This article explains how education in Scotland is different from that in other parts of the United Kingdom, noting the importance of both traditional values and the current political context. Concerns about standards are discussed in relation to three main issues: the Scottish curriculum; the comprehensive principle; and attempts at structural…

Within a whole-of-school approach to student wellness, comprehensive school physical activity programs (CSPAPs) offer opportunities for physical activity before, during, and after the school day. However, to successfully influence behavior and fully reap the physical, cognitive, and psychological benefits of an active lifestyle, schools must…

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL), as a public comprehensive regional university of approximately 10,500 students, utilized National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data regarding advising to jumpstart several key advancements that have yielded positive improvements as indicated in the most recent NSSE assessment data. Despite strong…

This paper revisits the Macfarlane Report of 1980, the first draft of which recommended the dissolution of school sixth forms, sixth form colleges and other providers of post-compulsory education and training, and the establishment of a national system of tertiary colleges across England -- a programme of reform which would effectively have…

This paper uses Anderson's notion of 'imagined community' to argue that how people think about the publicness of their school system provides insight into the functioning and flourishing of communities, societies and nations. We focus on the privatisation of public schooling in Alberta, Canada and Northern England to highlight tensions between the…

Using the case study of Anglesey and its pioneering comprehensive scheme, this paper aims to re-examine education reforms and interventions by central government c.1918-1950. This is undertaken in a bid to reveal the significance of such reforms for the way in which comprehensive secondary education was able to evolve at the local level.…

There are lines of demarcation between the political left and right, and also within the left, as regards central matters of education policy and how the purpose and value of education may be understood. This article details and distinguishes what is at stake, in particular between a revolutionary Marxist left and other currents, as regards a…

The post-war consensus has been dismantled in favour of a culture that rewards and empowers a small acquisitive elite at the expense of the great majority. This culture actively prevents the creation of a society of mutual recognition and respect. But without just such a society there can be no true comprehensive education. Where it exists,…

This article reflects on the two subsequent articles--the first by Mike Davies and the second by David Taylor--that provide exhilarating challenges to the diminishing and demeaning status quo of current education policy and practice in England.

Fifty years after the production of Circular 10/65, which confirmed comprehensive education as the national policy for secondary education in England and Wales, it is possible to trace the idea of comprehensive education from the 1940s to the 1960s, to understand the position of the Labour Party in its development, and to assess the nature of the…