INTRODUCTION

In England and Wales we have witnessed since 1988 an extensive and determined national project in structural reform aimed at introducing market pressures into school education. Major policy components in this project include increasing the diversity of types of school through the creation of grantmaintained (GM) schools and technology colleges, introducing more open enrolment and per capita school funding, devolving management responsibilities (including responsibility for budgets) to schools, and increasing the range of information made available to parents about schools. A number of these developments have parallels in other countries. There has been, and continues to be, intense interest internationally in the capacity for parental choice and a more market-like environment to act as a motor for school improvement and for creating a more responsive school system (OECD 1994).