towards franchising in education? an empirical investigation of chains of academies in england...
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Towards Franchising in Education? An Empirical Investigation Of Chains of Academies in England
Daniel Muijs, University of Southampton
David Reynolds, University of Southampton
Chris Chapman, University of Manchester
The context• Educational reform in England
• Moves towards greater autonomy of schools from local government
• Academies programme one for of this
The context• An academy:
– a school that is directly funded by central government
– independent of local government control
– may receive additional support from personal or corporate sponsors
– Self-governing though fully subject to government accountability regime
Chains of academies?• Academies programme started under Blair, but
rapidly expanding under Cameron
• Many academies run by a single sponsor, forming a chain
• Many chains take on traditional LA functions, though are often national
• Diverse set of sponsors and educational approaches
Chains of academies?• a group of three or more schools working together
under a common brand and governance framework. This structure is controlled by a central organising body that delegates some decision-making to the local level so school principals and local governance arrangements can adapt central ³chain policies² to their school and community context.
Theoretical framework• Educational effectiveness: what factors may make
one chain more effective than another?
• Franchise theory: what balance between central control and autonomy is optimal, and in what areas?
Research Questions• Do chains differ in terms of central control?
• Do chains differ in educational effectiveness?
Methodology• Centralisation measured on 21 items using 5-point
scale, e.g.
– Management appointments
– Target setting
– Vision
– Pedagogical project and materials
– Student selection policies
Results: do chains differ by centralisation?• No chains fully centralised or decentralised – range
from 47 to 76 (min=21, max=105)
• Significant diversity between chains
Results: Do chains differ in effectiveness?• Very preliminary analyses
• School contextual value added compared to predecessor schools
• Only schools opened in 2009 or earlier and 2005 and later (data issues)
• Not more than two predecessor schools
• 6 c1, 5 c2, 8 c3 meet criteria
Results – CVA pre and post
Chain Predecessor rolling average
Chain rolling average
C1 1010.39 1009.41
C2 923.1 1038.8
C3 976.3 1006.6
Conclusion• The more centralised chains appear more effective
– support for franchise model?
• Many caveats:
– C1 schools more recent joiners
– Missing data
– Causality