HC Deb 28 November 1977 vol 940 cc30-1W
Mrs. Chalker

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will detail in the Official Report a list of research projects which have been carried out in the United Kingdom in the last 10 years, funded partly or wholly by public money, carried out directly or indirectly through her Department, relating to the principle of comprehensive education or mixed ability teaching, stating which of these research projects had their findings published and which of the remainder are intended to be made public, and when.

Miss Margaret Jackson

The great majority of educational research is funded directly by the Social Science Research Council, the Schools Council, the National Foundation for Educational Research and individual institutions. The information available to my Department does not enable me to give a fully comprehensive list of all the relevant research carried out under their auspices in the last 10 years and funded partly or wholly by public money. My Department itself has directly commissioned two major studies in this area since 1965, as follows:

  1. (i) A factual inquiry into comprehensive education undertaken by the National Foundation for Educational Research and others at a cost 31 of £225,000 in the period of 1965–72. This resulted in the following publications:
    • Comprehensive Education in Action—T. G. Monks.
    • Comprehensive Education in E & W—
    • A Survey of Schools and their Organisation—T. G. Monks.
    • Comprehensive Schools in Focus—J. Ross and G. Channan.
    • A Critical Appraisal of Comprehensive Education—J. Ross and others.
    • One School for All—Margaret Cox.
  2. (ii) A study of the social and economic consequences of different patterns of secondary school organisation undertaken by the University of Oxford, Department of Educational Studies at a cost of about £44,000 in the period 1970–77. The following publication has just been issued:
    • Ability Grouping—The Banbury Enquiry—D. Newbold.

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