Report Lays Out Vision of English Secondary Schooling

A national task force in England last week proposed an overhaul of education for students 14 to 19 that’s designed to improve career education, stretch more able students, and reduce the testing burden.

The final report of the Working Group on 14-19 Reform, headed by Mike Tomlinson, a former chief inspector of schools, calls for a new diploma system, to be devised over the next decade, that would recognize increasingly sophisticated levels of accomplishment: “entry,” “foundation,” “intermediate,” and “advanced.”

The changes would only apply in England and not to students in Scotland,...