The question of whether Sweden's "free school" reforms have raised educational standards looks set to become a political hot potato in the run up to the general election. Michael Gove, who wants to introduce a similar raft of reforms in Britain, claims they have, while Ed Balls claims they haven't.
The latest contribution to this debate comes from the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance. A report by Helena Holmlund, from the Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm University, and Sandra McNally, a director at the CEP, doesn't go as far as to claim the reforms haven't raised standards in Sweden, only that they haven't raised them by very much. "You can't say it's been an amazing success and that therefore we should be doing the same thing here because that's not true," says McNally. (To read more, click here.)
