14-18 - A New Vision for Secondary Education

Kenneth Baker is Chairman of the Edge Foundation, which champions technical, practical and vocational education, and of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which is establishing a new network of University Technical Colleges in all regions of England. He was elected to Parliament in 1968 and was a Junior Minister in Edward Heath's government. He held a series of Ministerial positions between 1981 and 1992, including three years as Secretary of State for Education and Science (1986-9). He was Home Secretary from 1990 to 1992. In 1997, he became Lord Baker of Dorking and is an active member of the House of Lords.Mike Tomlinson is a leading educationalist and chaired the Working Group on 14-19 Reform which reported to the Department for Education and Skills in 2004.Alan Smithers is Director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, UK.Robert B. Schwartz is Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, USA.Andrew Halls is Headmaster of King's College School, Wimbledon, UK.David Brandon-Bravo is Headteacher at Parkfields Middle School, Toddington, UK.David Harbourne is Director of Policy and Research at the Edge Foundation, UK, an independent education charity dedicated to raising the status of technical, practical and vocational learning.Nigel Wyatt is Executive Officer of the National Middle School Forum, UK.

• Preface Kenneth Baker1. Transforming 14-18 Education, Kenneth Baker2. A New Vision for Education in England, Kenneth Baker3. The 14-18 Pathways, Kenneth Baker4. The Qualifications, Mike Tomlinson5. Making 14-18 Education a Reality, Alan Smithers6. Pathways, Not Tracks: An American Perspective, Robert B. Schwartz7. Structure and the Individual: An Independent School Perspective, Andrew Halls8. Education on a Human Scale: A Middle School Perspective, David Brandon-Bravo9. Learning from Others, David HarbourneSummary of Recommendations, Kenneth BakerAppendix I. Technical Secondary Education in England: A Brief History, David HarbourneAppendix II. The History and Strengths of English Middle Schools, Nigel WyattGlossaryReferencesIndex

Together with a handful of educationalists and teachers, Baker has written a new book – 14-18: A New Vision for Secondary Education – which proposes a radical transformation of secondary-school education. He would like primary school to end at nine, followed by middle school to the age of 14, at which point the national curriculum would end and every pupil would choose one of four "pathways". This is not a sentence I would have imagined myself writing back at the height of Thatcherism, when Baker was most lefty teenagers' idea of the devil, but I think he has probably come up with an excellent plan...Perhaps even more importantly, his proposals attempt to remedy the impending anomaly of our preoccupation with exams at 16, which will make very little sense once the school-leaving age goes up to 18 in 2015...Given the new leaving age of 18, Baker's ideas make a great deal of sense.