Choice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes

This thesis uses the cohort of 2005 school-leavers in the National Pupil Database to present an economic analysis of the effects of secondary school admissions in England on pupil sorting and achievement. The first part of the thesis exploits the availability of pupil postcodes to examine the impact...

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Main Author: Allen, Rebecca
Published: UCL Institute of Education (IOE) 2008
Subjects:
300
Online Access:http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.526646
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spelling ndltd-bl.uk-oai-ethos.bl.uk-5266462015-12-03T03:36:43ZChoice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomesAllen, Rebecca2008This thesis uses the cohort of 2005 school-leavers in the National Pupil Database to present an economic analysis of the effects of secondary school admissions in England on pupil sorting and achievement. The first part of the thesis exploits the availability of pupil postcodes to examine the impact of current school admissions arrangements on residential and school stratification. It produces data from a thought experiment whereby pupils currently in schools are reallocated to a new school based strictly on proximity to school. Through this simulation the role of the housing market in producing socially stratified schooling can be identified. A survey of school admissions policies is used to show that religious (and to a lesser extent Foundation) schools have intakes that are signifcantly more advantaged than their local neighbourhood, and that they achieve these intakes through the use of explicit potentially selective admissions criteria. The second part of the thesis adds to evidence on whether policies intended to increase parental choice raise pupil achievement via competition between schools. Quantitative evidence on school competition in England is evaluated alongside the existing international literature. A regression discontinuity design is employed to examine the legacy effects of the Grant-Maintained schools policy on area-wide educational outcomes at age 16. Pupil fixed-effects test score growth models and historical instrumental variables are used to identify the causal impact of religious schools on their neighbouring schools. This econometric analysis fails to lend support to claims that encouraging schools to compete for pupils is a route to improving standards. The thesis concludes that the current English secondary school arrangements have resulted in a system that is stratified and inequitable, without measurable efficiency gains induced by competition between schools for pupils.300Quantitative Social ScienceUCL Institute of Education (IOE)http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.526646http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/632/Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
collection NDLTD
sources NDLTD
topic 300
Quantitative Social Science
spellingShingle 300
Quantitative Social Science
Allen, Rebecca
Choice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes
description This thesis uses the cohort of 2005 school-leavers in the National Pupil Database to present an economic analysis of the effects of secondary school admissions in England on pupil sorting and achievement. The first part of the thesis exploits the availability of pupil postcodes to examine the impact of current school admissions arrangements on residential and school stratification. It produces data from a thought experiment whereby pupils currently in schools are reallocated to a new school based strictly on proximity to school. Through this simulation the role of the housing market in producing socially stratified schooling can be identified. A survey of school admissions policies is used to show that religious (and to a lesser extent Foundation) schools have intakes that are signifcantly more advantaged than their local neighbourhood, and that they achieve these intakes through the use of explicit potentially selective admissions criteria. The second part of the thesis adds to evidence on whether policies intended to increase parental choice raise pupil achievement via competition between schools. Quantitative evidence on school competition in England is evaluated alongside the existing international literature. A regression discontinuity design is employed to examine the legacy effects of the Grant-Maintained schools policy on area-wide educational outcomes at age 16. Pupil fixed-effects test score growth models and historical instrumental variables are used to identify the causal impact of religious schools on their neighbouring schools. This econometric analysis fails to lend support to claims that encouraging schools to compete for pupils is a route to improving standards. The thesis concludes that the current English secondary school arrangements have resulted in a system that is stratified and inequitable, without measurable efficiency gains induced by competition between schools for pupils.
author Allen, Rebecca
author_facet Allen, Rebecca
author_sort Allen, Rebecca
title Choice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes
title_short Choice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes
title_full Choice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes
title_fullStr Choice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes
title_full_unstemmed Choice-based secondary school admissions in England : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes
title_sort choice-based secondary school admissions in england : social stratification and the distribution of educational outcomes
publisher UCL Institute of Education (IOE)
publishDate 2008
url http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.526646
work_keys_str_mv AT allenrebecca choicebasedsecondaryschooladmissionsinenglandsocialstratificationandthedistributionofeducationaloutcomes
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