COVID-19 and the second exams fiasco across the UK: four nations trying to avoid immediate policy failure.

In 2021, the UK and devolved governments tried to avoid the school exams fiasco of 2020. Their immediate marker of success was to prevent a similar U-turn on their COVID-19 school exams replacement policies. They still cancelled the traditional exam format, and sought teacher assessments to determine their grades, but this time without using an algorithm to standardise the results.

Policy design for territorial equity in multi-level and multi-sectoral political systems: Comparing health and education strategies.

The EU has many plans to foster equity and spatial justice. However, each has separate reference points, and it is difficult to find an overall vision. To demonstrate, we analyse two sectoral strategies to identify their implications for spatial justice strategies.

The future of education equity policy in a COVID-19 world: a qualitative systematic review of lessons from education policymaking.

: COVID-19 had a major global impact on education, prompting concerns about its unequal effects and some impetus to reboot equity strategies. Yet, policy processes exhibit major gaps between such expectations and outcomes, and similar inequalities endured for decades before the pandemic. Our objective is to establish how education researchers, drawing on policy concepts and theories, explain and seek to address this problem.

The COVID-19 exams fiasco across the UK: four nations and two windows of opportunity.

Unlabelled: All four UK and devolved governments performed a 'U-turn' on their COVID-19 school exams replacement policies. After cancelling exams, they sought teacher estimates on their grades, but supported an algorithm to standardise the results. When the results produced a public outcry over unfair consequences, they initially defended their decision but reverted quickly to teacher assessment.