The growth of academy schools leaving local authority control is to come under scrutiny of a ‘Speed Commission’ set up by the Royal Society of Arts and the Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning.
Christine Gilbert, the former chief-inspector of schools and chief executive of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, will chair the commission along with Brett Wigdortz , chief executive of Teach First and Professor Chris Husbands, director of the Institute of Education.
The inquiry will focus on issues of accountability and the rapid increase in the number of schools converting to academy status with numbers swelling from 200 to 1,635 since the coalition Government came to power.
Ms Gilbert said: ‘The rapid expansion of academies is fundamental to the coalition government's education policies. This represents major structural change to the English school system but little has been done to explore the implications and impact of this expansion.
‘We intend the work of the commission to be a constructive contribution to the debate on academy policy and practice, in particular to the impact of academisation on school improvement and on young people's learning and achievement.’
