was slow. Although policy may have created the conditions under which this equalisation took place, it probably was not its main cause, and the ways in which policy had its impact was modified by schools’ histories. The paper also illustrates the ways in which a series of surveys can be used to understand social change, and the compromises which have to be made to achieve comparability over a long period of time.

摘要

该分析使用一系列独特的苏格兰学生调查，涵盖整个 20 世纪下半叶，调查教育改革是否可以减少教育进步和成就的不平等，以及学校历史在调解这些意图中的作用. 这一时期包括在 1960 年代中期至 1980 年代初期结束公立学校选拔的政策改革。关于就读学校的信息使分析能够调查学校历史是否以及如何与国家政策相互作用。主要结论是，成就和进步的不平等在整个半个世纪都在下降，但变化缓慢。尽管政策可能创造了这种均衡发生的条件，但这可能不是其主要原因，政策产生影响的方式也被学校的历史所改变。该论文还说明了可以使用一系列调查来理解社会变化的方式，以及为了实现长期可比性而必须做出的妥协。