These are a handful of the 2019 headlines about schooling from English media. Three are very clearly about what is generally understood as corruption: nepotism and cheating. The other two – early school leaving and waste – are not obviously so. The connection between explicit corruption and other ‘bad behaviour’ in the school system is at the heart of this book.

Why this book?

There are many contradictory media stories about schooling in England. We hear about lack of funds and of funds unused, misspent and misappropriated. We read of test results good, bad and fraudulent. And we read of outstanding schools, failing schools and schools that fail too many children. How are we to make sense of these stories? What kind of school system produces such a bewildering array of reports? How are we to judge what is true? What is causing the problems we read about? And if we are concerned about the state of schooling, what can be done? This book goes behind the headlines and the individual stories to piece together a more coherent narrative.

I started to notice headlines about corrupt practices in schooling some years ago. Then I started to collect them. I have been systematically compiling and filing media reports about what I initially called ‘bad behaviour’ for the last six years. Those listed at the start of the chapter are representative of the collection. They are not isolated examples. When I first read over my collection of some 3,800 items, it became clear that there were patterns to the events reported. There was something both structural and cultural going on. I wondered whether examining the patterns would shed light on what is, and isn’t, happening in education.