Reforming the high school curriculum: tools for raising quality of learning and improving equity

Far-sighted and ambitious, a Curriculum for Excellence will tax Scottish schools on two major fronts: how to raise the quality of learning of many students and how to ensure that all young people build well on a successful experience of school.

Progress on both these fronts requires creating strong incentives to learn. Different ways of learning, different opportunities to achieve are intrinsic incentives, while pathways to work, training, and higher education can be viewed as economic benefits whose value should be a source of student motivation.

Such incentives already exist in Scottish schools, including through their links with colleges. But they need to be strengthened to ensure greater quality of learning and greater equity. In many OECD countries, the tools for pursuing these twin objectives include vocational studies, a structured graduation certificate, and clearly defined pathways that offer both value and choice.

This presentation will review the policy experience in a number of Scotland's OECD comparator nations to illustrate the use of these tools and to pose the question of their relevance to a Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland.

At the same time, however, we will question their adequacy to a broader equity agenda and highlight the importance of transforming the more academic side of the curriculum to make it both more accessible and more satisfying to all students.

Richard has worked closely with state governments in Australia on a range of projects, including the redesign of the school global budget in Victoria, monitoring of student destinations in four Australian states, evaluation of equity programmes in New South Wales, and geographical variations in participation in vocational education and training across Australia.

Richard Teese was the rapporteur for the OECD review of equity in Spain in 2005, and in 2007 led the OECD review of quality and equity in Scottish schooling.